Slut-shaming, girl power and ‘sexualisation’: thinking through the politics of the international SlutWalks with teen girls

Abstract

This viewpoint begins by exploring whether the global phenomenon of the 2011 ‘SlutWalks’ constitutes a feminist politics of re-signification. We then look at some qualitative, focus group data with teen girls who participated in a UK SlutWalk. We suggest girls are not only negotiating a schizoid double pull towards performing knowing sexy ‘slut’ in postfeminist media contexts, but also managing de-sexualising protectionist discourses in school, particularly in relation to the highly regulatory moral panic over child ‘sexualistion’. We consider whether the SlutWalks are adult-centric and if teen girls' involvement in a SlutWalk offered any critical rupturings to sexual regulation in their everyday lives.

Keywords:

• post-structural theory
• femininities
• domestic violence
• girls
• heteronormativity
• violence
• focus groups
• secondary education

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the students and teachers at the research school for sharing their thoughts and experiences with us.

Notes

The site of this exchange is particularly significant to Jessica as she completed her MA and PhD at York University in the Department of Sociology and Women's Studies.

There have been SlutWalks in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Boston, Dallas, Montreal, Sydney, Buenos Aires, New Delhi, London, Cardiff, Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Gallaway. Further Slutwalks have happened or are planned in the US states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin; and in the countries of Argentina, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden, Singapore and Malaysia.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/15/slutwalk-debate-sexual-discrimination; http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23948121-should-feminists-be-embracing-the-world-slut.do

Following this meeting, Emma was invited to address the Cardiff Slutwalk march and raised the issue of how the gendered and sexual regulation of bodies, identities and cultures also featured strongly in young children's lives. See http://www.youngsexualities.org/ for a video of the Cardiff Slutwalk speeches.