Comment 64291

By Borrelli (registered) | Posted May 31, 2011 at 09:42:59 in reply to Comment 64287

Brandon, I think almost everyone here is in agreement with the main point re: sexual assaults (I hope), but I think that its too simple to reduce the entire movement to this core message.

Why?

Because organizers (and I lay this mostly at the feet of SWTO who are excellent marketers) have willfully chosen to dabble in a branding exercise that brings with it a lot of semantic baggage.

The biggest, the one everyone is quick to get tripped-up with, is the use of the word "slut" as a unifying banner. It would be easier to let this point of contention slide if it weren't for the centrality of the term in the marketing of the movement.

The core message to which you refer is not new. Feminists of all stripes have been fighting victim-blaming for ages, so the SlutWalks have no exclusive domain over this message.

What's differentiates SlutWalks from other women's empowerment movements is, in my estimation, the use of the word slut in marketing and promotion. It's a loaded word destined to evoke an emotional response, and asking people to ignore its use and concentrate on the 'core message' is akin to "not thinking of the pink elephant."

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