SlutWalk as perifeminist response to rape logic: the politics of reclaiming a name

ABSTRACT

Questions about the meaning and value of SlutWalk have generated considerable public debate. This article explores how SlutWalk subverts rape logic, rendering it apparent and absurd while circulating counterclaims to oppose sexual violence. By reclaiming “slut” through performative protest and political mobilization, SlutWalk offers trenchant critiques of rape logic's conflation of clothes and consent. Although media and feminist commentators alike met this protest strategy with skepticism, I argue that SlutWalk enacts a perifeminist response to rape logic that demonstrates the subversive power of reclaiming a name.

KEYWORDS:

• SlutWalk
• perifeminist response
• rape logic
• victim blaming
• feminism

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank D. Robert DeChaine and the anonymous reviewers. She also thanks Aren Z. Aizura, Jigna Desai, Zenzele Isoke, Ummni Khan, Samantha Majic, Corey S. Shdaimah, and Catherine R. Squires for helpful feedback on earlier versions of this essay.

Notes

1. BBC News, “‘SlutWalk’ Marches Sparked by Toronto Officer's Remarks,” May 8, 2011, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-13320785

2. This article focuses on victim-blaming in relation to sexual violence against women. Gender is not the sole social feature affecting how blame is assigned and credibility achieved, however; race, class, sexual orientation, legal status, and occupation, among other features, intersect through rape logic and influence oppression.

3. Joetta L. Carr, “The SlutWalk Movement: A Study in Transnational Feminist Activism,” Journal of Feminist Scholarship 4 (Spring 2013): 26.

4. SlutWalk Toronto. “About: Why,” http://www.slutwalktoronto.com/about/how

5. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, “The Metaphorical Logic of Rape,” Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 2, no. 1 (1987): 5.

6. Susan Ehrlich and Ruth King, “Feminist Meanings and the (De)Politicization of the Lexicon,” Language in Society 23, no. 1 (1994): 60.

7. Peri means “about” and “around,” as well as “enclosing” or “near.” I use the first two meanings to underscore that a perifeminist response is explicitly feminist (i.e., about feminism) and specifically focused (i.e., around a statement or action). I also employ this prefix to offer an alternative way to assess controversial feminist actions without automatically labelling them postfeminist. The critical difference is whether actions and critiques draw on feminism to renounce it or to further its aims. With that distinction in mind, I argue that SlutWalk is a perifeminist, not a postfeminist, response to rape logic.

8. Angela McRobbie, The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change (Los Angeles: Sage, 2009), 20.

9. Jo Reger, “Micro-Cohorts, Feminist Discourse, and the Emergence of the Toronto SlutWalk,” Feminist Formations 26, no. 1 (Spring 2014): 49.

10. Black Women's Blueprint, “An Open Letter from Black Women to the SlutWalk,” September 23, 2011, http://www.blackwomensblueprint.org/2011/09/23/an-open-letter-from-black-women-to-the-SlutWalk/

11. Bonnie J. Dow and Julia T. Wood, “Repeating History and Learning From It: What Can SlutWalks Teach Us about Feminism?,” Women's Studies in Communication, 37, no. 1 (2014).

12. John Berger, Ways of Seeing (New York: Penguin Books, 1990), 46.

13. Lakoff and Johnson, 3–4.

14. Ibid., 2.

15. Sarah Projansky, Watching Rape: Film and Television in Postfeminist Culture (New York: New York University, 2001), 9.

16. Martha R. Burt, “Cultural Myths and Supports for Rape,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 38, no. 2 (1980): 229.

17. Berger, 47.

18. Ibid., 46.

19. Ibid.

20. Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Screen 16, no. 3 (1975): 8–9.

21. bell hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston: South End Press, 1992), 130.

22. Grerp, “Piece of Advice #94: Put Your Clothes Back On,” May 6, 2011, http://grerp.blogspot.com/2011/05/piece-of-advice-94-put-your-clothes.html

23. Karen Smith, “Montana Appeals Former Teacher's One Month Sentence for Rape of Student,” CNN, November 30, 2013, http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/30/justice/montana-rape-30-day-sentence/

24. John Bacon, “Judge Apologizes for Teen Rape Remarks, Not Sentence,” USA Today, September 6, 2013.

25. Charlotte Alter, “Todd Akin Still Doesn't Get What's Wrong With Saying ‘Legitimate Rape’,” Time, July 17, 2014.

26. Sex between white women and minority men has been historically overdetermined through a racist script of rape in the United States. Although marks on the body can be read as corroborating a woman's rape claim, as Congressman Akin's remarks reveal, pregnancy is rarely read as evidence of sexual violence after rape.

27. Rebecca Campbell, “The Psychological Impact of Rape Victims’ Experiences with the Legal, Medical, and Mental Health Systems,” American Psychologist (November 2008): 703.

28. Sally McConnell-Ginet, “The Sexual (Re)production of Meaning: A Discourse-Based Theory,” in Language, Gender, and Professional Writing: Theoretical Approaches and Guidelines for Nonsexist Usage, ed. Francine W. Frank and Paula Treichler (New York: Modern Language Association, 1989), 47.

29. Christina Huffington, “Yale Students File Title IX Complaint Against University,” The Yale Herald, March 31, 2011, http://yaleherald.com/homepage-lead-image/cover-stories/breaking-news-yale-students-file-title-ix-suit-against-school/

30. Sharon Marcus, “Fighting Bodies, fighting Words: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention,” in Feminists Theorize the Political, ed. Judith Butler and Joan W. Scott (New York: Routledge, 1992), 390.

31. Ibid.

32. Jessica Valenti, “SlutWalks and the Future of Feminism,” Washington Post, June 3, 2011; Dan Bluemel, “Speakers Show There is More to SlutWalk than Meets the Eye,” L.A. Activist: A Journal of Los Angeles Activism, August 6, 2012.

33. Rosalind Gill, “Postfeminist Media Culture: Elements of a Sensibility,” European Journal of Cultural Studies 10, no. 2 (2007): 151.

34. Carol Brooks Gardner, “Safe Conduct: Women, Crime, and Self in Public Places,” Social Problems 37, no. 3 (August 1990): 316.

35. Ibid., 316–20.

36. CTV Ottawa, “Ottawa Police Investigate Two Sexual Assaults in City's West-end,” July 15, 2014, http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-police-investigate-two-sexual-assaults-in-city-s-west-end-1.1914522#ixzz3MNafRowA

37. Ibid.

38. Nicole Westmarland and Laura Graham, “The Promotion and Resistance of Rape Myths in an Internet Discussion Forum,” Journal of Social Criminology 1, no. 2 (2013).

39. Tinamarie Bernard, “Hundreds Join SlutWalk Israel on Facebook and the Streets,” Green Prophet, March 22, 2012, http://www.greenprophet.com/2012/03/facebook-join-slutwalk-israel/; Jamie Peck, “New York Times Wags Finger at SlutWalk for Being too Slutty,” The Gloss, July 20, 2011, http://www.thegloss.com/2011/07/20/odds-and-ends/new-york-times-wags-finger-at-slutwalk-for-being-too-slutty/; Andrew McCorkell and Mary Ann Pickford, “Thousands March to Change Outdated Attitudes on Sexuality,” The Independent, June 12, 2011, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/thousands-march-to-change-outdated-attitudes-on-sexuality-2296475.html

40. Miriam Hill, “At SlutWalk, Clothes Make the Woman—and a Point,” August 6, 2011, http://articles.philly.com/2011-08-06/news/29859025_1_sexual-assault-dress-attackers

41. SlutWalk Toronto, “Because We've Had Enough,” February 28, 2011, http://www.slutwalktoronto.com/welcome

42. Ibid.

43. Jessica Ringrose and Tracey Jensen, “Sluts that Choose vs. Doormat Gypsies,” Feminist Media Studies 14, no. 3 (2013): 381.

44. Feona Attwood, “Sluts and Riot Grrrls: Female Identity and Sexual Agency,” Journal of Gender Studies 16, no. 3 (2007): 239.

45. Chela Sandoval, Methodology of the Oppressed (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), 109. Emphasis mine.

46. Victoria Coren, “Are SlutWalkers Losing Their Way?” Guardian, June 18, 2011, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jun/19/victoria-coren-slutwalks-feminism-fashion

47. Wendy McElroy, “Zombie Feminism and Prudish SlutWalkers,” Foundation for Economic Education, August 30, 2011, http://fee.org/freeman/detail/zombie-feminism-and-prudish-slutwalkers.

48. Melanie Phillips, “These ‘Slut Walks’ Prove Feminism is Irrelevant to Most Women's Lives,” Daily Mail, June 13, 2011, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2002887/Slut-Walks-prove-feminism-irrelevant-womens-lives.html

49. McRobbie, 26.

50. Lila Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others,” American Anthropologist 104, no. 3 (2002): 783.

51. Ratna Kapur, “Pink Chaddis and SlutWalk Couture: The Postcolonial Politics of Feminism Lite,” Feminist Legal Studies 20, no. 1 (2012): 1.

52. Ibid., 12.

53. Ibid.

54. Andrea Dworkin, Pornography: Men Possessing Women (New York: Perigree Books, 1981), 207.

55. Liz Kotz and Judith Butler, “The Body You Want: Liz Kotz Interviews with Judith Butler” Artforum 31, no. 3 (1992): 84.

56. Karen Zivi cited in Isaac West, Transforming Citizenships: Transgender Articulations of the Law (New York: New York University Press, 2013), 27.

57. Ibid.

58. Jessica Valenti, “SlutWalks and the Future of Feminism,” Washington Post, June 3, 2011.

59. Guerrilla Girls, “Our Story”, http://www.guerrillagirls.com/press/ourstory.shtml

60. Kristen Schilt, “‘A Little Too Ironic’: The Appropriation and Packaging of Riot Grrrl Politics by Mainstream Female Musicians,” Popular Music and Society 26, no. 1 (2003): 8.

61. Caitlin Bruce, “The Balaclava as Affect Generator: Free Pussy Riot Protests and Transnational Iconicity,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 12, no. 1 (2014): 42–62.

62. Marcus, 400.

63. Ibid., 391.

64. Sara Ahmed, “Selfcare as Warfare,” Feminist Killjoys, August 25, 2014, http://feministkilljoys.com/2014/08/25/selfcare-as-warfare

65. SlutWalk Toronto. “About: Why,” http://www.slutwalktoronto.com/about/how