Sassy Women: Slut Talkin' Laura Ingraham | Global SlutWalks | XO Jane
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First SlutWalk event in TorontoRedTracker
Speaking of Sluts
The reminder that ALL women are sluts in the eyes of the world’s men got at least two boosts in the past week. One big; one small but closer to home. (Note, one of my male readers who considers himself a pro-woman guy took issue with this sentence. )
New sentence: The reminder that ALL women are sluts in the eyes of vast numbers of the world’s cultures and in almost all its major religions got at least two boosts in the past week.
Ed Schultz apologized last night on MSNBC for calling Laura Ingraham a ‘right-wing slut’. He has been suspended without pay for a week.
The insanity of criticizing President Obama for being in Europe the week of a G8 Summit meeting rather than tracking tornados in Missouri is beyond our understanding. But MSNBC’s Ed Schultz’s words remind us — once again my dear ladies — that from Cairo to Omaha, New York to Tokyo to Paris, women are sluts.
Religion and cultural views that women are fundamentally sluts is the glue that holds women together worldwide, if only we would embrace reality.
From how we wear our clothes to how we stand on the street corner, vast numbers of men and high-morals women believe that we slut girls get just what we deserve — frequently violence.
Confident women of any political party in any country are the biggest sluts of all.
Really? No Difference At All?
My second aha moment in the past week came last Friday when TIME broke their cover story on ‘bad boys’. The title was ‘Sex. Lies. Arrogance. What Makes Powerful Men Act Like Pigs’. A colleague who will remain nameless commented:
I’m not defending the pigs, but also: what makes women act like sluts? Part of it could be this power & fame its self. What is lacking more and more these days is integrity, on both part of the sex’s.
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Without whitewashing women as never being arrogant, self-absorbed or out for themselves, I have pushed back hard this week on the assertion that women behave just like Arnold Schwarzenner and Dominique Strauss-Kahn when we are given power.
That is just bs, which is why I’m walking in a SlutMarch on June 18, here in Philadelphia.
Note that in the case of DSK, I refer to his pre-event reputation for being articulate and assertive in his love of sex and not the sexual assault charges he now faces.
Is there power in SlutWalking?
Some 3,000 marchers were motivated by the controversial comments made by a police officer in a lecture to law school students on the subject of personal safety. “Women,” he told them, “should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised.”
His words caused many women to snap. In cities across North America, from Arizona to Wisconsin, Oregon to Illinois, they have marched, and now the world follows suit: Sweden, Argentina, Australia, with SlutWalks scheduled for London, Los Angeles and Amsterdam on 4 June.
The message is simple and hardly new: sexual assault is an act of violence by the perpetrator, and not ever something inspired, occasioned or asked for by the victim – no matter what she or he is wearing, or how she behaves.
The Republican War on Women is causing women to defend ourselves all over again, against charges that American women are fundamentally sluts. Hence the Republicans are taking control of our bodies in the biggest onslaught against women’s rights in 40 years.
We’re pulling together a schedule of SlutWalks globally. Here’s a teaser.
Schedule of SlutWalks
June 4 Chicago SlutWalk Chicago event spreads awareness about sexual assault issues Daily Northwestern (Chicago)
June 4 LA Why Men Should Join Slut Walk The Good Men Project: 21st Century Masculinity
June 13 Sydney SlutWalk takes to Aussie streets CNNGo.com
June 25 GrandRapids Grand Rapids SlutWalk
Aug 20 New York ‘SlutWalks’ fight back against stigma surrounding sexual assault and rape victims New York Daily News
Some feminist intellectuals are opposed to SlutWalks and reclaiming the word ‘slut’. I was one of those women. My attitude has changed, in view of the fact that we continue to have the same debate decades later and women are losing ground, not gaining in so many countries.
It is my fervent hope that SlutWalks mobilize women worldwide in a fight that transcends national borders on initiatives that impact all women, regardless of religion, culture or country. If SlutWalks is a vehicle for mobilizing women, the pragmatist in me says — so be it.
Misogyny isn’t changing any time soon, and I personally feel better not being a good girl anymore, while Republicans slice and dice women’s bodies in half the states of America. Below are essays that state the case against SlutWalks and I absolutely respect their arguments.
Essays Pro and Con SlutWalks
Never mind slut, let’s reclaim ‘woman’ The Drum Opinion
Anne’s Thoughts
Femen, SlutWalks, Lysistrata | Body Politics Is On the Move
SlutGirl Marches Sweeping the World | Have Women Had Enough?
Fashion | Style | Culture
Film | Lindsay Lohan by Richard Phillips & Taylor Steele
Alt, Christensen, Sosa, Wen + | ‘Fancy Fashion Story’ | XO Jane AOC Private Studio
The first really smart thing Jane Pratt did in launching a new media venture is redirecting JanePratt.com to xojane.com. Much less self-absorbed, even if Sassy is built around voice-y, original writing for ‘slutty, selfish, and self-absorbed’ females. Check her out. XO Jane for the present is pretty ageless.
We’re still finding our way with XO Jane, the next venture by JP who did Sassy and then Jane as she aged. Pratt will have a separate venture with teen blogger Tavi, who will be working on a ‘new, exciting teen magazine’ with its own website.
Anne…
You’re doing it again. I’m a man, and I don’t think all women are sluts. Consider that slut simply means someone who will fuck what ever bends over in front of them, it really doesn’t have a gender attached. I’d say the males who think all females are sluts is nothing more than a case of wishful thinking gone to the point of delusion… and thankfully an affliction found in a distinct minority of males.
Such an attitude might be the majority in a very few career feilds that have in common attracting the psycho-sexually immature by reason of the ego supporting compensation mechanisms inherent to the field (broadcast journalism, politics etc et all)… but those individuals are like the smeg that gets trapped in the filters of society, isolated in their own little world and put on display as negative examples of what not to be. Much like Catholicism learned to put all the politicians in the Vatican, so the men of God could do what they can where they stand without the politicians getting in the way (too much).
I know they piss you off Anne, they piss me off just as much if not more, I’m a man and I have to live downstream of the resentments they generate! C’mon girl, don’t help them out in their cause by taking their bait. I know you’re smarter than that.
‘Nos
Anne responds
I didn’t say that all men think women are sluts. I said that culturally in almost every country of the world, the prevailing view of the culture is that women are sluts.
Of course there are exceptions and I agree you are one. I’m not speaking of individuals but the prevailing cultural norms. The dominant viewpoint of Catholicism is that women are fundamentally immoral and must be managed by the Catholic patriarchy. I’ll make that point clear in my latest commentary, but I do not feel responsible to always insure men that I’m not talking about ALL men.
It’s as if managing the male ego must always be part of the dialogue. I believe the good guys know they are good guys and don’t need constant reinforcement. You’re actually the only guy who takes issue with on this approach to writing. The rest say — fight on, Anne. Somebody needs to start telling it the way it is.
I’m not focused on what happened 2000 years ago. I’m focused on the world women live in. Read the Vanity Fair piece on sex trafficking of American girls I just posted. The most interesting bon mot is that apparently (I haven’t read it) the Nation and Slate are on record saying the concern is an overreaction.
Also. its not a good day to talk to me about the Vatican, given the Pope’s clarification that condoms are not permitted, among married couples where the husband has AIDS or sleeps around and could get it anyday. The woman receives a death sentence, rather than allow her to protect herself. I don’t care how active the Vatican is in caring for people who have AIDS. The fact that a woman must die rather than practice birth control is HER decision, not Rome’s.
As a woman said in the VF article, women are returning to be chattel. I agree. We had a good century but it’s all being rolled back.
Regards, Anne
Followup comment: I also disagree with Nos that a slut is not a perjorative terms that almost always applies to females. Wiki is in agreement with me that the term is female in spite of Chaucer’s use of the term. I have never heard or read of a man being called a slut. Perhaps this happens in the gay community.
Slut via Wiki. After further reflection I stand by my thesis that the majority — whether it is 51/49 or 80/20 I don’t know — but a global majority of men believe that women are sluts. Sluts men love, sluts men can’t live without — but sluts. The corruptress is responsible for the downfall of man. Until women get that monkey off our back, we are sluts.
I’m not concerned about playing into the hands of the global morality police. They have totally intimated us not to speak the truth. I repeat that I totally agree that not all men believe women are sluts, but the majority do.
My focus is not a concern about the man who feels unjustifiably accused. I am concerned about the women who are set on fire, stoned to death, and stripped naked in Uganda by the morality police. I’m concerned about the women of America who are drowning in new legislation to control their bodies.
These women are my priority and I am surrounded by supportive men who understand that it’s time to stop pussyfooting around in language sand traps for fear of offending an occasional male ego. I’ve tried moderation for years while the fundamentalists run over us worldwide. Meanwhile, women are going backwards. Anne
