We asked five high-profile commentators whether telling women and girls that they should be free to dress 'sluttily' is right
Our panel comprised Jo-Anne Nadler, a Conservative author of books such as 'Too nice to be a Tory'; Julie Bindel, a feminist campaigner and co-founder of Justice for women; Brix Smith-Start, a TV presenter and fashion store owner; Shaista Aziz, a stand-up British, Pakistani and Mulsim comedian from Manchester; and Vicky Simister, a SlutWalk supporter and founder of the London Anti-Street Harassment campaign.
In light of evidence that many men and women, including police officers in the UK, believe that women share the blame if they are raped, should we be encouraging young women to dress less provocatively?
Vicky Simister: I started Anti-Street Harassment UK after I was sexually harassed and ultimately assaulted, and the police implied that I'd brought about my own assault by my demeanour that night. So I've experienced this attitude and, through anecdotal evidence from women I've met, it's an attitude that's rife. But it amounts to victim-blaming. Rape is non-consensual sex; therefore to dress like a slut is not to bring on your own rape. The idea that, if you look like what society thinks is a slut, you're somehow responsible, is repugnant. The idea that being a hooker, a slut, a whore, any of these other hate terms, makes you open to being blamed for being raped is just diabolical.
Brix Smith-Start: I feel so strongly that people should wear what they like to wear, what makes them feel good. Clothes are self-expression, but you have to be aware it can trigger things in other people. That is not something you can control. You can only control yourself. So it's really important to be aware. One of my first fashion experiences was at around 13, staying with a girlfriend out in Michigan, and we were having a Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver moment, and we dressed up in her mother's clothes, including platform shoes, and got out all the makeup and went off to the truck stop and drank coffee and smoked cigarettes. And the truckers followed us home and were beating on the door, and we were terrified and hiding under the bed. My friend's older sister was saying: "Girls, what have you done?" And we realised there is power in how you dress, you do put out an attitude. And you have to be aware of that. But I truly believe that women should wear whatever they like, and celebrate femininity, sexuality, power dressing, any which way it comes – go for it. It makes me quite ill, what the policeman said.
Jo-Anne Nadler: I'm really interested in what Brix said, she was playing a role, but that role sends out a particular message. You were wearing the uniform of the street walker, and therefore you made yourself vulnerable to being misinterpreted. While I found the way the policeman expressed himself completely inappropriate, and women should not be held responsible for an attack on them, I do wonder about a lot of the fashion now, with young girls particularly dressing very provocatively, and perhaps they don't realise the subliminal message they send out. So there is an interpretation of what the policeman said, more sympathetic to his view, which is that actually women can be making themselves vulnerable, particularly young girls. Our very sexualised society puts pressure on young girls to dress that way. If they gave it more thought, they wouldn't feel comfortable with what they were saying about themselves.
Shaista Aziz: I chose to wear my hijab, and I find this piece of cloth really liberating because people don't really judge me by what I look like. I absolutely believe a woman has a right to wear whatever she wants. I do not want the police, the state, anybody else, to tell me as a woman what I can and can't wear. Sometimes the way I get treated infuriates me and makes me very angry, but at the same time I find people show me more respect. Drunks actually cross the road. More and more women, particularly younger women, are dressing in an overly sexual way, and I wonder why. I have nieces and nephews, and when I go out to buy clothes for them I'm quite shocked at some of the things on sale. I went to a shop last week, in a very posh part of London, and the woman was telling me about a makeup range for kids. I thought, what are you talking about? I find these things very disturbing, but sexual abuse, rape, is about power, it's nothing to do with what a woman wears. I don't think there's a link there. This morning I was reading a study saying 1,000 women a day were raped during 12 months in 2007 in the Congo. That had nothing to do with what they wore.
Julie Bindel: It's very depressing that Shaista's sense of safety comes from being covered. I think that's an indictment of men's attitudes to women. And also the fear that we live under continually, whether it's conscious or unconscious. The idea that women dress provocatively is a terribly pessimistic view of masculinity and maleness, and a far more pessimistic view than so-called man-hating feminists like myself are supposed to have.
Jo-Anne Nadler: They're not provoking rape, but they're provoking attention.
Julie Bindel: That suggested they've got no control, or little control, over their own sexuality, which is ludicrous.
Jo-Anne Nadler: Not at all, because you know some women want to be noticed sexually.
Julie Bindel: But they don't want to be raped. Ever. If a woman is murdered by her husband, and his defence is that she was provoking him, we know these men get lots and lots of sympathy in the court and often they're given reduced sentences. And surely that's the same kind of attitude, when we talk about women dressing provocatively.
Jo-Anne Nadler: No, I said they may have been inadvertently provoking attention. There's incredible pressure on young girls to dress in a certain way so they match their peer groups, and that can leave them vulnerable. Why are they vulnerable? What does it say about society? But I'm just facing up to the reality that if you're dressed up like a teenage hooker, you're wandering around late at night, you're drunk, you are probably less in a position to protect yourself against attack than you might otherwise be. Now is that right? No, it's not. But is it fact? Yes, it is.
Julie Bindel: But it's almost an excuse for men. I'm a lesbian; I've never dressed for men. I've always dressed in a classic feminist style, the ill-fitting jeans etc. And that's not something that you're going to see on the SlutWalk. But when I've been attacked by men it's because I'm a lesbian, I'm not sexually available to them, and they take offence at the fact that I'm not dressing for them. How would we explain that?
Brix Smith-Start: It's important as a woman, as a girl, when you're growing up, to experiment with different looks. When I dressed as a teenage slut I felt sexy, I felt grown-up, cool, I had hot pants, platforms – I loved it. I was innocent, though, I wasn't prepared for the trigger that would happen in the men. Yes, dress however you want, but be aware it can trigger things in other people which you cannot control.
Julie Bindel: That's a terribly sad indictment of masculinity today. Why aren't we telling men: stop raping women? Rather than women celebrating this misogynistic term "sluttiness". What is different about what the Canadian police officer said and what police officers have said through time immemorial when killers and serial rapists are on the loose, which is: "Women, don't go out on your own at night, stay indoors." They don't say to men: "There's a curfew on you." The curfew is on us. What's different from what the chief constable of West Yorkshire said during the Yorkshire Ripper reign to this Canadian police officer? Men are the ones harming women.
Brix Smith-Start: I have two words: be aware. That's it.
Vicky Simister: I do think women have become objectified, but that is a separate point. Society does not say don't rape, it says don't get raped. Everywhere you look, the onus is on the woman to not experience harassment, and there's very little to say, actually we condemn rape. Only 6.5% of all rape cases end in conviction. That shows this attitude is extremely dangerous. The fact that Shaista can cover it up and get respect is great for her as an individual, but for a gender I think it's terrible.
Shaista Aziz: I don't cover up to please men, I do this for myself. I don't think that a woman should cover up and then get respect, I think women should be respected. But maybe there's an issue with young women respecting themselves, being empowered, being told, you can dress however you want, but don't maybe put all the emphasis on how you dress. You see lots of girls going to school and they look like they've just come out of a nightclub. I wonder why all that emphasis has to be put on how you look.
Vicky Simister: It's very sad that a man gets up, goes out the door the way he rolled out of bed, and a girl spends ages trowelling on the makeup and putting on the heels. While she has the right to, should she feel obliged to? No. SlutWalk is about that.
Julie Bindel: We all agree there, but this march, and taking it out of Canada, bringing it to the UK, might actually skew the message. It'll have male support and spectators because men are more interested in looking at women dressed in a sexualised fashion than they are in stopping rape. When I lecture, and men come to me and say, "I want you to know I'm not like that", I say to them, "Good. Why are you telling me? Go and tell your peers." Men are not going to be threatened by SlutWalk. They know that babies get raped, elderly women get raped, lesbians get raped. They're not threatened at all. We need to threaten men, we need to say to them: "Do not rape or you will have consequences."
What about the word itself? Is the word slut offensive? Outmoded? Or should women reclaim it, celebrate it?
Jo-Anne Nadler: Most words are neutral, it's the context. It's the person using them, it's the power they have and how you wish to take it. These women want to reclaim this word, and use it ironically, to take the power to harm out of it. I remember when slut meant you're a slob, look at the state of your house. There's a slightly cartoon element to the word slut, and I wouldn't necessarily be offended if someone used it about me, depending on who they were.
Julie Bindel: I get the irony of it, but I don't think that many girls growing up, who've been terribly harmed by this word, are going to get the joke. It excludes women who have been defined by this word, including the thousands in prostitution who do not want to be there. That worries me.
Shaista Aziz: It's an aggressive word, not neutral at all. I personally, as a feminist, don't want to reclaim that word. For me it evokes images of those sex workers, prostitutes, women who are forced into doing something they may not want to do, and for me it has a lot of violent connotations.
Vicky Simister: But won't the word slut still have that power if it's not reclaimed? I also am not sure if I want to wholly embrace it, but I do want to subvert and dilute its power. If we leave it alone, aren't we leaving them with the power to use that against us? So surely it's better to do something to make steps towards reclaiming it.
Jo-Anne Nadler: Isn't it the use of the word? If you'd used, say, whore, would we be calling it the whore walk?
Brix Smith-Start: I've heard the word slut used a lot of times in conjunction with gay men – "Oh, he's such a slut" – so it works both ways. All the women that I've talked to about SlutWalk are like, "Yeah, we want to go, we want to go" – they really like the idea of it. The humorous side of SlutWalk makes the whole thing feel good, a celebration. They're not thinking about the men, they're thinking about the camaraderie of the women and the empowerment of their femininity.
Julie Bindel: I'd much rather subvert men's behaviour than subvert a word, but in one way it sounds like great fun. I'm really pleased it's happening, although I really, really, hate its label. And I hate the fact that it's going to be men who will enjoy it far more than a lot of the participants. But this is in response to rape, isn't it? I mean it's not a party, it shows women are deeply concerned about the fear and reality of rape. And that's what's fantastic about it, it's women, young, older, going out together and saying we've had enough.
Vicky Simister: If there's one thing great about calling it SlutWalk it's that it's given us the chance to sit around and talk about this as an issue. This is getting like national and international news coverage, which Reclaim the Night hasn't managed to get, unfortunately. I don't think it's just men that we're sending this message to, because other women have passed judgment on me and on others for what somebody has worn, or they've heard about a rape case and said, "Oh, but I heard she went home with him", you know, "she led him on". It's challenging attitudes in general, not just rapists.
From the burka to the miniskirt, what women wear is constantly under scrutiny. I wonder if you feel you are making a statement with what you wear?
Vicky Simister: When I was younger I was very confused. The messages I got was what you wear means that you're going to be treated in different ways. As I get older and embrace feminism I endeavour to wear what makes me comfortable, and I expect people to judge me on who I am. Now expect and realistically anticipate are two different things, but I don't believe what I wear should affect how people see me.
Brix Smith-Start: As a stylist I often get asked to dress people for certain occasions, or to achieve certain goals. A woman will come to me and say, "I'm heading this huge board meeting … " or 'I need to look great but not too sexy'. Or a girl will say: "I'm on my first date and I want to look sexy, but not too sexy." I get this all the time. Fashion is a very powerful tool, from the colour to the cut, and you can achieve goals by dressing a certain way. But it's going to trigger things in other people, and sometimes that's a result that you want and sometimes it's a result that you can't control, that you don't want. When you put something on and you might feel fabulous, you just have to be aware what it might mean to others, which is a sad fact of society.
Jo-Anne Nadler: We're sitting in the middle of the most diverse city in the world, and I think it's foolish to suggest people aren't, either consciously or subconsciously, influenced in how they dress. Tribes are easily discernible. People in Hoxton are going to look quite different from people in Chelsea. People in Battersea look very different from people in Islington. Yes, women are scrutinised more closely than men, particularly women who work in the media, and I'm not altogether sure what one can do about that. I think that is just part of life.
Shaista Aziz: It takes a couple of seconds for a person to form another opinion about another person, and that is based on your exterior, on how you look, how you dress, maybe your shoes. We may not like it but it is definitely a fact. I go to stand-up comedy clubs up and down the country and when I show up and I get on stage, it's deafening silence, and it's so funny. I don't wear my headscarf to get a reaction from people, to provoke people, I wear it because I want to wear it, I wear it because I feel empowered by wearing it. I've never had a bad hair day, OK?
Brix Smith-Start: Do you match your headscarf to the rest of your outfits? Do you think seriously about the colour of your headscarf versus whatever else?
Shaista Aziz: I would like to say yes, but sadly no. Maybe I can take a masterclass from your good self!
Brix Smith-Start: Not that I think you need it or anything, but it'd be really fun! Bring it on, bring it on.
Shaista Aziz: There's very little diversity usually within the audience of a comedy club, let alone one of the acts, and it doesn't take much for me to dispel the many stereotypes that people have of Muslim women. More often than not when I'm talking I can see people's jaws scraping along the ground. The reason for this is because the face, the voice and the appearance, they just don't match. I call it a David Beckham effect. As soon as I open my mouth people are astounded, and I find this kind of quite weird. But it is based on what I look like, it's based on my choice of clothing.
Vicky Simister: You're admitting that people judge you on the way you look? You're admitting it, everybody around the table is admitting it. Are we saying that we should just accept that and go along with it?
Jo-Anne Nadler: It's not necessarily a judgment. How you dress gives some information about you. It doesn't tell somebody else the state of your soul, but it does tell them where you probably like to buy your clothes, who you think your peer group is.
Vicky Simister: There's a difference between a generic assessment of somebody and fitting them into a category in the mind, and then this thing about, well women should and shouldn't have hemlines at certain levels and cleavage showing at certain levels. And I think Jo-Anne is saying she's experienced it in politics. As a woman you're under more scrutiny than a male counterpart, and that should be challenged in society, this idea that women are judged more than men.
Jo-Anne Nadler: But how can you challenge it? I'm not even sure I want to, because I think it is different being a woman and different being a man.
Julie Bindel: I want to challenge it. When I became a feminist, in my teens, what the early women's movement was doing then in the 60s – and we seem to have lost it now – was saying to women, you can be free of the constraints of femininity if you wish. Lots of women said high heels were painful, that makeup irritated their skin and they resented the time it took to apply it, that their hair always had to be dyed, preened, poked, teased, that they couldn't leave the house without a mask from head to foot. Some started to dress like I do, with jeans, and shoes that you can run away in, and bras that actually fit rather than make you look like some kind of space creature. I was making a statement along with my feminist sisters that I will not dress for men. And trust me when I tell you, I am punished just as much as the women whom men consider sluts. It's a highly political issue, what women wear.
Jo-Anne Nadler: I'm intrigued because you know not all lesbians are the same – some lesbians dress in a more feminine way.
Julie Bindel: What I'm saying is that, if you actually dress in a way that is so obviously not traditionally feminine and made up, men will make an assumption about you. I find that quite pleasing, because what I'm saying to them is I really don't want you.
Brix Smith-Start: But I totally clocked you straight away, which everyone else would do, so you've got to be prepared, for that's the reaction you're going to get. Not everyone's going to be open with love. Some people are going to be threatened and alienated.
Vicky Simister: I don't think people have a right to do what they want to you, or use hate speech or to rape you because of the judgment that they've made of what you wear. Yes, we might want to be realistic and say what I wear is going to send a message to people, but not accept that people judge you on your look.
Jo-Anne Nadler: I think we're using the word judgment in, if I might say, a very judgmental way. I'm talking about making an assessment about someone. If you're going for an interview to become a Conservative MP, or a Labour MP, you'd be expected to dress in a professional way. Do I regret the fact that it's more straightforward for a man? Yes, I would do if it meant I was never taken seriously, but equally you could say how dull for men that they don't have the outlet we have, to have fun with clothes and be peacockish.
Vicky Simister: If we were really all equal, then it's true, men could dress up just as much as women and we'd all have that choice, but the problem is, as you said earlier on, that some girls feel obliged to dress in certain ways, to dress and be attractive.
Shaista Aziz: It's also about how you carry yourself as well. Your persona comes into play as well in terms of your clothing. I try to be as approachable as I can to people, so when I'm in these comedy clubs people come up to me and they ask me questions. You know if I was just a bit stand-offish, giving them the vibe they can't talk to me, then they'd treat me very differently. And I think some of that comes into play when you're dressing up or when you're wearing different clothes as well.
Brix Smith-Start: I recently did a show where we had to make over young British schoolgirls. When we would say, "How would you like to look? Who is your fashion icon?", pretty much across the board they all said Katie Price.
Shaista Aziz: But what is Katie Price? She's a very successful businesswoman. Whether or not we like what she wears, she's a multimillionaire. So again this goes back to my point about how you project yourself, it's not just about your clothing.
Brix Smith-Start: But she is so sexualised. And she isn't a little girl.
Vicky Simister: She hasn't overcome her looks in order to become successful through her persona, she has thought, this is how I'll best get success, completely tamper with my body and get surgery.
Shaista Aziz: But what's inspiring them? Is it not just her plasticness and the hair and everything, is it the whole package?
Julie Bindel: Years ago I was in Russia, talking to some young women aged 15 to 18 and they'd all seen the film Pretty Woman. When they were asked what they wanted to do when they left school, they said be a prostitute. That's the power of the message, isn't it? Because their opportunities in life were so minimal they then thought that this was a way out.
Brix Smith-Start: For a lot of women it is. Look at Russia today, it's the same if not more. A massive thriving industry of gorgeous, fabulous women, and they're the richest, because that's how they got out.
So are the SlutWalk marches pro-feminist?
Vicky Simister: It's about challenging rape culture, the idea that you in some way could be responsible for your own rape, and I think that is a feminist belief for sure.
Brix Smith-Start: I think it's empowering to women. And I'm not worried about the men, it's all about the women.
Jo-Anne Nadler: I'm not sure I'm qualified to say whether or not it helps the feminist cause, because I'm not sure what the feminist cause is. I don't automatically associate the feminist cause with the best way forward for women. Feminism is a political movement, to which I don't subscribe, although I do subscribe to the idea that women should be empowered. I just don't think it comes through assuming all men behave in a certain way and all women should behave in a certain way. I don't feel terribly comfortable with the name. I won't be going.
Shaista Aziz: I don't know if I'm going to go, I don't like the terminology, but I think it's good that groups of women are going to come together. There needs to be a space for women to come together and to talk about these things, because I absolutely 100% believe this is not just a feminist issue, but as women we do need to discuss these issues and have some sort of strategy to deal with it. And the onus isn't on us just to deal with it. Obviously the men as well.
Julie Bindel: I won't be going on it, I'll be fashioning my own placard with "Women are never sluts", and "Jail rapists". I don't think it's a feminist event, I think it's rebellion, not feminism, but I think it's fantastic that women are responding to rape by saying we have had enough and we will no longer be blamed. So good luck to everyone.
Brix Smith-Start: The important thing is it's sticking a broom handle in a beehive. It's going to get men thinking, even on a subconscious level. And that can't be bad.
Kim Willsher, Paul Gallagher 15 May, 2011
--
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/15/slutwalk-debate-sexual-discrimination
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar