Jun. 01, 2011 - Issue #815: Nextfest 2011
Conversation starter
SlutWalk has only begun to uncover the problem of victim blaming
Much has been said about the SlutWalk protests taking place across North America. So much, in fact, that you might wonder if there is anything left to say on the subject. But the issue at the core of these walks is so ingrained in our culture that the current conversations have only begun to uncover the depth of the issue. Victim blaming is one of the main reasons why sexualized violence continues to occur as often as it does.
Two main arguments against SlutWalks are that victim blaming no longer exists and that the entire idea of the walk is wrong as victims actually are to blame for assault.
Recently, Margaret Wente of The Globe and Mail wrote an editorial which only proves this point. She claims SlutWalk is pointless because, "The attitude that rape victims bring it on themselves has largely (though not entirely) disappeared from mainstream society." She then goes on to cite a recent case in which a judge in Manitoba blamed the victim in a sexual assault case. If judges are still doing it, it's still a problem. She also cites a statistic from the American Association of University Women that 62 percent of women say they've been sexually harassed at university. She dismisses this, claiming the only way it could be credible is if it includes every women who's ever been groped by a drunk student at a bar. She is refusing to believe that sexual violence and harassment are as prevalent as women claim and at the same time saying that being groped against your will is not legitimate harassment, but something we should expect and tolerate.
Here in Edmonton, in a letter to the editor in the Edmonton Journal on May 20, Sigurd Lefsrud asserts that the whole idea behind SlutWalk is wrong because women actually do provoke sexual contact by the way they dress. Lefsrud tries to make the point by saying that prostitutes (Lefsrud's word) dress provocatively in order to attract sexual attention. He confuses desired sexual attention with sexual assault. Sometimes women do dress provocatively in order to attract attention. Men dress and act in certain ways to attract attention too. What they do not do is ask to be assaulted and forced into sex against their will. Looking for sexual attention is in no way the same thing as looking for sexual assault. And the assertions are simply not borne out. Statistics show absolutely no correlation between the incidence of assault and the appearance of victims. But Lefsrud boldly makes these claims as if they are given. Sadly, this attitude is a commonly held one.
How many of us have heard about an incident of sexual assault and wondered, even for a second, what the victim might have done to put him/herself in that position?
I have heard the stories of hundreds of survivors of sexual assault, some of them strangers on crisis lines, some of them good friends. I have seen firsthand what victim-blaming does. Our quick assumption that anyone who was sexually assaulted must have had some measure of culpability makes all victims question themselves. It makes them hesitate before telling anyone, for fear of being blamed, and it definitely makes them hesitate before reporting the crime and in many cases not report it at all, again, for fear of being blamed. That is what perpetuates the culture of rape in our society. We need to take sexual assault seriously, and that means we need to put the responsibility squarely and solely where it lies, on the offender. And that is what SlutWalk is all about. V
Brenda Kerber is a sexual health educator who has worked with local not-for-profits since 1995. She is the owner of the Edmonton-based, sex-positive adult toy boutique the Traveling Tickle Trunk.
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