This evening, Manchester city centre will host a 'Slutwalk'. There has been some pretty ridiculous commentary about the phenomenon - but I am personally quite firmly behind the movement.
This Newsnight debate on the topic ended up missing the point somewhat and some of the debate was ridiculous. Conservative MP Louise Bagshaw claimed that the marches are "lionising promiscuity", which isn't the aim of anyone I know of; she suggested that promiscuity per se is damaging to physical health - which it simply isn't; she even started labelling people based on how they dress - and suggesting that exhibitionist dress is somehow 'harmful'. The main failing of the piece and the debate, for me, was the focus on the fact that some commentators have claimed that, for them, Slutwalking is 'about re-claiming the word slut'.
Trying to move the debate in to the field of semantics - making the whole thing about the word 'slut' is disingenuous, and it's another move to avoid talking about and dealing with the problem. I don't particularly mind if women move to reclaim the word 'slut' in the same way that I don't mind that young Black Americans have attempted to 'reclaim' the word 'nigger'. It is not something that I think has worked or will ever work - but I have also never been on the end of either slur, so I have no idea how hurtful it is. While reclaiming the word 'slut' may be a goal of some, I don't think that it is the main reason why people are turning out in numbers to demonstrate.
In the Newsnight debate, Bagshaw's most ridiculous moment came when she railed against 'sexual aggressiveness' among women, as if Slutwalking were somehow encouraging women to go out and rape men. But that is what Slutwalking is really about - rape. Not by women on men - that accounts for only 2-3% of rape - but the rape of women by men. I don't think that anybody who is marching today would disagree that they are marching for many of the same reasons that are behind the Reclaim the Night movement. Slutwalking was sparked by a Canadian policeman's comments, directing women to alter their dress in order to protect them from rape, just as Britain's Reclaim the Night marches grew out of police attitudes towards women in Yorkshire at the time of the Yorkshire Ripper.
I think the Slutwalk movement is really about institutional attitudes to rape - and most significantly of all, about (not) blaming rape victims for rape. There is a lack of understanding from police and other authorities about how to deal with the crime, and how to treat victims and potential victims of crime, and there is an unwillingness to discuss this problem in mainstream society, as well as in mainstream media. The very fact that Newsnight - usually one of Britain's best news programmes - tried their best to side-step talking about what's really wrong is very indicative.
Britain's conviction rate for rape is less than 6%, and although there is a suggested minimum sentence of 5 years, many rapists serve considerably less time than that. In my opinion, rape is probably the most injurious crime to the victim - and don't some people know it. Evidence has emerged that rape is being used as a weapon of war in Lybia and was one of many brutal tools widely used by the secret police in Egypt. I see no reason why rapists shouldn't be looking at similar sentences to people who commit manslaughter or attempted murder.
For many years, I was part of a group who regularly attended nights at a club called 'Rock World' - where many people dressed somewhat provocatively (there was enough fishnet there to catch a whale - and all its bones might just have gone in to making all the corsetry on show). In that setting, I never once heard of an incident of sexual violence, but I was shocked today, when I realised that, in the 'real world', where people dress conservatively, and stick to well-lit streets, I know at least three girls who have been raped - I may well know more who have never talked about it with me. None of these incidents were otherwise violent, and two were by people the victim knew very well. None were reported to the police. Unfortunately, that is all fairly typical. Considering that in my whole life, of all the people I have known well, only three have died, and only five have had cancer, that is a seriously disturbing balance.
There are many reasons why rape goes unreported, and there are also many misconceptions about rape; for example, somebody could have told our Canadian police officer friend that the majority of female rape victims are wearing jeans at the time of their assault. Slutwalking is a good opportunity to bring to people's attention that many of their ideas about rape and many of the ways that society seeks to deal with it are wrong - and it's an opportunity I am glad to take. Now, where did I leave my fishnets?
Tonnight's Manchester Slutwalk will begin congregating outside the Town Hall at 6.30pm, when BBC cameras will be filming live for Northwest Tonight.
