Friday, July 15, 2011

With all due respect...

... to women, rights-activists and everyone else in general. I've been seeing references to this new movement called the 'SlutWalk' protesting that dressing should not and does not instigate rape. I came across this article here. It is exactly the kind of article and written in the way you'd expect an article addressing such an issue would be. I am neither supporting or opposing or debating or arguing what women should wear and where they shouldn't go.

But what caught my attention was this one phrase "women are eyed like meat". While this might or might not be true (again, I am _not_ debating/supporting/opposing), it got me wondering on how men are eyed?

Are we all, in the end, just another ATM in the wall?

2 comments:

cupped crusader said...

Every man has a murderer, rapist, molester or any other 'sinful' persona hidden in him and most morally sound men do not have to encounter these dark personae under normal circumstances. But there are guys out there, who have crossed an invisible line, who think raping and molesting is OK. How does any form of protest prevent these guys from committing the act? How could you possibly dictate to these men that dressing must not instigate them? SlutWalks are not aimed at these people then. It could be targeting those who think that dressing might instigate rape, but who themselves think rape is wrong (well meaning conservatives). Protesting against the notion these people carry does not obviously help prevent rape.

In short, these molesters and rapists can get turned on by a bunch of things and this does not exclude dressing. So the notion that dressing instigates rape is not entirely wrong and protesting against it doesn't lead to shit. I am personally not against the Slutwalk, but I sure do think that it is not well thought out.

Safari Al said...

Well said. It's probably a twisted case of attacking the symptom and not the cause - and in this case a possibly misguided symptom.

What brought this about was a comment - "You are dressing to get raped". What followed the comment, or the response might have not been right, but there is, as you said, no point in protesting against the comment.

Then again, neither am I against the SlutWalk - especially if there are pretty women in skimpy clothes. I am just going to watch and see what I can do to spice up my hypothetical and non-existent sex-life.