Thread: Taking Back Slut

Equal but Different: Taking Back Slut




Perhaps you’ve heard about the latest angry women protests dubbed “slutwalks”. In response to Toronto Policeman, Michael Sanguinetti’s advice that, in order to avoid victimization, women should refrain from dressing like “sluts”, women are taking to the streets clad in slutgear to protest.

Granted, Mr. Sanguinetti could have chosen his words a bit more carefully, but, let’s face it…. the advice, while a touch unrefined, is basically sound. It’s similar to advice my mother gave me and that I would pass along to my own daughter. Unsurprisingly, feminists are blowing his remark out proportion, automatically equating victimization with rape, alleging that Mr. Sanguinetti, instead of stating simple truths, is telling women that if they dress provocatively they deserve to be raped.

In these slutwalks, women are gearing up in bikinis and lingerie and scrawling the word “slut” upon their bare skin in an effort to “take back” the word slut. From SlutwalkToronto.com, “And whether dished out as a serious indictment of one’s character or merely as a flippant insult, the intent behind the word is always to wound, so we’re taking it back. “Slut” is being re-appropriated.”

Why is that feminists are always taking back things that no sane, logical person would want in the first place?

Generally when a group of individuals unite and rally to take something back….it’s something you actually want; something good that has been wrongfully maligned. All I ever see feminists taking back are things I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. Instead of taking back 'bitch' or 'slut'; how about we try taking back wife, mother or femininity. Instead of re-appropriating slut, how about reclaiming honesty, virtue and integrity? But I guess we wouldn’t see feminists marching to take back those things…as they are the ones who have fought voraciously to malign and destroy them.

I suppose this is why I identify so much more with the men’s movement than with feminism. I can rally behind men taking back “father”, “masculinity”, “man”….because they are good things that have been wrongfully vilified. They are worth fighting for; worth taking back. Conversely, I will forever stand at odds with feminists because I have absolutely no interest in fighting for their causes. They are the antithesis of everything I stand for....forever fighting for all the wrong things.