http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/brisbane-sluts-take-to-the-streets-20110511-1ei34.html?from=smh_ft^ click for movie
The slutwalk movement is coming to Australia.
Women in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide are grabbing their fishnets, stilettos and leopard print to march for the right to wear what they like and behave how they want without harassment in four separate slutwalks.
Notices for the latest slutwalks went up on Facebook only on Sunday, but more than 3500 people had registered by yesterday for the protest marches Australia-wide.
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The slutwalks started with one small protest march in Toronto on April 3, when women marched in defiance of a local policeman who told 10 college students that: "I've been told I'm not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised."
Since then, slutwalking has gone global, with marches planned across North America and Europe.
The Brisbane march on May 28 is being organised by the Australian Sex Party's Queensland branch.
"I like to wear tops that show my cleavage and show off my ladies," says organiser Anne Watson. "If that makes me a slut, then I'm a slut."
"You don't have to dress up, but I expect a lot of people will," said Melbourne organiser Clem Bastow, who is also a critic at Fairfax sister site The Vine. Ms Bastow plans to dress up "as 1990s riot grrrl, with reclaimed words written on my arms ... I'm a big fan of dressing up in a sexy way".
With late May temperatures hovering in the low teens, Melbourne's slutwalk participants will be glad to know they don't have to be skimpily attired.
"I'll be rugged up in scarf and beanie," says Lauren Clair, another one of the organisers. "People can come however they like."
Ms Clair is keen to reclaim the word "slut" as a source of pride, not shame. "I've spent my entire life being judged for my appearance and sexuality. I'm sexual, I have sex, I enjoy sex. I'm not going to be ashamed."
"Slut shaming" seems to be increasing, says Ms Clair, and that's why so many women are responding to the call. "Look at the AFL culture", she says. "When influential people like Spider Everett and Kerri-Anne Kennerley say girls get what they deserve, what kind of message does that send out?"
But some women who support the cause hate the word "slut" and don't want to embrace it, says feminist Karen Pickering, who is also working on the Melbourne walk.
"It's a word I avoid, and I bristle when other people use it," she says.
"Some people tell us they're resistant to participating under that name. I ended up saying it was about the right to not be called a slut. But I do think that the more we use it, the more we empty it of its connotations."
Sydney slutwalk organiser Samadhi Arktoi agrees: "A slut is someone who enjoys sex, not someone whom it's OK to rape."
check out the hot piece in the yellow shirt for 'australian sex party'... zoing
For real though, this is a pretty serious issue... rape is abhorrent, and nobody deserves it regardless of what they wear... but on a similar note I wouldn't leave the house unattended without locking it, doing so will greatly increase the risk that stuff would get stolen... that's just the sort of society we live in these days.
The fact is that dressing and behaving provocatively in an enviroment where drugs and alcohol are involved can make you a target.
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