New Blog Post: Who Are You Calling A Slut?!: Speaking At Slutwalk 2012

“What is distinct is that we as womyn of colour and First Nations Womyn face the experience of having a negative meaning assigned to being female and to being of colour or of being First Nations (which is different because this is also profoundly related to land).

These experiences are further complicated by ability, class, status (as well as other social locations). Differently abled womyn have an additional layer of dehumanization, which often cloaks their experience of sexual violence at the hands of caregivers and the medical industrial complex. As well ideas like ‘freedom and self-determination’ too are privileges when you are not able to even dress yourself and subject to the decisions of others, as is the experience of some differently abled womyn. Non-status womyn and incarcerated womyn are provided no recourse in cases of violence and are faced with threat of deportation and/or continued violence. And cash poor womyn and girls voices are consistently devalued and silenced and cannot afford the ‘luxury’ of time to heal so are often forced to continue their labour post, as well as during sexual violence and harassment.

We must continually recognize that there is privilege and complexity that comes from claiming the word ‘slut’, ‘dressing like a slut’, knowing that for the vast majority of those womyn who are victimized through rape, sexual harassment, sexual violence and state sanctioned violence that this is impossible.”

[…] And we also must be duly careful not to conflate the idea that the only way to liberation is to be found in baring ones body. Womyn need to be just as free to cover their bodies, to wear the hijab without the white euro-western saviour rhetoric about ‘oppressedbrowngirls’. Put plainly, whether in a suit, a dress, in a hijab, in our homes – it is our race, gender, ability – our social locations and identifiers that ‘dehumanize’ us and justify violence. There is an enormous privilege that comes from the ability to change what you’re wearing or where you are walking and be able to find safety. The normalization of the disappearance, rape, torture and murder of Black Womyn, Womyn Of Colour & First Nations Womyn (who may and may not be cash poor, differently abled, possessing status etc.) is a part of the foundation of ‘modern’ Western-Euro science, in-justice, and government.