Monday 30 April 2012

Slut pride

 For a few weeks now CNN has been following a rape case in South Africa involving a mentally impaired 17 year old girl raped by 7 men aged 13- 19. They recorded their despicable acts and in a matter of days the video had gone viral, almost every student in the secondary schools around Soweto had a copy. During an interview with her mother, she stated that this wasn't the first case she had reported to social workers, apparently, she had been lured into a thick bush by a man who promised her apples but raped her instead months before this time.

CNN helped spark some global rage and in a matter of days Nigerian radio stations were talking about it and mostly focused on how to prevent rape. There were many suggestions from the outright silly, wearing panties that had 'I am HIV positive' and telling the rapist you had HIV just to scare him off to kick boxing inspired moves, kicking the rapist in his groin area.

A random study showed that more rape cases are reported on university campuses so they try to organize rape seminars frequently where they talk about preventing, reporting and what to do after a rape incident.
At one of these seminars in January 2011 organized by York University Toronto, Canada a police officer, Michael Sanguinetti suggested that to avoid rape girls should avoid "dressing like sluts". Women and men across the city erupted in protest marches to remind everyone that blaming sexual violence on the victim for wearing provocative clothing is ignorant and dangerous . The turn out was massive, 'slut walkers' as they are now known were carrying placards that read "My dress does not mean yes", "sluts pay taxes" and "Slut pride"

                                                  Slut walk Toronto
 After a successful walk in Toronto, other Canadian and American cities took to the streets ( there are plans to move to Sweden, India and South Africa), and these were more daring than the first walk with girls (and even the men) showing up in revealing outfits!
                                                         Slut walk New York

You can check their website http://www.slutwalktoronto.com/ for more details and to see if there's a slut walk in a town near you.

What are your thoughts on these protests? Do you think they have a point? What are your thoughts on having this walk in Lagos?

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