SlutWalk London: the radical notion that nobody deserves to be raped.

We want to make this year’s rally bigger and better than last year! We hope you will all join us in September to protest the silencing of our voices, the repression of our choices and the violence against our bodies. 

This year we will be back even louder than before!  

Watch this space for further details, our aims for 2012 and news!

Date to be announced.

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To celebrate the birthday of SlutWalk… It’s International Day Against Victim-Blaming!

From Toronto:

“On April 3rd, 2011 the first SlutWalk event took place in Toronto, Canada.

Inspired and influenced by powerful anti-violence efforts that came before us, SlutWalk aimed to fight against victim-blaming as a pervasive experience of sexual violence. It began in Toronto, Canada but quickly messages against victim-blaming spread to cities and communities around the world. We all want to see an end to victim-blaming. In the last year, we have seen amazing international collective action fighting against victim-blaming and fighting for respect and support of all survivors of sexual violence. In recognition of these efforts and many other ongoing actions, we mark April 3rd, 2012 as the first International Day Against Victim-Blaming.

We invite you to join an online day of action for the International Day Against Victim-Blaming. Start conversations, take a stand, and take up space on April 3rd to fight for our right to live free of violence and victim-blaming. Join us in our mission to spread the word that those who experience sexual violence are never the ones at fault.”

Here are some photos you can share on any social networking website! The wonderful folk at Toronto made them… share them far and wide! You can also join in on twitter by using the hashtags #EndVictimBlaming and #MyBodyIsNotAnInsult

We demand our bodies and all bodies be respected. Our worth as human beings is not determined by our sexuality.

No matter what I wear.
No matter what I look like.
No matter what my gender expression is.
No matter how much, how little, or what kind of sex I have.
No matter what I’ve done before.
No matter where I come from.
No matter how my body has been ‘devalued’ by others.
No matter what I’ve been called.
Because the victim of sexual violence is never at fault.

End Victim-Blaming! 
 

To avoid being victimised, don't dress like sluts? Really?

slut-shaming:

It may interest you to know that rape and dress sense aren’t linked at all.  

When most people are raped by someone they knew (85.7%, sometimes found to be higher, depending on study) then dressing differently or more conservatively isn’t a preventative measure at all. You’re speaking of the much much smaller number of stranger-rape cases, and in those cases, if you look at this study, you’ll realise that not only are clothing and your chances of getting raped not linked statistically what-so-ever (women, men, children and people of all gender identities are raped regardless of clothing) but “While people perceive dress to have an impact on who is assaulted, studies of rapists suggest that victim attire is not a significant factor. Instead, rapists look for signs of passiveness and submissiveness, which, studies suggest, are more likely to coincide with more body-concealing clothing.”    

“This conclusion is inconsistent with the common belief that how a woman dresses has an impact on whether she will be sexually harassed or sexually assaulted. Why then, do many people, including psychiatrists, assume that dress plays some part in who is a victim of sexual assaults? In particular, why do women believe this? Social scientists believe this is the result of the “just world hypothesis.”

The just world hypothesis and attribution error basically explains the reason this rape myth has been around for so long is because, as human beings, we like to believe we’re rational and that the world is logical, therefore we try to attribute certain characteristics to certain victims to believe that not only could we never be a victim of sexual assault ourselves, but that there was some logical reasoning behind what happened. This is really a defence mechanism. No one deserves rape, no one brought it upon themselves - rape only happens because there is a rapist in the room. 

The basis of SlutWalk is against victim blaming and slut shaming – it’s about shifting the focus from the victim to the perpetrator. Rape is a crime, cleavage is not. 

Telling women how to dress is really a flimsy band-aid over the problem, and one that doesn’t actually statistically or logically make sense. As a society we need to reject this band-aid and focus on real threat management. 

(Looking at structural violence and sexism, the objectification rather than celebration of sexuality within society, education systems which don’t have healthy and open dialogue on issues of consent, relationships and abuse are good places to start so we can start to pave our way to a consent culture.)
 
“When you shame women who dress “too slutty”, guess what you’re doing? You’re perpetuating a culture that blames victims of sexual assault and rape. You’re basically saying that if that woman were to be raped, well, she was kinda asking for it. YOU are the reason why rapists target those women: because you make it easier for them to get away with a horrible fucking crime. Rape is a fucking crime; cleavage isn’t.”

SlutWalk Explained: The Name, The Aims, The Facts.  

This is by the amazing Aimee Claire, from the SlutWalk London Team.