The Rogue Slut

Too many accounts, so little me

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 12:54:59 -0500

I’m retiring this account. I’ve got so much on the go, I can’t devote the time to have a separate account for my ramblings.

I’m consolidating my sex and feminist writings in other places. You can follow what I do mostly on twitter @KeyholeSessions.

Alternatively, my sex-filled tumblr is themadame.

I’m also the sex columnist at Toronto Standard.

For any art events I create, all info is at The Keyhole Sessions.

My virtual business card is at about.me.

Thanks for following and supporting.

XXX

To those that continue to 'blame the patriarchy': move on

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:14:00 -0500

I’ve gotten incredibly tired of people blaming everything I do on my gullible acceptance of “The Patriarchy”.

The first time the blame hit with any intensity was when I did SlutWalk. I had the audacity to be a woman who freely expresses that not only do I love sex, but that anyone who does deserves as much respect as the next person who doesn’t admit the same thing, meaning: nobody deserves to be raped. Included in the legitimate debate and conversations that arose around why we were doing what we were doing was the argument by some people that if a woman wants to look a certain way, it’s for nothing except the male gaze; like women don’t have the right to be sexually aroused by other women, or at all. It’s not us who are stuck living in the Patriarchy, it’s them: those who demand until they’re blue in the face that any type of women’s sexual expression is a result of ingrained patriarchal rules and are the ones maintaining the very system they’re campaigning against.

Fast-forward almost exactly a year later to now, after the official launch of the Nude Photo Revolutionaries Calendar. Created in homage and support of Egyptian blogger Aliaa Elmahdy, who posted a nude photo of herself as a ‘scream’ against the misogyny and hypocrisy in today’s society. She didn’t post it so she could titillate; she posted it because she knows that her body is hers and she should be able to do whatever the fuck she wants with it. She’s also not so naive to think that some people will look at it and assume that showing off your nude body is nothing but to titillate, but she didn’t do it for them. She did it for herself.

I’m part of this calendar. Not only am I one of the submissions, but I also designed it. I offered my assistance to the creator, Maryam Namazie, who is an Iranian Human Rights Activist based in the UK. We, along with the other women in the Calendar, are not of the mind that you can only look upon a nude woman with nothing but the male gaze. We created the Calendar for us and people like us who can look upon a woman and appreciate her for more than the sum of her parts. When I look upon the faces of these women, I don’t think that they’ve cheapened themselves and gone the easy route {to all those who say that it’s easy to take your clothes off and post it to the world: you try it}. I see activists, writers, mothers, feminists. If there are any feelings of an empowered sexuality in there, then they are just as legitimate. I can appreciate a nude woman for her mind as much as her sexuality, and I’ll never let anyone tell me that doing so is feeding into the Patriarchy. Yes, the calendar shows breasts and vaginas and bums, but I see them as things of beauty, things to be admired, celebrated, respected. Not things that are pornographic, or to be taken or to be reviled.

If you can’t get past the idea that a woman’s self expression can include her own body and her pride in it, then it’s you that needs to get past the patriarchy, not us who have already tossed it aside and moved on.

Is Kony the new Komen?

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:23:00 -0500

If you haven’t been anywhere near the internet this week, you’ll have missed Kony2012, a social media movement that is the brainchild of Invisible Children, an organization working to end the abduction of Ugandan children turned into child soldiers.

The 30 minute documentary has been making the rounds via all media, and now has its lion’s share of criticism. The doc is a call to action for a campaign to find and arrest Joseph Kony who is responsible for thousands of abductions and slaughters in Africa over the last 26 years. Criticised for not being transparent enough, for using too much of its finances for non-charitable purposes, for being too elitist, Invisible Children posted on their site a response to the backlash.

I’m not going to extrapolate on all the fine details here, you can do your own research and come to your own conclusions. My beef is that until the Kony2012 video made the rounds, I had no idea who this monster was. Did you? Sure, I had an idea of the atrocities that happen in other parts of the world {having co-founded and survived an activist movement in 2011 means I’m now more aware of the planet around me}, and I do my “slacktivist” part of spreading the word when I can on Facebook and Twitter with as many causes that are near and dear to me.

Many people say that sharing a video here and there isn’t enough, it’s just lazy and doesn’t accomplish anything. I say bullshit. Go over to change.org and see how many campaigns have been successfully fulfilled, simply because some people decided that their good deed of the day/week/month/year was to ‘sign the petition’.

Slacktivism aside, what I’ve learned over the last year is that people and issues get attention when you give them attention, and this includes all the peripheral elements that surround any issue. Prime example is Susan B. Komen for the Cure.

Also known as simply Komen, it’s a charitable organization that has been working on breast cancer research, education, and caregiving since its inception in 1982. Earlier this year, Komen came under serious fire for making the decision to not hand over any more funding to Planned Parenthood, which, among a million other things, offers help with abortion services. Initially touted as a non-political move, it became quickly obvious {thank you, internet} that it was, indeed, a Republican-backed move against offering abortion services to lower-income women. The backlash was incredible and over a few weeks, Komen issued various conflicting statements, ousted and shuffled various members of their team and tried to bandage their brand that was almost but destroyed. They’re still reeling and the pink has certainly lost much of its lustre.

Out of this debacle, Planned Parenthood came out a winner, without having to do too much heavy lifting. Due to the backlash against Komen, people started not only stepping away from them, but quite loudly started backing and promoting PP, in turn raising well over $2million for them. This far exceeded any funding that Komen would have given them. Not bad for being on the receiving end of a bad move.

Now, I don’t doubt that Komen has indeed contributed much good in breast cancer research and aid, but for them, this is a lesson on accountability and politically driven actions. For the rest of the world, what comes out of this mess is a group that didn’t have nearly as much machine power behind them as Komen now have a slew of new followers and supporters. Probably from a tonne of people that had no idea what Planned Parenthood was about or what they actually do to serve their communities. Again, thank you, internet.

Will Kony2012 implode due to all the backlash? Will their campaign fall flat due to people just not bothering to share their information? Maybe. But should it? Did you know who the fuck Joseph Kony was before this week? Did you know who AMREF USA, Doctors Without Borders or Water.org {charities mentioned as donation alternatives mentioned in criticisms of Invisible Children} were or what they do? Did the Kony2012 backlash make you hand over money to these groups and others like them out of spite for IC? Dump this mess into a sieve and what shakes out is at least some funding for some groups doing good, most of which never would have been able to pay for the attention they’re getting as a result.

And just what good are people doing to shit on a bunch of filmmakers who are adept at using the tools available to them? What have many done other than spout off on the internet about how these hipsters just have no idea what they’re doing? Most of this world has propelled itself forward with people who have no idea what they’re doing, but don’t mind taking the risk to see just what they can accomplish. You might think it’s pretty easy to leave your family behind and constantly head into dangerous territory, to put your professional and personal lives on the line for something you believe in, but it’s not. Trust me, I know more than a little about doing such a thing. People need to stop complaining these guys take home a bigger salary than what is ‘acceptable’ for risking a hell of a whole lot more than most people have ever done.

The saddest part of this is the mistrust that people will have of organizations that are brazen enough to be immodest with their aims. Yes, the Kony2012 doc is very glossy, well edited and a bit heavy-handed {cue swelling music and child sobs}, but why should that stop anyone from the goal of taking out one of the world’s worst criminals against humanity? I’d say that if someone is going to risk pretty much EVERYTHING, then by all means they should be well compensated. Are you going to do it? I didn’t think so. And if you did, what would you do better? Please, we could really use the enlightenment at a time like this. I truly don’t want Kony to be the next Komen. I just don’t get the corporate-greed shadiness that I feel Komen and their ilk are blanketed by {pink handguns, anyone?}.

But should it wind up being revealed that Invisible Children are nothing but a front for a bunch of fratboy filmmakers that want Shepard Fairey-esque glory, then the phoenix that rises from these ashes will be the smaller, little-known-before-Kony2012 orgs that will benefit, just as Planned Parenthood did. It’s the social world’s natural selection; it’s what helps propel us as a society forward. And those who put their money where their mouths are to do better will be bright colours among the tailfeathers.

Backlash like this should act as teaching aids. You don’t know if you’re doing something right until someone tells you you’re doing it wrong. When that happens, a typical reaction would be to learn from your mistakes. I hope that whatever mistakes Invisible Children have made {and I’m not yet convinced that they are guilty of anything egregious} will just help them better themselves and their project.

I don’t want people to become jaded about social campaigns. There’s no going back to a pre-internet, pre-app, pre-Final Cut Pro world. This is where campaigns are headed, and we should do our best to champion and help them, not sit back and hope they implode in front of us.

Nude Photo Revolutionary

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:19:37 -0500

In honour of Egyptian blogger Aliaa Elmahdy, who last year posted a nude photo of herself and tweeted it out under the hashtag #NudePhotoRevolutionary, Human Rights Activist Maryam Namazie has launched the Nude Photo Revolutionaries Calendar.

Purchase it in print or download it for free. But whatever you do, share the info and help stop the oppression of women, proving that women are more than simply the sum of their parts.

We love the Fawkes. therealkatiewest: by Ray Fawkes This has...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:32:33 -0500

We love the Fawkes.

therealkatiewest:

by Ray Fawkes

This has made my day.

"In American politics, women’s bodies are not bodies, but parts."

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:41:52 -0500

““In American politics, women’s bodies are not bodies, but parts.””

- - Jill Lepore, “Komen’s Choice,” The New Yorker (via jessicavalenti)

Sex work is work, just like any other

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:03:00 -0500

It’s bullshit that sex work is illegal. A few months ago I listened to an interview with a Pivot lawyer discussing Canadian prostitution laws, where she mentioned that Canada is considering certain methods that would help women not be forced into prostitution because of financial desperation {I’m going to remove trafficking from this post as it’s a different argument all together}. We all do things out of financial desperation that we don’t want to do, but most of them aren’t illegal.

If I couldn’t find work in my field, I would probably have to resort to a retail job selling shoes. Or dollar store items. Or hamburgers. I hate every one of those options. They would each make me miserable, in turn making those around me miserable, including my family. I would hate waking up in the morning, I would hate commuting by crowded transit to godknowswhatstripmall, I would hate coming home smelling like mall or food {I know it well, I did it in school to pay my way toward an education that was supposed to guarantee that from never happening again}. I would be grouchy. And my family would hate me.

BUT.

If I could legally, it would be nice to have the option to have people pay me for sex, or at least, facilitate meetings between others to have sex. I would create a safe space. A pretty space. I would vet my clients {which you can’t do in most work environments}. I would charge what I wanted. And I would enjoy it. But I can’t do the happy option, because it’s illegal. My government would rather have people in jobs they hate than in jobs they enjoy, because of the simple stigma that sex is bad for them. Well, I think selling shoes for minimum wage is bad for me, but who’s paying attention?

Granted, laws must be put in place to enforce safety and prohibit trafficking. Society drafts laws as forms of protection, because bad things happen: you are prohibited from stealing; you can’t punch someone in the face; you can’t rape someone. All these acts are all illegal to protect society because they are all harmful to our property or bodies. But because sex has a stigma attached to it, our government refuses to draft laws to protect everyone. Robert Pickton had more legal protection with a right to a trial than the almost 50 sex workers he murdered.

As I closely follow the Terri Jean Bedford case and the Vancouver sex trade case, I wait with baited breath to see what our government will say about Canada’s current prostitution laws. It’s all such a hazy tangle of nonsense {the act itself is legal, yet facilitating a deal or living off the avails of that act is not}, that I fear they’ll just be so afraid to untangle it, they’ll give up because that’s the easier road.

Legalizing prostitution would mean sex workers could work in safer environments, clients could be vetted, taxes could be collected. How are any of these things detrimental to society?

I’m also currently watching Satisfaction, a critically acclaimed Australian television series from 2007 about a high end brothel. Prostitution in certain parts of the country are legal, and this series follows a cast of sex workers going about their day to day lives. What strikes me about the show is that many of the conflicts that arise have little or nothing to do with sex work. They can be picked up and dropped into any non-sex situation. Although the show is fictional, I can’t help but feel that the writers just ‘get it’. That sex work is like any other form of work, and if you remove the stigma, we’re all the better for it. Well produced and well written, the series lasted three seasons. It obviously didn’t ruffle enough feathers in Australia to get it cancelled after a few episodes {cough <The Playboy Club> cough}. Apparently, many Australians ‘just get it’.

If we in the west can grow up and realize that safe sex doesn’t kill us, then we can move forward to creating an industry that will be safer for the workers and profitable for the country.

Sex is never going to go away. If it does, we’re all in trouble.

Esoterica: Full list of companies that pulled ads from All American Muslim

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:00:09 -0500

Esoterica: Full list of companies that pulled ads from All American Muslim:

Check to make sure these companies did indeed “pull” their ads. Many were not scheduled to run any in the first place and this list was issued from the bigoted FFA itself:

kingjaffejoffer:

weian-fu:

zikrayat:

3M (Command, Scotchbrand tape),
Airborne Vitamin,
Amway, (says it has been misrepresented)
Anheuser Busch Inbev (Select55),
Art Instruction Schools,
Bamboozles,
Bank of America (Cash Rewards),
Bare Escentuals,
Brother International (Ptouch),
Campbell’s Soup,
Capital One,
Church & Dwight (Oxi Clean, Arm & Hammer),
City Furniture,
Conagra (Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes),
Corinthian Colleges (Everst411),
Cotton, Inc.,
Cumberland Packing (Sweet’N Low), (says it has been misrepresented)
Dell computers,
Diamond Foods (Kettlebrand Chips),
Estee Lauder (Clinique),
ET Browe (Palmer’s Cocoa butter),
Gap,
General Motors (Chevy Runs Deep),
Good Year,
Green Mountain Coffee,
Guthy Renker (Proactiv),
Hershey kisses,
Home Depot, (says it has been misrepresented)
Honda North America,
HTC Phones,
Ikea,
JC Penney,
JP Morgan Chase (Chase Sapphire),
Kayak.com, Kellogg (Special K),
Koa Brands (John Frieda),
Leapfrog Enterprise (Leapster Explorer),
Lowe’s (admits to cancelling ads) ***
Mars (Dove Chocolate),
McDonald’s,
Nationwide Insurance,
News Corp (We bought a zoo movie),
Nintendo (Mariokartz.com),
Novartis (Theraflu),
Old Navy,
Pernod Ricard (Kahlua),
Petsmart,
Pier One,
Pfizer (Centrum vitamin),
Procter & Gamble (Align Probiotic, Crest, Febreze, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, Pur, Tide),
Progressive Insurance,
Prudential Financial,
Radio Shack,
Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse,
SC Johnson (Drano, Glade, Scrubbing Bubbles),
Sears ,
Signet (Kay Jewelers),
Sonic Drive-ins,
Subaru, T
HQ (uDraw),
T-Mobil,
Toyota (Camry),
Volkswagen,
Vtech (Mobi Go, V Reader),
Wal-Mart
Whirlpool (Maytag)

Noted. I been done boycotted Hershey after that whole importing college students for slave labor debacle, & BOA has been on my “shoulda never gave you niggas access to my money” list for a minute. I just opened a bank account with a credit union. As soon as my new debit card comes in, they’re done.

Pull ads off these nuts.

This list is withholding certain information that’s vital.

Some of these companies were only scheduled to run ads for a fixed amount of time (2 or 3 weeks, etc) and their campaign ran its course. They didn’t “pull” their ads from the show.

Women have sex and enjoy it. Get the fuck over it.

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:51:00 -0500

Melissa Petro. Madison Young. And now Sasha Grey. These are women who did or do work in the sex industry, and for it, they are unapologetic. But for those who have a stick up their ass when it comes to sex and are unfortunately in positions of power, these women have been ridiculed for their work, both in and outside the bedroom {or studio or hotel room, or wherever they’ve performed the deed}.

Melissa Petro is a teacher that paid her way through school by working as a Craigslist prostitute. When she admitted by way of a Huffington Post article that her past included sex work, and when she did not deride that work, she was humiliated, criticized and finally let go of her job teaching at a school in New York, despite her reputation as “inspiring”.

Madison Young is a porn entrepreneur who not only performs sex on screen, but also owns a feminist art gallery in San Francisco that shows work from various media, and it’s not {shock!} all porn. When she promoted an exhibition with a photo of her dressed like a matronly Marilyn Monroe, complete with her new baby at her breast, there was a twitter scandal, where another sex worker accused her of pedophilia. How dare she pose with her daughter? It essentially came down to her daring to be a real person, including a new mother.

The latest sex-related scandal is this week’s furor that former porn star Sasha Grey ignited when she read in front of Grade 1 and 3 students for her part in the Read Across America program in Compton. Once parents discovered that this former sex worker had the audacity to read a book to promote literacy, all hell broke loose.

Apparently sex workers — former or not — aren’t entitled to experience everyday activities, or be contributing members of society.

In a country where the education rating has fallen to “average”, where public schools have poor funding and not enough good teachers, where culture and arts are hit with budget cuts, it’s these very people who are fighting against the tide. Despite performing consensual acts, these women aren’t only fighting to be part of society, but also to better it. And just like everyone else, they pay taxes, take their children to school, donate to charities. Yet many people would rather rally behind sports heroes who keep dangerous secrets.

These women can be added to the list that include Kendra Holliday, who lost her job and was close to losing custody of her daughter for being outed as a sex-blogger; as well as Girl With a One Track Mind author, Zoe Margolis, and to some extent, Dr. Brooke Magnanti, author of Diary of a London Call Girl, who both wrote about their sexual exploits, yet were ridiculed for expressing themselves as human beings. Whether you’re up front about who you are, or try to fly under the radar, your experiences as a woman in touch with her sexual self will be eventually held up for all to see and used as the yardstick in which to compare the rest of your life.

These women need to be commended for not only doing what they had or wanted to do, but for fighting back against the stigma. Melissa Petro has since written about her firing; Madison Young commented on the accusation against her and Sasha Grey issued a statement about her work with Read Across America. Good on all of them.

You don’t find this kind of hard work, ingenuity and determination in too many people, especially when that work is to help others. Critics need to step off, and let those with creativity and a desire to make a difference do their jobs.

Seriously, what the fuck?

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:47:00 -0500

Every few days I try and accumulate a rundown of all the week’s events, as research notes for the book I’m writing.

I record links, Facebook posts, twitter hashtags, etc. along with some personal notes so I can go back to them when I’m ready to get down to the nitty gritty. I need to do this as my memory just isn’t what it used to be. I feel like I need to write everything down, or it leaves my brain when I need it and only returns when it’s too late.

I haven’t made my notes this past week due to a slew of crazy days that ate up my time. There were also a few days in there that I just couldn’t bring myself to delve into the morass of stories flying around the internet, as being depressed and angry doesn’t help you when you’re feeling ill {This I need to reconcile as trying to help save the world from itself doesn’t allow for sick days}.

So for the last hour, I’ve sat at my computer and tried to remember all the headlines I read this week, the snippets that I would store for a later date to read in detail when I have the head for it. I posted a few notes, then would remember that this had happened lately. Oh, yeah, then that. Oh, right, there’s also this. And this. And this.

Some of these stories have played out with varying degrees of success/failure, but, seriously, what the fuck? In the year 2011, which I’m calling Year of Global Protest {Arab Spring, SlutWalk, Occupy}, have we as a society not learned a fucking thing? It’s now November, and I remember how 2011 had started off so poorly: Judge Dewar in Manitoba, the redefinition by the FBI of “rape”, removal of Planned Parenthood funding, the gang-rape of an 11 year-old who was “asking for it”.

Despite these stories making major headlines, and people stating that rape culture doesn’t exist because there was backlash, these stories aren’t becoming fewer and farther between; they’re increasing. There might be an enlightenment for those who have more liberal minds than others, but for the vast majority, there are still events like this.

I spoke at The Ontario Bar Association last week, and like the other events I have spoken at lately about SlutWalk, I felt again the excitement of working toward a better world. There are people who are genuinely planning on devoting their lives toward a common good. When I’m not, however, completely surrounded by this type of people, it’s hard to keep momentum going. These are the days when you’re sitting at your desk and story after story pings in about what bullshit has just been unleashed. I wind up thinking that it’s just all futile.

But then there are the moments when my 9 year old son describes me as “fighting for women’s rights” and I think that there is hope.

Jessica Valenti: #mencallmethings

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:21:29 -0500

Jessica Valenti: #mencallmethings:

jessicavalenti:

Twitter is aflutter with a new hashtag, #mencallmethings, where people (mostly feminists and women-identified folks) are sharing online harassment stories. It’s not pretty.

Online harassment is a subject close to my heart (unfortunately) - it’s something I’ve written about at length and…

SlutWalk Explained!: Slut Means Speak Up!

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:20:40 -0500

SlutWalk Explained!: Slut Means Speak Up!:

slut-shaming:

Announcing SlutWalk London 2012!

The Pageant of the Bizarre - A fundraising night of music and entertainment to raise funds forSlutWalk 2012 on the 11th November at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London! Tickets are now online to buy from ticketweb! £7 or £5 for concessions!

"I’m not angry because I’m a feminist; I’m a feminist because I’m angry."

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:20:26 -0500

“I’m not angry because I’m a feminist; I’m a feminist because I’m angry.”

- paraphrased from Melissa McEwan (via queerthesystem)

outerreflectsinner: Three Tuscaloosa Police officers, whose...

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:08:30 -0500

outerreflectsinner:

Three Tuscaloosa Police officers, whose names I will post later, decided to use excessive force against a 100 lb. 21 year old female since I ran five feet from them because I felt threatened, basically picked me up, threw me on the ground, my face hit the concrete, the three cops got on top of me- one was holding my head to the pavement with his mag light, who had previously hit me in the leg with it three times, all the time this cop, this PIG, had me on the ground, he was calling me a ‘Fucking whore’ which he said at least three times. I was not able to resist at this point, even if I had wanted to. I was yelling to Lance to pay attention to what was happening to me and they didnt like that very much so then he sprayed a constant spray of pepper spray all over my entire face, including my mouth..I could still talk to Lance so then he sprayed a long spray a second time.. picked me up off the ground and put cuffs on me as tight as they would go, threw me in the car and buckled the seat belt so i couldn’t move and then shut all the doors and left me there, alone, in excruciating pain. It took everything for me to be able to breath, I was basically almost suffocating and honestly, that was the only time in my life where I thought I might die. when I got to jail I asked twice for first aid because I have a gash in my head that was still bleeding and open wounds on my face..but they never even got a nurse to look at it, clean it or put something on it. When I went to the Doctor, they told me the gash was bad enough to get stitches, but I should have gotten them within an hour of it happening. these are the people who “protect and serve” you.

In defense of SlutWalk

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:10:00 -0400

… and oh, how there will be so many. On my part, anyway.

Tomorrow I will be defending SlutWalk at the Ontario Bar Association. SlutWalk Toronto was asked to participate in a panel they have assembled called Feminist Legal Analysis: SlutWalks: Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem? This is in response to Rebecca Traister’s piece in New York Times Magazine in July, Ladies, We Have a Problem. In it, Traister posits that “women stripping down to skivvies and calling ourselves sluts” is more irritating than empowering.

Taken out of context, as SlutWalk so often is, I might agree that doing such a thing is more harmful than helpful. If you take the time, however, to analyze what SlutWalk is about, who is behind it and what actually transpires at one of these events, you may see that there is more empowerment happening than you would assume of those “marching in hot pants”.

Traister’s piece promotes the assumption that SlutWalks are nothing more than scantily-clad women, marching down the street with SLUT happily smeared across their chests, as most media reports have shown photos that this is the case. But if you were to zoom out, you’d see that most marchers are in typical everyday clothing {here’s a pretty succinct slideshow of the difference between activist photography and Big Media photography; slides 6-34}.

Traister continues on to say:

Scantily-clad marching seems weirdly blind to race, class and body-image issues that usually {rightly} obsess young feminists and seems inhospitable to scads of women who, for various reasons, might not feel it logical or comfortable to express their revulsion at victim-blaming by donning bustiers.

Yes, young {and old} feminists battle these issues every day. But many of us are also tired of battling the whore/madonna complex, being forced to choose one or the other, eliminating the option to be proud of our sexuality should we decide that virginal virtue is more respectable. That ‘respect’ is subjective is infuriating to no end. I’m often placed at a disadvantage because I shamelessly admit to enjoying sex, nevermind what other accomplishments I have under my belt. It’s been recently assumed that because I use the word slut in the positive, I must be a single mother {I’m not}.

While there are those who cannot enjoy the privilege that I have — to freely discuss and even flaunt my sexuality — I will not apologize for it. I worked hard for the right to do so. After all the years of carrying the slut burden {having been first called it in high-school}, I am now ready to turn and say a big “fuck you” to the namecallers. It weighed heavily, affecting my behaviour, and the creation of SlutWalk was cathartic.

While I disagree with Traister that 20 years after the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas debacle we aren’t “braver and more skilled at calling out injustices”, I do agree that “social progress is imperfect, full of half-truths and sloppy misrepresentations” {her own account of SlutWalks proves this}. I also believe — perhaps naively — that it’s all of these imperfections that will eventually lead to a more enlightened feminist populace.

One of the largest criticisms of SlutWalk is that it appears to be a movement for only white, privileged women; that there is no place within it for people of colour. While this criticism stems largely from the US, a place where we at SWTO had not considered in our initial rage toward Toronto Police Services, it is significant and needs to be {and, in fact, currently is} taken into account if SlutWalk is to move forward to be a more inclusive movement. With all the inner rage directed from some feminists toward others, it’s these discoveries that are promoting necessary discussion and hopefully a consensus toward a greater good. It’s one step back, two steps forward.

So while a new generation of feminists take to the streets and the web {SlutWalks and spinoffs, workshops and seminars, PSAs, tweets and blogging}, I do believe that we’re part of a solution. Not the solution, but a loud part of one. SlutWalk isn’t for everyone; it was never meant to be so, and I don’t believe that every movement should attempt to tick every feminist box. But it should be included as a significant space for those who have felt the sting of the word, whether physically or emotionally or both, and who have stepped forward to say, “Thank you, I now realize it was never my fault”.

Before SlutWalk, if you googled “slut”, results would have yielded the same old misogynist bullshit. Do it now, and top results will show you discussions of slut-shaming. I’d say that’s a pretty good step forward.

A screengrab from change.org. Why are “Women’s...

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:14:00 -0400

A screengrab from change.org.

Why are “Women’s Rights” different from “Human Rights”? The subtlety of language can really screw you.