Women, Action & the Media

Back in January, a police officer in Toronto advised women to prevent rape by not dressing like sluts. This sparked a massive outcry that quickly spread to cities all over the world. The phenomenon came to be known as SlutWalk. For day 6 of WAM!’s 16 Days of Action Against Gender Violence, we would like to showcase Joanna Chiu, one of the many individuals behind SlutWalks worldwide.

Admittedly the name can be off-putting, and SlutWalk has received numerous criticisms about the nature and usage of the word “slut.” There have also been many thoughtful criticisms about how race fits in to their discussion of gender violence and where women of color fit into the movement. In response to the criticism, and in part to this very troubling photo, SlutWalk Toronto issued a statement, part of which says:

• We want SlutWalks in general and SlutWalk Toronto to be a safer space for all women and people and we acknowledge that is not what is happening, with the above incident and with other issues around the messaging, construction and approaches used within many SlutWalks, and we need to be accountable to this. We are so sorry this is not a safer space for all people, all women and all survivors.

• We also hope to do what we can, with help from others, to foster a culture throughout SlutWalks internationally where racism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated, where all participants and supporters are willing to work to understand that discrimination is their business beyond and not limited to discrimination that they feel affects them directly as individuals. Some things we have in the works are toolkits, modifications to messaging, and helpful resources for organizers and supporters.

Whether you support them,disagree with them, or are still somewhere in the middle, it’s pretty safe to say that SlutWalks have opened a powerful dialogue about sexuality and the gender double-standard. As the Slutwalk NYC webpage proudly states:

No matter who you are
No matter where you work
No matter how you identify
No matter how you flirt
No matter what you wear
No matter whom you choose to love
No matter what you said before:

NO ONE has the right to touch you without your consent. SlutWalk NYC is part of a worldwide grassroots movement challenging rape culture, victim-blaming and slut-shaming, and working to end sexual and domestic violence.

In addition to supporting SlutWalk’s mission and leading the Media Outreach Team for SlutWalk NYC , Joanna Chiu has written blogs and articles about SlutWalk for publications like Herizons and WIMNs Voices. She has also written about rape culture as a contributing factor to depression on college campuses. Her work is an excellent example of how writers can lend their talents to causes they support. And her enthusiasm is contagious. As she puts it:

That is why I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to attend a SlutWalk event to just go. Even if you end up concluding that the event was trivial or exclusionary, your opinion will have greater credibility and impact if you can draw from your own observations.

In my first-hand report on SlutWalk Vancouver for the Georgia Straight, I noted that almost half of the walk participants were men, that the organizers used the word “feminist” with pride, and that the speakers addressed complex issues, such as the intersectionality of oppression and impacts of the word slut with nuance and careful consideration.

She’ll be the first to tell you not to take her “young, starry-eyed liberal feminist word for it”, so if you’re inspired or curious, maybe you should take Chiu’s advice and attend (or march in, or start) a SlutWalk in your city. Then you can write or blog about it and add your voice to the conversation as well.

In addition to her writing an activism, Joanna Chiu is also the founder of WAM! Vancouver. Check out their website, or follow them on Twitter @wamvancity if you want to show our Canadian WAM!mers some support.