These are comments by AllyF and RandomStranger on the post: “Masculinity needs fixing, but femininity is just fine. The fact is, neither is broken.”
AllyF said:
Have you got any evidence that Slutwalks have been “hijacked by misandrists that like to divide the protagonists and antagonists along clear gender lines for no particular reason that it fits their narrow world view that the gender binary exists to oppress women and privilege men everywhere and always.”
From the beginning, I think one of the great things about Slutwalks have been that they are very open and inclusive of men, compared to the similar ‘reclaim the night’ type events which most certainly match the description above.
I’ve never seen any written propaganda or interviews with organisers that have suggested any of the man-hating divisiveness you allege.
I know there are some (QuietRiotGirrl on this site, for example) who argue that any attempts to frame rape in a social context of misogyny etc are de facto misandrist or anti-men. I profoundly disagree. I think rape (partly) occurs because of prevailing attitudes about deserving victims and the whole ‘slut’ narrative. If a guy thinks of some women as “sluts” then yes, Slutwalk is partly aimed at him. That’s not Slutwalk’s fault, it is his.
RandomStranger said:
Hi AllyF,
I would agree, slutwalks has dialed down the essentialist gender profiling of victims and abusers that “take back the night” explicitly indulged, to that end it seeks to expand its audience.
But you can’t deny that the gender essentialists are still in that camp, dividing and alienating would be supporters. Take one popular slutwalk slogan that made the rounds in the blogosphere “teach men not to rape”. It could have said “teach rapists not to rape”, or “criminals not to rape”, or “people not to rape” … but they chose “men”. Perhaps its not representative of the movement, but it came to be associated anyway. Regardless, the movements hasn’t really explicitly attempted to distance itself from that posture.
Photo credit: Flickr / RenderDonkey
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