FAQs, Examples of Blaming & Shaming, & General Links

A. Definitions

  1. Victim-blaming: when the victims of sexual assault are explicitly or implicitly blamed for their own assault (for example, saying that a woman should have expected to be raped if she wore a short skirt, although victim-blaming is often much more subtle). This wrongfully shifts the burden of prevention from the perpetrator onto the victim.
  2. Slut-shaming: when people, especially women-identified people, are made to feel shamed and guilty because of their actual or imagined sexual proclivities. Labels like “slut” stigmatize and dehumanize women, making it easier for society and the legal system to turn a blind eye to victims, make excuses for violence, and deny them justice. The double standard whereby men are often praised for having lots of sex while women are condemned for it is an example of slut-shaming.
  3. Slut: a pejorative originally meaning “a dirty, untidy, or slovenly woman.” “Slut” is used not only to disparage women for being (or appearing to be) sexually promiscuous, but also as a tool of kyriarchal oppression, justifying sexual violence and positioning some people as less deserving of respect and safety than others. There are many derogatory terms like “slut” such as “ho,” “puta,” “sharmuta,” and “slapper.” Some of these pejoratives are used to oppress some groups more than others. SlutWalk aims to reclaim “slut” - see FAQ C2.
  4. Consent: an active, non-coercive, continual agreement to engage in sexual activity. Consent is not silence, agreeing to sex after being pressured into it, or getting a “yes” from someone while their judgment is impaired by substance use - the only thing that counts as consent is an enthusiastic “yes.” Consent can be revoked at any time, by anybody, for any reason. Only human adults can give consent.
  5. Sex [act]: any consensual act between two or more individuals for the purpose of sexual pleasure. See this helpful flowchart.
  6. Sexual assault: violence of a sexual nature committed by individuals against others, or any sexual act committed without consent.
  7. Rape: sexual assault involving penetration.
  8. Sex [classification]: a set of biological and physiological characteristics, such as anatomy, chromosomes, and hormones. Sexes include female, male, and intersex. Sex is not a binary system, i.e., there are not just two sexes.
  9. Gender: how one identifies and expresses oneself (often in relation to their assigned sex).Gender is both socially constructed and psychologically influenced. In most societies, genders prescribe norms such as occupations, behaviors, appearances, and power dynamics. As with sex, there are not just two genders - indeed, it can be said that there are as many genders as there are people. Individuals whose assigned sexes correspond to their gender identities are cisgender. Individuals whose assigned sexes do not correspond to their gender identities and/or who are outside the gender binary may define themselves in terms of gender identities such as transgender, genderqueer, genderless, polygender, or genderfluid.
  10. Sexual orientation: one’s enduring sexual attraction towards or preference for particular genders, sexes, or sexual activities.
  11. Queer: an umbrella term inclusive of all sex and gender minorities, including individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, and intersex. “Queer” is a reclaimed term in the same vein as “slut,” so the choice to identify as queer is an individual decision (see question C2).
  12. Sex positivity: an attitude towards human sexuality that embraces, accepts, and legitimizes all forms of consensual sexual activity and all sexual orientations and identities (e.g., kink, celibacy, group sex, sexual monogamy, etc.).
  13. Oppression: put simply, prejudice plus power. Oppression is one group unjustly using its power over another group to subordinate and exploit them. Oppression is institutionalized when people in positions of authority act with the purpose and/or effect of oppressing. Oppression takes many forms, such as withholding economic opportunities, creating barriers to suffrage, denying legal protections from housing discrimination, and physical and sexual assault.
  14. Privilege: in a sociological context, higher social, political, and/or economic status for one group at the expense of another group. Often, members of the privileged group take their privilege for granted to the extent that they’re unaware of it. Examples include white privilege and male privilege. Read “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh for more discussion of white privilege.
  15. Patriarchy: a system of oppression in which men hold power and privilege over women, who are expected to be subordinate to men.
  16. Kyriarchy: an expansion of patriarchy, describing multiple interconnected and interacting systems of oppression, including but not limited to ableism, ageism, cissexism, classism, heterosexism, racism, sexism, and sizeism. More information on patriarchy and kyriarchy can be found here.
  17. Rape culture: a culture in which sexual violence is common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media condone, normalize, excuse, or tolerate sexual violence. More information on rape culture can be found here.
  18. Derailing: denying, dismissing, or trivializing privilege, oppression, and the experiences of marginalized groups using fallacies such as personal attacks, emotion, and distraction. An example of derailing is attempting to counter critiques of victim-blaming and slut-shaming by invoking false rape accusation. More information on derailing can be found here.

B. Victim-blaming

  1. Doesn’t one’s attire make one more likely to be a victim of sexual violence?
    Appearances of weakness or vulnerability can make someone a greater target. Clothing, to the extent that it shows skin, is not a factor in this. Most rapists report not remembering what their victim was wearing. A Federal Commission on Crime of Violence Study found that only 4.4% of all reported rapes involved provocative behavior on the part of the victim, compared with murder cases in which case 22% involved provocative behavior. The notion that rape is sex, or about sex, is also a common misconception. Rape is a violent act about power, dominance, and humiliation. The elderly get raped, persons with disabilities get raped, children get raped, men get raped - is clothing a factor there? 46% of rapes occur in a residence, often the victim’s own home, and it’s often committed by people the victim knew and trusted - how is clothing a factor there, either? The idea that attire provokes assault is fundamentally irrational     because sexual assault isn’t a crime of opportunity. It generally involves a tremendous amount of planning and risk. Most men - rapists included - are not rape robots who instantly attack at the sight of flesh. They stalk, study, and often groom their victims for great lengths of time prior to the assault.
  2. Don’t we all have an individual responsibility to prevent sexual violence?
    We’re all about     individual responsibility in preventing sexual assault and rape - the kind of responsibility involved in making a conscious choice not to commit sexual assault and rape. Humans, men included, are masters of their own actions, capable of free choice (those who are not due to mental illness, traumatic brain injury, etc., are the exception to this; it is the duty of the state to help them and protect society from them), not slaves to their carnal instincts. To say otherwise is infantilizing and degrading. Furthermore, the kinds of “individual responsibilities” that potential victims of sexual assault are asked to take are largely ineffective at preventing sexual violence (see FAQ B1). Even if potential victims do prevent their own victimization, they do not prevent their would-be perpetrator from finding someone else to victimize. 
  3. If you walk down a scary alley at night waving wads of cash, you should expect to get mugged! Likewise women who show skin should expect to get raped! Right?
    No. Women’s bodies are not property.     But for the sake of argument - if your property is stolen or you are non-sexually assaulted, the court will not deny your ability to press charges because of/commute the perpetrator’s sentence because of/allow testimony based on your actions or the circumstances. “They had it coming” is not an effective defense in murder cases. In fact, if you’re a victim of violence because of any of a number of particular aspects of your identity (chosen or not), other than sexuality or attire, the perpetrator will be punished even more heavily because it’s considered a hate crime. With sexual violence, if you’re even perceived to be “slutty,” the perpetrator will be punished less. Our research into sexual violence suggests that attire actually doesn’t provoke sexual violence (see FAQ B1).
  4. What is the just-world fallacy and how does it relate to victim-blaming?
    Put simply, you want the world to be fair, so you pretend it is. You rationalize sexual violence by blaming the victim - if she weren’t such a slut, she never would have been raped. You create a buffer of fiction to distance yourself from sexual violence. You give yourself a false sense of security. You always dress modestly and behave properly - something so horrific could never happen to you. More information here.
  5. What’s wrong with telling women how to protect themselves?
    Empowering potential victims to protect themselves is valuable, through sensible means like learning a martial art, carrying a weapon, staying in groups, etc. The problem is that Western society has become so obsessed with self-defense that we penalize victims for not taking precautions. Ultimately, the only people who can truly “prevent” rape are the individuals committing it. If someone’s set on raping you, wearing an extra layer of clothing isn’t going to stop them.
  6. What’s are the consequences of victim-blaming?
    Rapists get off because the defense can point to the victim’s short skirt. Victim-blaming compounds the psychological trauma experienced by survivors. By using fear to dictate behavior, and shame to castigate defiance, the patriarchy is able to control women, their sexuality, and their bodies.
  7. Aren’t false rape allegations the real problem?
    No. Only about 5.9% of rape allegations brought to police are found to be fabricated. Upon consideration of the estimate that 54% of sexual assaults are not reported to police, this figure becomes even less significant. Fixating on false rape allegation supports the paradigm that people who come forward about sexual assault are lying, and this paradigm facilitates victim-blaming and slut-shaming.

C. Slut-shaming

  1. How do the issues of victim-blaming and slut-shaming intersect?
    SlutWalk isn’t just about victim-blaming. “Slut” is much more than just an image or a mascot. Many detractors of SlutWalk have said expressed sentiments such as, “I don’t like the message you’re sending that women who get raped are all sluts” or “I don’t like the implication that women who dress in fishnets and corsets are all sluts.” Sentiments like these this imply that being a “slut” (whether that’s in how much sex you have, how many partners you have it with, how you dress, your attitude, etc.) is negative and undesirable. That is slut-shaming. Many SlutWalk participants     identify as sluts. Victim-blaming and slut-shaming intersect in many ways, especially in how dehumanizing victims with labels like “slut” allows society to turn a blind eye to their suffering.
  2. You want to “reclaim” the word slut? To mean what? How can you reclaim something you never had in the first place?
    Reappropriating/reclaiming “slut” is not the goal of SlutWalk - ending victim-blaming and slut-shaming is. Reappropriation is one of many viable tactics; a means to an end. We want to reappropriate “slut” as a positive term for a person of any gender who has and enjoys frequent sex, especially with multiple partners.     Reappropriating “slut” serves three primary functions: it takes away the word’s power to do harm as a pejorative (one of the best ways to fight hate is to embrace and disarm the words employed by the haters); provides a sex-positive term for women, few of which exist (like “stud” is for men - many women find that reclaiming “slut” gives them a voice that they have lacked in similar movements); and allows “sluts” to identify as part of a cohesive group for political representation. A list of examples of reappropriated words can be found here. Reappropriation is not the only way to fight oppression. It isn’t even the best way. We don’t claim it is. SlutWalk would fail without the invaluable contributions of other protests like Take Back the Night, as well as education and legal reform. Not all women will want to reclaim “slut” for themselves, but we hope they will support their sisters who do. As with any reappropriated word, you should never use “slut” without explicit permission from the subject first, and that permission can be revoked at any time.
  3. Is SlutWalk just for women or “sluts”? Do participants have to be dressed as “sluts”?
    Everyone - allies included - is welcome and encouraged to attend SlutWalk. Victim-blaming and slut-shaming oppress all people, regardless of gender, sexuality, or attire. Dress as you please, whether it’s in a corset and fishnets or sweatpants and a t-shirt.
  4. Does SlutWalk promote being a “slut”?
    We’re not “promoting” being a slut, nor are we suggesting people show skin or have lots of sex. We’re promoting people minding their own business. We’re saying that having sex is a personal choice – not mine, not yours, not the media’s, not the state’s – and those who choose to have sex deserve to be respected.
  5. Does SlutWalk disrespect women?
    SlutWalk is not disrespecting women, and “sluts” are not disrespecting themselves or their bodies by being true to themselves and the world. The rapists, the victim-blamers who excuse the rape, and the slut-shamers who say or imply they live a degrading lifestyle – they’re doing the disrespecting.
  6. Why do we need a movement for “sluts”? What about the people who aren’t slut-shamed for how they behave or dress?
    An analogy to the queer movement - people look at gay pride parades and say, “why do we need gay pride parades?     Do gay pride parades imply that it’s better to be gay than straight? Why can’t we have straight pride parades?” The answer is that every street of every city of every day of every year is a straight pride parade. Likewise, on August 4th, every other street in Seattle will be MonogamyWalk, because “sluts,” especially women, are stigmatized, dehumanized, and denied justice in assault cases.

D. Politics, culture, and the War on Women

  1. What are the policy positions espoused by SlutWalk Seattle?
    SlutWalk Seattle’s policy positions may be viewed here.
  2. Who and what are the targets of SlutWalk Seattle?
    SlutWalk targets the institutions and cultural norms and values that perpetuate victim-blaming and slut-shaming, including legislatures, courts, law enforcement, schools, the media, and the public.
  3. What perpetuates patriarchy, kyriarchy, and rape culture?
    Patriarchy, kyriarchy, and rape culture are perpetuated by kyriarchal slurs (e.g., faggot, retard), trivialization of violence, not emphasizing consent, making excuses for sexual violence (e.g., “men can’t control themselves and it’s all biological”), colonialism and ethnocentrism, the commodification of sex (e.g., by believing that buying a woman dinner or supporting a wife entitles a man to sex) viewing rape as an act of sex rather than an act of violence, referring to rape as sex (especially “sex” involving coercion and manipulation), fixation on and overstatement of false rape accusation (see B7), the “nice guy” myth, saying that people ask to be assaulted, sex negativity, exclusive and divisive movements, objectifying women, enforcing gender roles, essentialism, restricting access to reproductive health care (e.g., abortion and contraception), sexualizing children, ineffective sex education, and associating sex and violence in mainstream media, associating sex and violence in advertising, and associating sex and violence in pornography.
  4. What protesting activities are legal and illegal?
    Protected activities include holding signs, leafleting, drumming, dancing, singing, chanting, marching, standing still in a group, and approaching pedestrians on a public sidewalk with leaflets, newspapers, petitions, and solicitations for donations. Illegal activities include blocking street traffic, blocking pedestrian right of way, harassing or accosting passers-by, inciting a crowd to imminent violence or illegal activity, entering or remaining on other property after being informed that you are not welcome, violence against any person, and destruction of property. Possibly illegal activities include resisting arrest or obstructing an officer, fastening signs to public property (other than to bulletin boards generally open for posting information), littering, and using excessive noise. Points taken from here and here.

E. Victim-blaming, slut-shaming, and rape culture in the news

F. General links and commentary

Feel free to use all or part of this page, but please give us credit. This page is updated frequently so check back often. Last update was 5.18.12. Have a suggestion for an FAQ, an example of victim-blaming and/or slut-shaming in the news, or an informative link? Email us!