[Anarchafeminists] Fwd: [feminist-fightback] Politics of Slutwalk: Reading group and discussion

[Mel Vegan]

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From: <feminist.fightback at gmail.com>
Date: 23 May 2011 20:29
Subject: [feminist-fightback] Politics of Slutwalk: Reading group and
discussion
To: feminist-fightback at lists.riseup.net


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Reading group and discussion on the politics of Slutwalk.
7-9pm 1st June, Bishopsgate Institute, Bishopsgate, London E1 (opposite
Liverpool St station)

On 11th June Slutwalk London are inviting women to participate in a march
against rape, which stresses that women should be free from fear of sexual
violence however they dress or choose to express their sexuality.
This march raises interesting questions and has provoked some important
critiques regarding the intersections of race, class and sexuality. The
possibility of reclaiming the word slut has been called into question, with
some women of colour feminists suggesting that this assumes a (white,
middle-class) position of relative power and privilege which marginalises
BME
women. Another, related, critique is that the right to free sexual
expression
promoted by the march in fact relates only to a very narrow definition of
sexuality.
One particularly important question is how Slutwalk will/ has been presented
and re-appropriated in the mainstream media, potentially hegemonising a
white
middle-class vision of feminism and silencing other forms of women’s
struggle
in the process.

We think that Slutwalk’s aim to show that ‘whatever we wear and wherever we
go, yes means yes and no means no’ is enormously important. Particularly
when
a senior Tory minister has just stated that rapes are distinguishable, and
therefore that some are more serious than others. This view is obviously
troubling, not least because it plays into the still wide spread assumption
that some women have some level of responsibility for being raped, and that
‘real’ rapes are those involving a high degree of physical force and
violence.

We would like, however, to use Slutwalk and the responses it has elicited as
an
opportunity to engage with the challenges of building an anti-racist
feminist
movement – one which recognises that women’s identities and experiences are
often constructed differently according to race, class and sexuality. This
means taking seriously the various critiques that have emerged, taking the
time
to discuss them and to consider how and/or if an intersectional feminist
politics can be made visible on the day of the march.

As a first step we will be meeting to discuss some of the most prominent
articles and critiques about Slutwalk (see below for a list of short
readings).
We will be contacting many other feminist, anti-racist and queer collectives
to
begin a dialogue on these questions which we hope will continue well after
the
march.

Everyone (including all genders) is welcome to come along to this initial
open
discussion on Wednesday 1st June, 7-9pm, Bishopsgate Institute, Bishopsgate
E1
(opposite Liverpool Street Station).

http://selftravels2010.livejournal.com/2497.html

http://shareorshelve.blogspot.com/2011/05/reclaim-lexis-continued-from-yesterday.html

http://tothecurb.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/slutwalk-a-stroll-through-white-supremacy/

http://somewhatofsomethingother.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/i-am-not-a-slut-so-i-didnt-go-to-slutwalk/

And a pod cast of debate featuring Slutwalk organisers:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qk11
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