On Saturday, over 170 individuals participated in Richmond,
Virginia’s first “SlutWalk,” an international rallying event that seeks to
raise awareness over the problem of blaming sexual assault victims.[1]
The first SlutWalk took place in Toronto in April 2011 and
has since spread. According to sources, the “SlutWalk” was created after a
constable in Toronto informed students that in order to prevent being sexually
assaulted, they should “avoid dressing like sluts.”[2]
If we continue with this line of reasoning, men shouldn’t
grow mustaches or drive white vans either unless they want to be considered
pedophiles.
Those who joined the Richmond SlutWalk included men,
children, babies in strollers, women, and Virginia Commonwealth University
students who wore hijab headscarves.
The events message was simple: “My clothes are not an
invitation.”[3]
For all of the progress that America and the world have made
on the issue of gender equality, how the United States in particular deals with
sexual assault victims reveals a vestige of an outdated belief system that has
yet to be superseded.
All too often, when women are the victims of sexual assault,
women are implicitly or explicitly blamed in some ways for “inviting” this
situation, whether through body language, dress, or spoken words. The theory is
that if a woman acts or dresses promiscuously, she must want to have sex or be
physically touched. Of course, one thing does not necessarily lead to another
nor is there an objective definition of what “dressing promiscuously” looks
like.
As with so much else in our society, we tend to make
conclusions based off of generalized beliefs, like women who dress this way or
that are to blame for being sexually assaulted, instead of taking each instance
on a case-by-case basis.
While Americans preach the ideals of the “land of the free
and home of the brave,” the victimization myths that the SlutWalk seeks to
dispel are the kind of beliefs that can leave individuals (women in particular)
feeling constrained in the choices they are able to make.
There is a simple solution to blaming women outright,
however: instead of judging out-of-hand, understand the facts of each sexual
assault case before making any conclusions about who’s to blame.
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