Getting Past The Word 'Slut'

I am a black woman and I support Slut Walk.

I feel the need to say this because, as has happened many times before, the voices of a few from the "community" so easily get taken for the voices of all. For all the time black people spend trying to convince everyone else that we are not a monolith, we need to remind ourselves of that as well.

I get why some black women have spoken out and voiced their concerns about Slut Walk. Their critiques have echoed the many previous issues that black women, and women of color in general, have had with the feminist movement at large since its inception. The concerns raised around privilege, narrowness of vision and exclusion are more than valid.

I don't think that's what we have here, however.

This is not about black women but about women in general. And speaking only for myself, my blackness has never trumped my woman-ness. I am a woman first. Black second. And as such I can only feel pride when women of all colors and backgrounds come together and take a stand against violence. Because sexual violence is one issue that affects us all. It strikes freely and willingly. It cuts across every boundary you can imagine. It pays no mind whatsoever to race, age, or class.

Get past the word "slut."

This is not, nor has it ever been, about a proposed reappropriation of the word 'slut'. It's about putting the spotlight on a culture that makes acts of sexual violence against women not only commonplace but actually accepted.

Yes, "slut" is an emotionally charged word.

No, it's not a word I particularly like or would elect to be called either.

But this is the precise reason Slut Walk has been so effective. The word makes you pay attention. The word makes you get angry. The word gets you to actually do something.

I'm not saying that this is a perfect movement. I'm not saying there aren't some inherent problems or faulty logic within it. But I don't think that's a reason to sit this one out.

Flawed as these women, and indeed any human being, may be, at least they're doing something.

 

Follow Desiree Moodie on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DesireeAllDay

Comments

[Nehemiah53]

08:20 PM on 10/09/2011

Serious, strong and concern black women do not waste time on a feminist trip looking for every opportunity to throw a axe at every male with good intention who make a mistake. Strong, serious and concern black are like my grandmother, mother, sister and wife who I love and respect, they work hard, teach, love not hate and make the necessary sacrifice to raise their daughters to be strong, responsible women and mothers, they raise their sons to be strong and responsible men and good fathers. And as my wife said one day to my sons I want men not punks! that's a strong, loving, well balance, and successful woman.

[Victoria Coats]

03:04 PM on 10/08/2011

... If you want to support SlutWalk, that is your decision and I'm grateful that you've been courageous to share it on a public platform, but let's be careful not to justify it using precisely the coded language that has dominated decidedly white, moneyed, U.S. feminist discourses before. 'Women in general' are diverse just as black people are diverse, and we owe it to ourselves to construct a women's movement that is made up of the varied experiences and histories of all women, with concerted attention to those have been historically marginalized.

[frankland99]

11:23 AM on 10/12/2011

"the coded language that has dominated decidedly white, moneyed, U.S. feminist discourses ".

You mean those white moneyed rap songs and videos that disrespectfully portray black women as sexual objects (and worse)? yes you have a point. I agree...

[Victoria Coats]

03:04 PM on 10/08/2011

Thank you for writing this piece. I appreciate you pointing out the importance of black people speaking out from our diverse standpoints. However, I find the way that your article is framed to feed into the troublesome notions that black feminism and women of color have been working to change.

To say 'this is not about black women but about women in general,' you are at once absorbing whatever particular concerns may affect black women into those of 'women in general' and simultaneously implying that 'women in general' does not *really* include black women. To say you are a woman first and black second is to convey an unrealistically strict identity politics that does not allow for the necessary intersections that inform everyday life. Personally, I don't believe I'm either black first or a woman first; I'm a black woman, and that carries with it specific experiences that cannot be subsumed under the categories of either 'black' or 'woman'. To say that sexual violence 'pays no mind whatsoever to race, age, or class' is simply not true. Sexual violence is not, and has not historically been, visited upon women of all ages, races, and classes in the same ways. This is a vital thing to remember, and this is why it becomes important remember things such as race, age, class, ability, and regional origin, when discussing most issues, sexual violence not excluded...

[Virgil Freeman]

10:58 PM on 10/09/2011

I would like to inform you that sexual violence is not and has not historically been visited upon men and women of other races, and classes in the same as visited upon black men and women! and that's the un speakable fact.