What do Slut Walks have to do with street harassment?

Last month I attended the Manchester Slut Walk to protest against rape myths and victim blaming. Our point was to show the world that victims are being judged unfairly all the time and all around the world. By family, friends, the victims themselves, the general public and professionals such as police officers and judges. Amongst many other important things, they’re being judged on what they look like. There’s something new, a woman being judged on her appearance.

Photo taken by Kate Morrissey.

The general public believe the common rape victim must have been “slutty” but in reality the most common perpetrators of rape are partners. So, victims of rape are much more likely to be wearing indoor ‘lounge-y’ clothing or yummy sushi pyjamas rather than 'slutty' attire.

What about street harassment then? Apparently many men don’t realise how often women are effected by it. But if a man vocally objectifies a woman, she must be dressed in such a way to invite this behaviour. She must be dressed at least, a tinsy bit slutty. Therefore it’s what she wants, and it’s just a compliment anyway - so stop making such a big fuss.

I was in town with my best (male) friend last week and a man looked at him. He presumed the man was checking him out and went a bit mad, linking his arm around me to show the man he wasn’t gay, or interested, or whatever. Yet if a man shouts out something about our bodies and says he’d like to fuck “it”, we’re making a big deal over nothing?

I was walking along a main road in Salford with my sister on Saturday evening. I was wearing a long sleeved top, my scruffy jeans and had 3-day-old greasy hair. Two men on a motorbike shouted, most of it was inaudible but I managed to catch "look at the arse on that" as I crossed the road in front of them. On "THAT", see I'm not even a person, just a body part for them to look at. And I wasn't even wearing anything that made me look good and they still openly objectified me. Which goes to show it doesn't matter what we wear, whether it's "slutty" or not, men are always going to behave this way as long as it's encouraged by our media and culture.

Just to note, this doesn't happen to me very often but I know it happens to some women on a daily basis and they have no choice but to put up with it because it's "just the way things are."

Maybe he thought his mate would think he was super cool and “manly” or maybe he thought well hey, they do it on TV and in Nuts magazine so we’re normal and it's completely fine. It’s our entitlement because our culture says so. And woman are all sluts anyway.