What’s in a name? [TW: victim blaming, rape, slut shaming.]
A lot of things.
Slutwalk is vulgar. It slaps you in the face. Its whole purpose is to make you realize that those people that you so readily brush off as “sluts” are still people. They are still someone’s child, someone’s best friend, someone’s rock to lean on.
“ConsentFest,” to me and the friends who are helping me with this endeavor, doesn’t sound like a bad idea! It sounds great- a whole day devoted to the importance of consensual sex, and how rape is a bad thing. I mean, seriously, how could promoting education about consent be a bad thing?
However, it removes an integral part of why we’re doing this: “Slut.” As in, “slut shaming.” “Victim blaming.” These aren’t covered by the title “ConsentFest,” even though they’re some of the most important issues we’re dealing with.
Rape is horrible! But what is equally horrible is the idea that a woman’s reputation can be destroyed because someone else decided to abuse them. What is equally horrible is that rape is the one crime in which everyone’s first question is “how did the victim bring this on themselves? What did the victim do to deserve this?” These harsh realities, we felt, were completely brushed off by the name “ConsentFest,” and, when you’re having a rally, names are extremely important.
So, I hope our ConsentFest allies the best (though they seem to have given up, or at least deleted anyone on their page who expressed distaste in the name), but we are always going to be SlutWalk.
I’m a slut, so what?!
Jess
