What is SlutWalk London doing lining up behind Julian Assange?
The group's statement is a self-contradictory trainwreck that co-opts its followers into a cause they never signed up for
Sarah Ditum
guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 September 2012 05.05 EDT
Oh dear, SlutWalk London. On Saturday you're marshalling crowds of women in fishnets and bras to chant "my dress is not a yes" and promoting petitions insisting that the Home Office should prosecute rapists. Come Tuesday, you're taking to Twitter to issue statements objecting to the extradition of Julian Assange to face rape charges in Sweden. Rapists should be prosecuted, but according to SlutWalk London, the fact that many who are accused of rape ultimately aren't convicted means that this particular accused rapist shouldn't be subject to due process. It's an awkward position to adopt, and the most awkward thing of all is the way it conscripts those who joined the march to a cause that was never part of the prospectus.
I've squinted at the statement, lurched back and forth at my monitor, and made myself boss-eyed in the hope that the statement is the literary equivalent of a Magic Eye picture: looks like a nonsensical smear on first glimpse, eventually resolves into glorious meaning. I'm going to save you some time here. Don't bother with any of that, because the statement really is nothing but a self-contradictory trainwreck. SlutWalk Toronto (the mother of all SlutWalks) has already discreetly expressed its concern about the London branch's statement, again via Twitter ...
And while it can't do any good, it can certainly do plenty of harm. Anyone who's ever had a vague feeling that all-out-with-our-tits-out is flawed as an anti-sexual violence strategy could point to this as evidence of SlutWalk's lack of coherence – and no one who's ill-disposed to a cause is likely to distinguish London's organisers from all the SlutWalks worldwide making a noise for women's right not to be assaulted.
At the same time, SlutWalk London has inadvertently lined itself (and its unwitting supporters) up with an unappealing gaggle of rape apologists and victim blamers. It's all very well for the statement to stress "We are not saying the women lied or that they should not get justice," but lots of people who support Assange have said that women lie. If an anti-rape campaign must intervene on this case at all, surely it should be addressing those grotesque statements, not condoning the position of those who made them ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/28/slutwalk-london-julian-assange?newsfeed=true
