Happy Halloween! The LA Times has decided to celebrate the unholiest of holidays with a convoluted op-ed from conservative ideologue Charlotte Allen using Halloween as an excuse to bash both sluts and slutwalks. Because, you know, if you dress like a slut – whether to protest rape or to go to a Halloween party – it’s like you’re begging to be raped. Bad feminists! Bad Halloween revelers dressed as sexy nurses!
Here are a few of the more coherent passages from the piece:
[T]he SlutWalk feminists are in denial of a reality that is perfectly obvious to both the women who favor “sexy” for Halloween parties and (although perhaps not consciously) the SlutWalkers themselves. The reality is that men’s sexual responses are highly susceptible to visual stimuli, and women, who are also sexual beings, like to generate those stimuli by displaying as much of their attractive selves as social mores or their own personal moral codes permit. … It’s no wonder that SlutWalks have quickly outstripped (as it were) Take Back the Night as anti-rape protest. Women get another chance besides Halloween to dress up like prostitutes!
Just watch out, ladies, because dressing sexy is like waving a red flag in front of a bull, with your wallet hanging out!
[T]he vast majority of rape victims are under age 30 — that is, when women are at their peak of desirability. …
[T]he fact that rapists tend to target young women rather than grandmotherly types suggests that in the real rape culture (in contrast to the imaginary rape culture of some feminist ideology), the faux-hos of Halloween and their SlutWalker counterparts marching in their underwear — like a man walking at night with a bulging wallet — should be careful about where they flash their treasure.
So thank you, Charlotte Allen, for once again showing just why the Slutwalks are necessary in the first place.
Jill at Feministe has an excellent response to Allen’s nonsense, which points out that while, yes, younger women are more likely to be victims of rape,
Younger people are also the most likely group to be the victims of aggravated, non-sexual assault. … In fact, younger people are victimized by violent crime more often than older folks as a general rule. A person between the ages of 12 and 24 is six times more likely to be the victim of a robbery than a person over the age of 50; about half of people who report being the victims of aggravated assault are under the age of 25. Men are much more likely than women to be the victims of violent crime. In every age group, black people are the most likely to be the victims of violent crime.
So yes, it is true that younger women are more likely to be targeted for sexual assault than older women. But it’s not because of The Sexy — unless hormones and hard-ons are what are causing criminals to choose their (mostly male) targets for robbery and assault also.
So, really, the only really safe costuming strategy for young people on Halloween, regardless of gender, is to dress up like an old white lady. Might I suggest Dame Judi Dench?
“FYI, in the States, it’s generally agreed that calling someone a “retard” is rude and unnecessary.”
Depends on the context. We seem to have a more “sticks and stones” philosophy here.
Joanna, I think what you may be saying is that if you want to insult someone, you should have every right to insult them. Is that right? If so, I don’t think anyone is debating that. It’s the choice of the word “retard”, which associates those people who have lower IQs with being bad and lesser. Like when people use “that’s so gay” to mean that they don’t like something, and they demean every gay person in the process.
But I don’t know, I’m putting words in everybody’s mouths now, so please correct me if I’m misinterpreting anyone.
“Kids, don’t use the R word, it is totally gay” Colbert.
Viscaria, kind of I guess… Over here, those words have become so detached from their original meaning that “retarded” just means “stupid” and “gay” just means “lame”. I wouldn’t refer to a mentally disabled person as a retard though. That’s rude.
I do see where you’re coming from though. I was initially mindful about what I said around a gay friend of mine, but it turned out he didn’t give a crap and uses “gay” or “fag” more than I do lol. However, if a person was insulted by my use of language, I’d respect their request to not use it around them. It’s very rare that I’ve come across that though, and really I’ve been only called on it while communicating over the internet.
I think the only thing, that Irish people (in my observation) refrain from saying is the “N” word. Yeah, I can’t even bring myself to say it. I’m not sure why. I guess it’s that we’ve only ever had a very small black population that has immigrated here over the last ten or so years so I guess it never became detached from its meaning in any way.
Anyway, you probably all think we’re horrible people or something lol.
Haha, I don’t think anyone thinks that, Joanna. I just personally happen to be Canadian, so if I’m not scrupulously polite my head explodes. Lost a great-uncle that way.
/derail
Did you really just use the “my gay friend” excuse????
Lol Viscaria, yeah talk about a culture clash. Derail indeed. What were we originally talking about again?
I honestly don’t think being in Ireland has much to do with it, in the U.S. its not really different. The implication that mentally handicapped people are lesser still exists even if it’s been “so detached” from their meaning (which I doubt its that detached).
Hey David are my comments being moderated?
Huh, learn something new every day. But yeah, ’round these parts, it’s still too closely tied to it’s original meaning to be not-a-slur.
Sorry for the continuation of the derail, just felt the need to come back to what I started. 🙂
Oh wait nvm about the moderation comment. It moderated me because I used jumboficsh instead of jumbofish. XD
Joanna: Words will hurt you.
Imagine, for example, someone making reference to “bog-trotters”, or calling you a “pommy bastard”.
Words have power, and using words that are used to insult others (like “gay”, or “retard”) isn’t kind to the people who are included in the left-handed insult.
I’m not much of one for, “tone” arguments, but I do agree that using insults that slop onto other people isn’t a good thing.
I guess it’s hard to explain when you’re of a different culture. I understand your point but I never in my mind refer to the gay community whenever I use the word “fag”. It’s just a word. As is “bog trotter”. Except it’s actually “bogger”. We also use that word to describe country dwelling folk. They don’t find it offensive, they usually go “yup, I’m a total bogger. lol!”. It’s just how it is here.
I remember being in some part of Spain years ago and I observed that all the locals seemed grumpy all the time. It seemed like they were shouting angrily at each other all the time. But that’s just how they are. It’s just a cultural difference.
I will refrain from using slurs around here from now on, as I am the minority in this case. I really had no idea how taboo they were with you guys =/
Yes, fag has a different meaning, but the point stands. There are terms which have connotative aspects which make them hurtful, more hurtful than sticks and stones, because the wounds are persistent.
I’ll wager there are terms you’d not use, even in the most causal of circumstances, because they are potent insults, and can’t be used without that aspect being present.
“I’ll wager there are terms you’d not use, even in the most causal of circumstances, because they are potent insults, and can’t be used without that aspect being present.”
Um, well yes, there is a line obviously.
I’m sure that you’re much more enlightened and easygoing and terribly precious and whatnot than the rest of us here, but yes. Cut it the fuck out with the ableism and homophobia — it’s not “taboo” it’s assholish. Pretty much anything that gets regularly screamed at certain types of people while they are murdered and/or raped is a good slur to stay away from.
Or really, any word that has caused a middle school kid to suicide in the last month or two is probably a no-no.
Alright, take it easy. I’m sorry you guys. I meant no harm.
I’m a Brit who lives in the US and I’d like to point out that although the casual use of obscenities in general is more common in British English than in American English, the terms that would be considered offensive here are also offensive in the UK. It’s just that the UK lags far behind the US in terms of the idea that maybe it would be nice not to be offensive to gay people etc penetrating the cultural mainstream.
Granted that Ireland is not the UK, but I think it’s pretty close to, say, Scotland where I’m from in terms of how language is used.
Alright, sorry back for dogpiling, you just sounded a bit flip about something that’s really pretty serious, and it reminded me of a friend of mine who’s all like “lol, culture differences? I’m Irish*!” any time she acts like an ass on account of her privilege.
*she freaking grew up in Boston. -_-
@ Bagelsan – To be honest this is one of those things where I wish the UK would catch up with the US. Talking to my stepmother is a painful experience for this reason – it had to be explained to her that talking loudly about the “lezzies” outside the restaurant window and how shocked she was at their “flaunting” their behavior in public was Really Not OK in San Francisco. She was so confused that I honestly don’t think anyone had ever called her on it in an aggressive way before – my Dad would never make comments like that herself, but apparently he doesn’t call her out when she does other than in a very gentle, non-confrontational way.
I think most Americans already know not to get offended when a brit starts talking colloquially about “fags” like cigarettes, at least, or not to get specifically offended along gender lines at the use of “cunt” (which, btw, is definitely sexist and much worse in the US than the UK.)
See, I don’t think “cunt” actually is any less bad in the UK. It’s just that British culture is even worse than American culture about shaming women who call it out as being sexist.
I never want to jump all over people from other countries ’cause it’s not like being 100% American-centric is super charming either, and some places do deal with issues like race in pretty different ways, but I assume that words like “retard” aren’t magically harmless in other countries so much as that a cruel disregard for the feelings of non-neurotypical people is universal.
Lol. No, I never implied that it was my privilege to use slurs cos of where I am from. I was just explaining that is how it is over here. I won’t use them on this site anymore cos you guys are more serious about it though.