In Toronto, Canada a few days ago, men and women put on a ‘Slut Walk’, wearing whatever they thought represented a slut: fish nets, tank tops, slilettos…They did this in protest of a policeman’s speech to a personal security class at York University on sexual assault and rape. According to Police Const. Michael Sanguinetti, “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”
He later apologized for his statement, but that doesn’t nullify his personal stance on the matter. It’s frightening to think that the very person who is meant to protect women from such situations actually considers it their fault. Of course there are precautions people can take (in any situation) but to take the blame from the perpetrator to the victim is NEVER the answer. Do offenders suddenly not have control over themselves?
There are other walks planned – one in Boston as well. I think this is an awesome idea and hope it spreads to more cities in the U.S. This mentality is still very much grounded in people’s minds and it needs to be quelled.
Here’s an interesting video with speaker Hanna Rosin, who discusses how women are surpassing men in many areas of professional life. It makes you think a little about the situation and how the world is changing. However, at the same time, it seems that all feminist type conversations always come back to men – relating women to men, etc.
Since I’ve blogged recently about how stinky guys are I thought I’d give some evidence through popular culture – since pop culture is supposed to represent our society best right? It caters to the masses after all.
Here’s my little segway into discussing both Disney princess movies and the female mindset here at A&M.
1. Belle from Beauty and the Beast has just turned down Gaston’s (the town hunk) hand in marriage because she isn’t going to settle. She’s the first Disney princess to read and she’s quite independent.
I found this video on YouTube, and besides being amused by how fast the guy is talking, I find he makes pretty similar arguments to the majority of people opposed to feminism, albeit he tries to be scientific.
I mostly want you to watch the video and think about it, but there are a couple of things I would like to comment on. First, the narrator has similar views to that one guy, David, who had asked me if I was a feminist ie: Feminism has changed from its inception to be a movement about female superiority. Personally, I have never considered feminism to be that way. That’s the negative connotation of it, just as when people ask if you’re religious – that question carries a lot more weight than simply wondering if you practice a religion.
Second, he states that feminism is: “Female supremacy, sexism and socialism bordering on fascism”. Now when I heard this I must confess I laughed because it’s so ridiculous. Fascism is Mussolini controlled Italy, Nazi Germany, Orwell’s 1984 – it’s a governing system under one ruler who suppresses society.
Supposedly, feminism isn’t a movement to help women but to undermine their choices to stay at home instead of work, have lower paying jobs, etc. Feminists advocate for how they want women to be.
Perhaps, but in some cases how is this a bad thing? It’s not forcing women to be a certain way, but to see how things could be, if they weren’t afraid to oppose the constraints society has placed on them. If it wasn’t for higher thinking individuals, archaic ways of thinking would still be ok, such as racism. Living in Texas, I’ve noticed that racism is still rampant, and it’s absolutely baffling to me, not to mention frightening. If it wasn’t for the Civil Rights movement who knows how bad things would be. It’s pushing for ideas that some might oppose that allows us to live better.
I understand that movements often get carried away, but just because ideologies have the ability to be distorted and misconstrued doesn’t nullify the positives of the idea. Extremists exist in every situation: religion, government, civil rights…but that doesn’t mean that we should denounce them all. We should be striving to reclaim the pureness of it.
Thirdly, it’s not about gender neutrality, but about gender equality. Men and women are different, duh, that’s not the problem.
I am involved in a women’s organization on campus that volunteers locally with the homeless shelter, etc as well as working with CARE:
CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. We place special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Women are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives.
Below are some videos that I find really inspiring and that show the practical reasons behind why females in less developed countries matter (when their culture so often says/treats them as though they do not) and should be given the opportunity to receive an education, start a business, wait for marriage, be respected…
Perceptions of Feminism 