Back when Saturday Night Live was funny, Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtain did a bit called Point, Counterpoint in which the pair argued and tossed barbs while delivering the news with anchorperson false cheer and seriousness. The line made famous by this sketch is “Jane, you ignorant slut,” shot off casually by the in-character Akroyd (see video below).
Megan Gibson writes for Time about a new movement that is trying to re-brand the word slut, using it as the focal point of a campaign for consent; an anti-assault, anti-rape movement with demonstrations called SlutWalks, designed to raise awareness and generate conversation. The word and its brand are gaining attention, and that’s the point, but is it effective?
Can a word with such a negative connotation really be altered to have a positive, empowered meaning? Will women ever want to be referred to as sluts? I don’t think so.
The campaign is relying on the shock factor of using an unexpected word to generate attention, but I think its use only muddles and detracts from the message. People will be so hung up on the word, the demonstration’s participants’ wearing of “slutty” attire, the controversy surrounding the shock factor itself that we’ll forget the point entirely.
What was it this demonstration was about, anyway?
The thing is, Slutwalks are not a campaign just to rebrand a word. It’s a campaign in reaction to a statement by a POLICE OFFICER who said “if you don’t want to get raped, don’t dress like a slut.”
It’s meant to be shocking. Remember the adage “if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying enough attention?” I don’t think that as a movement, it will rebrand the word, but that’s not the original point. The original point of using it is to get people to pay attention to the crap that is happening right in front of them every day when people blame a rape victim and say “she was asking for it.” I know people that have been raped, and not a single one of them asked for it or deserved it.
As for the word, it’s all up to personal choice. If you don’t want to use the word slut, then don’t. I don’t, because it’s disrespectful and I don’t think anyone deserves to be called a slut or a whore.
And now I have to step out of the conversation because this whole topic pisses me off to the point where I cease to make any sense in communication.
@kraftykmay I’m really torn on the value of the effectiveness of this kind of “shock” or outrage strategy. It clearly got my attention, but it didn’t get me to the useful part of the conversation. That, in my opinion, is failure. I’m an advocate of generating conversation, but I think this campaign missed the mark. Seems as if you agree. 🙂
I agree with @kraftykmay. It’s not a very successful rebranding campaign, but I don’t think it was intended to be. It’s about saying that no matter how “slutty” she dresses, no woman deserved or is asking for rape.