Sunday, May 08, 2011

Slut-Walk Protests

SlutWalk protests must be the new thing that bored people need to protest. As is stated in this article, a comment by a police officer has

"inspired a march in Toronto last month that drew more than 3,000 people, as well as SlutWalks since then in Dallas, Asheville, North Carolina, and Ottawa, Ontario."

Now it seems to me the original context of the quote by the officer wasn't really sanctifying the idea that raping sluts is acceptable in the remotest way. Supposedly the officer said something to the effect "that women should avoid dressing like 'sluts' to avoid being raped or victimized". So the article states the reason for their protests.
"The event is in protest of a culture that we think is too permissive when it comes to rape and sexual assault," said Siobhan Connors, 20, of Lynn, Massachusetts, another Boston organizer. "It's to bring awareness to the shame and degradation women still face for expressing their sexuality ... essentially for behaving in a healthy and sexual way."

Aside from the silly assumption that cops think it is OK to rape slutty women, perhaps we could see his comments in a different light. Would anyone deny that it might not be towards one's favor to flash a lot of high dollar cash in a public place and then walk down a dark alley. I mean really. No one would say it is OK to mug the guy with cash simply because he flashed it about.

Now of course one might say it is immoral to be arrogant and to be so self-centered, therefore he got his just desserts. It is simply being pompous and arrogant. So this flashing of cash behavior is in a different category. As we know from the quote from the article, sexuality has no moral dimension. So in other words, we have to grant their false premise, that being sexually immoral is healthy and normal, and that simple common sense advise, don't dress or behave in a way that might aggravate a potential situation, is bad. And if anyone disagrees, you're a mean spirited bigot. Why? Because the Slut-Paraders say so.

Another problem with this nonsensical argument is that everyone knows men are far more protective of women than women when it comes to rape. Lawyers know that when picking a jury pool in a rape case, the more women you have, the more likely they will think "slut". While the men are far more likely to think, "What if this were my daughter".

And of course there is the "self-righteous" argument. It is true that people may become Pharisaical. I have no doubt that when Jesus went to the tax-collectors and sinners, he was viewed as "unclean". Yet Jesus did offer the forgiveness of sins and called men to repentance. He was a holy man and called men to holiness (perhaps not the kind of holiness legalistic people desire, but I digress). So the Pharisaical argument may be true, it is not necessarily an argument that proves anything.

But in the end, this is showing a far deeper problem in our culture. We live in a culture that literally has no moral compass and is unable to think logically and clearly and reasonably. Please do not misunderstand. Rape is a crime that needs to be punished. But on what moral basis do these crowds protest "advise" from an officer when there's probably an abortion clinic just down the street that is murdering little children. Now there's something to protest.

1 comment:

MED said...

Good post, Howard. I agree with you completely. I had never heard of the Slut-Walk Protests until you mentioned it. It's interesting how our world views moral living. You hit it right on the head.