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The #AmberRoseSlutWalk: Feminism as Public Celebration of Inchoate Rage

Posted on | October 4, 2015 | 52 Comments

 

Before attempting to describe Saturday’s event in Los Angeles — a tawdry carnival of celebrity-driven feminist lunacy — I must first remind you how, when and where the “Slut Walk” movement began.

In January 2011, a Toronto police official, Constable Michael Sanguinetti, gave a presentation on the topic of crime prevention at York University, during the course of which he said that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.” This incited a huge controversy and, although official apologies were issued, Canadian feminists refused to be placated or appeased. Among these implacable women was Heather Jarvis, a self-described “queer feminist activist,” who was then 25 and attending Guelph University. In an interview, she explained the idea behind the first Slut Walk:

Jarvis says an apology is simply not enough.
“We are still skewed toward victim-blaming,” she explained. “Most sexual assaults don’t happen to a woman in a short skirt by a stranger in an alleyway. We need (Toronto Police) to modify their education and training.”
After Jarvis connected online with York graduate student Sonya Barnett, they enlisted the help of three other women — Alyssa Teekah, Jeanette Janzen and Erika Jane Scholz — to organize the walk. The controversially named protest came from an “instinctual place,” Jarvis says, and should not deter women, or men, from supporting their cause.
“Reclaiming language is not new,” Jarvis said. “It can be very powerful. (Slut) is a word that is used day in and day out to damage us. Let’s use it to empower us.” . . .
“We need to say that blaming victims of sexual assault is not OK.”

Thus, the concept of women marching in deliberately provocative clothing and embracing the word “slut” had a specific origin, but was aimed generally at promoting certain feminist ideas — criticism of women’s sexual behavior is never permissible, and it is “blaming victims of sexual assault” to expect women to take reasonable precautions for their own safety. Feminists say it is misogyny to suggest that women “dressing like sluts” are at greater risk of rape. The first Slut Walk, in April 2011, was intended to make the point that women ought to be able to parade half-naked in the streets without fear.

That first march spawned imitations in many other cities — I covered the 2013 Slut Walk in Washington, D.C. — but this movement’s meaning and purpose has really never been very coherent. Constable Sanguinetti apologized immediately for his remark, and the protesters in Toronto weren’t saying anything that feminists hadn’t said before, going back to the “Take Back the Night” rallies of the late 1970s and ’80s.

What the “Slut Walk” movement has made obvious, really, are the inherent contradictions of liberal “pro sex” feminism, which celebrates irresponsible promiscuity as the measure of women’s “empowerment,” even while condemning men who react to such wanton behavior by regarding women as “sex objects.” Liberal feminists act as if men alone are to blame for the putrid decadence of contemporary sexual culture. Women can do whatever they want and never be held responsible for the consequences, whereas any man who says a word of criticism or disapproval is denounced by feminists as a hateful monster.

Thus we come to Saturday’s “Slut Walk” event in Los Angeles, which was organized by a hiphop celebrity named Amber Rose, whose B-list biography can be summarized in fewer than 140 characters:

Abby Sewell of the Los Angeles Times describes Saturday’s carnival:

In a scene that was half-red carpet paparazzi circus, half-political protest, several hundred people joined stripper turned model Amber Rose at Pershing Square on Saturday afternoon for an event dubbed SlutWalk.
The event was promoted as a way to express “outrage toward issues of sexual violence, gender inequality, derogatory labeling and victim blaming.” . . .
The mostly female crowd, some shirtless, others in costume and in various states of dress, carried signs declaring “My Clothes Are Not My Consent” and “The Way I Dress Does Not Mean Yes.”
Rose, bearing a sign that read “Strippers Have Feelings Too,” led the group on a brief march up and down Olive Street as curious tourists and shoppers, and a few hecklers, watched. . . .
Some of the attendees said they were drawn by the star power of Rose, who first came into the limelight in 2008 when she was dating rapper Kanye West.
Courtney Scott, 22, attended with her mother and sister from Los Alamitos after learning about the event on Rose’s Instagram. She said she wanted to spread the message against “slut shaming,” but also was excited to catch a glimpse of Rose.
“She’s really comfortable in who she is,” Scott said. “She’s not ashamed of her past.”
There were some parts of Rose’s past that she evidently wanted to avoid discussing Saturday, however.
A document distributed to media covering the event listed “approved topics” of coverage, including “Amber Rose Slut Walk LA,” “feminist platform,” “other projects/business ventures Amber is working on,” and “Amber’s fashion.”
It added the injunction: “No Questions regarding Kanye West or Kim Kardashian.”

A minor celebrity, whose chief claim to fame is that her ex-boyfriend is now involved with a Kardashian. wants the world to know that “Strippers Have Feelings Too.” It’s so . . . profound. Meanwhile, this happened:

Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos was ejected from the Amber Rose Slut Walk in Los Angeles [Saturday] afternoon. Slut Walkers could be heard yelling to police officers, “Thanks for taking out the trash!”?
Yiannopoulos was reporting from the event with a film crew, interviewing Rebel Media broadcaster and Canadian libertarian politician Lauren Southern about the feminist movement which protests against “rape culture” and “slut-shaming.”
Southern had just asked host Amber Rose whether she believed in rape culture. Event organizers immediately announced to Breitbart that they were calling law enforcement to have both journalists escorted from Pershing Square in downtown LA.
Protesters snatched and tore up Yiannopoulos’s placard, which read: “‘Rape Culture And Harry Potter’: Both Fantasy” in view of the police, who stood by while protesters bellowed and grabbed at a second placard that read, “Regret is not Rape.”?

You see asking questions — being skeptical of feminism’s truth-claims — is impermissible in 21st-century America. Are women really victims of “rape culture”? Is promiscuity actually “empowering” for women? You aren’t even allowed to ask these questions, and certainly you can’t expect feminists to provide coherent answers.

Feminism is never a dialogue. It is a lecture, a diatribe, a one-sided totalitarian propaganda of hatred, demonizing males as scapegoats who are always to blame for anything and everything.





 

Category: Sex Trouble

Comments

52 Responses to “The #AmberRoseSlutWalk: Feminism as Public Celebration of Inchoate Rage”

  1. Shawn Smith
    October 6th, 2015 @ 9:42 am

    She’s got the skin tone for a genuine redhead, but a natural red that bright is rare. I’m inclined towards fake.

  2. Durasim
    October 6th, 2015 @ 11:08 am

    Yiannopolous had the most accurate assessment:

    “It looked like a bunch of fat Barbies dressed by someone’s closeted 7-year-old nephew were melting in the sun to the sound of Destiny’s Child – that musical detail being the most acceptable part of whole venture. They say you should be able to dress how you want and not get raped, and I guess they were right because the only thing that got raped yesterday were my eyes.”

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2015/10/04/feminists-call-the-cops-when-i-show-up-heres-why/