Review: Slutwalk Cardiff

Postiwyd gan dirty o Caerdydd - Cyhoeddwyd ar 06/06/2011 am 15:10
16 sylwadau » - Tagiwyd fel Diwylliant, Pobl, Materion Cyfoes

Sub-Ed Note: I hope that after 2000 articles, you're aware that views expressed in articles on theSprout are those of the author and are not necessarily those of theSprout.

Slutwalk Cardiff, is the regional Welsh demonstration and march of the Slutwalk movement, a movement aimed at tackling misogyny in society and its effects e.g. rape, sexual violence and ‘victim blaming’.

The Facebook event page outlined an itinerary of the day (which is now lost into the oblivion of cyberspace) explaining the day’s events, ending promptly at around noon. Given that it was planned to begin at ten in the morning, two hours is a perfectly legitimate time for a demonstration.

People began to assemble outside the Museum on the lawns near the fountains, along with them a rainbow of placards with memorable slogans like “My little black dress does not mean rape” and such.

The majority of the demonstrators fit the stereotypes of feminism, which is unsurprising as Slutwalk has been criticised for being “too white” and aimed at students; not reaching out to non-white feminists and people older than students to become involved. A recent article and blogpost posted by Aura Blogando provided evidence for this, but the beef between womanism (a feminist movement specifically dealing with women of colour) and feminism (traditionally seen as too Caucasian-based). To put it short, it’s like a massive on-going fight between Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple and Germaine Greer, of The Female Eunuch. What was specifically interesting was that Women’s Aid Cymru came out in full support of the event, whereas none of the BME Women’s Aids came out for it. Ooh, tension.

The Socialist Workers’ Party was there handing out signs that fitted in more with the main points of this demonstration, although there existed a feeling that perhaps many of these people had neglected to understand the real point of Slutwalk. Lots of it was just university students in revealing clothes with signs saying they’re “against rape”. Of course they’re against rape, who is going to wave a sign around promoting rape? Many men walking past responded with confusion with such gems being heard as “I’m not rape, and not ALL men are rapists!”.

Slutwalk started to feel like one of those things that’s better on paper than demonstrated in real life, but nonetheless, at ten prompt we commenced the demonstration route. ..that went down Kingsway, by the castle, a left down St Mary’s Street, a left up the street with Poundland on it and finished at the church by Cardiff Market. We made it there by around twenty minutes past ten, so much for the two hours that were promised!
Everyone assembled and speakers gave various hearty speeches on abstract concepts like womanhood, before an ex-Assembly member hijacked the megaphone. Her name escapes me, but I can assure you she brought nothing fresh to the table. I scratched the side of my face absent mindedly during this whole spectacle when I noticed a girl with a large swastika tattoo on her foot. Oh lord, a swastika? It wasn’t a traditional Hindu/Buddhist/Jainist one assembled from dots or with nature imagery, or with any of the other characteristics. Women’s rights, yes, Nazism? No.

Everything was over by a quarter to eleven. An hour and a quarter short of our promised two hours. To put it short, Cardiff Slutwalk was a massive embarrassment that ranks up there with Cardiff Feminist Network’s anti-Hooters campaign. While the sentiment and feelings behind it were genuine, with anything like this tension will emerge, people will be misunderstood and blown out of proportion.

Organisations » Cardiff Women's Aid

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16 Comments – Postiwch sylw

CeefaxOfLife

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 6th June 2011 - 15:18pm

I know this is meant to be a serious discussion but when I clicked on the Womanism link the advert on the page was for Birkenstocks. LOLZ.

Stormer007

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 7th June 2011 - 11:43am

I can't help but feel like you would have done a far better job at giving a speech than any of the other women who went up there. You have such insight and I praise you enormously for it! Thank for a great article. I hope you're not too disappointed with the lack of result this "demostration" produced.

beepert

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 7th June 2011 - 18:18pm

You call this an article?? There are numerous mistakes, and many downright lies. Lets sort them out, top to bottom.

Firstly, the slogan was not “My little black dress does not mean rape”, it was “My little black dress does not mean yes”.

Secondly, we did not state that the march would be 'ending promptly at around noon'. We said we would definitely be finished BY noon, which is different.

Thirdly, men and women of colour, older women, and children all attended our march. We weren't all 'white students'. Furthermore, Aura Blogando's blog did not 'provide evidence', it was a racist rant that claimed that SlutWalkers were 'white supremacists'.

'Lots of it was just university students in revealing clothes' - actually, I only counted about two people in revealing clothes. A look at any of the pictures will prove that.

'at ten prompt we commenced the demonstration route.' - wrong again. We left at at least quarter past.

'“I’m not rape, and not ALL men are rapists!” - you either have a hearing problem, or you are lying. Again.

There were no 'speeches on abstract concepts like womanhood'. The speeches concerned victim-blaming. Nobody talked about 'abstract concepts' at all.

'an ex-Assembly member hijacked the megaphone'. She did not. Her speech was planned. It was also engaging, thoughtful and moving.

'Women’s rights, yes, Nazism? No.' What sensationalist rubbish. If a girl DID have a swastika tattoo (which I doubt, seeing as you've fabricated most of your account of the march), then she is vile and definitely unwelcome in our movement. But do not linguistically align 'women's rights' and 'nazism' in a broader sense.

What an incredibly irresponsible article.

Sam (Sub-Editor)

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 8th June 2011 - 09:07am

OK apologies first.

I'm not online 24 hours, so comments will take a while to go. Regards your comment, the language and tone used is different to what we mainly get so I consulted with my superiors. I've removed some words as I'm sure you've seen. We have not refused to publish it.

Regards the errors of the titles, dirty did not change them I did and this is my fault. In the first instance they should have been in italics even before checking the accuracy. I don't know why this didn't happened.

Regards the "tetchy" disclaimer, this should gave gone live with it in the first place, again this is my fault. I do not regard it as tetchy, although as stated in the disclaimer, we've been going a while and hopefully people by now know that this is a platform for them to use to express their views and they not necessarily be those of theSprout.

Regards changing the article. No. If you want to write your account we would be more than happy to publish it, although it will be treated as a normal article and as thus will not appear immediately. We've also got a strategy day today in Ebbw Vale, so further comments may be delayed today.

TheSprout is here to allow the young people of Cardiff to share their news and views, I am sorry that you disagree so strongly with dirty's account, but this platform is also open to you.

Thanks and sorry again.

Sam

beepert

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 8th June 2011 - 10:20am

Thank you for your apology. I assumed that you'd changed the factual errors and added the disclaimer after my comments, and the fact that you then didn't put my comment up immediately irritated me. Thank you for explaining the situation.

dirty

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 8th June 2011 - 10:49am

With all due respect Beepert, I do call this an article and I am truly sorry if I have highlighted the bits that make Slutwalk look bad and I can understand how branding me a “liar” and my article “sensationalist nonsense” will make you look better, although viewing being partially deaf (which I am) with being synonymous with being a liar, I highly support you to look in disability rights. Given, there were minor typos in the article such as my incorrect spelling of the Female Eunuch as the Feminist Eunuch, and I was indeed at the march. If you so wish I can send you video footage of me at the march filmed by BBC Wales and pictures of me so you can actually verify who it is. In passing I did actually hear “I am not a rapist, and not ALL men are rapists!” from an onlooker, although this too as a typo in the article I unfortunately overlooked. In addition, I feel remorseful at the fact that you were not there to hear it, as it was a particularly fantastic one, but hey, we all can’t be in all places at once, can we?

I do remember the ex AM given her speech bilingually, although to be honest, I viewed this as more than anything a platform for her to relaunch her career. What, with all the media attention. Her speech did not appear planned as the person introducing the speakers did not know she was talking, and thus when she quickly added it, both looking disorganised with the emergence of this woman, yes, it did look liked she’d hijacked the megaphone. The terms “engaging” are different for different people, and while I disagree I see how it could have been. Well done on managing to get a bilingual speaker, by the way, but where was the woman of colour there? The one who should have been speaking? Yes, there were men, woman and children of all colour but I counted 8 people from that background at best. As both a woman of colour, as a womanist and as a victim of sexual assault I viewed their presence there as tokenistic; Cardiff is a multicultural city of roughly a 10% ethnic minority group that spans all backgrounds. I admire how Women’s Aid came in such direct support of the group as I have written in my article explaining why I was and still am for Slutwalk which is also available to be read on the Sprout (Dear Ed/Sub ed, please my link my previous article here) but where were the Women’s Aids of colour supporting you on this issue, such as the Women’s Aid in Riverside that specifically helps women of colour? Why did you not actively seek a more ethnically diverse population there? I realise that is a bigger problem within feminism as a whole, which is why I personally identify as a womanist. I believe that feminism at times is too Caucasian based, which is probably why Womanism had to emerge. But, then again, all feminism and womanism comes down to essentially race, and in the words of Gloria Azaldúa “I write to record what others erase when I speak”. Unfortunately, it seems that Slutwalk’s leadership obliterated her voice. This is also a feeling widely felt by women of colour in the US. I call upon you to remember that that black women and all women from an ethnic background, minority or low socio economic status were ignored by feminism in its second wave. This is similar.

It seems Slutwalk is also trying to obliterate my voice for speaking out against homogenised feminism being integrated in the movement through slander as both a liar and a sensationalist, but as Sam said, you are more than welcome to write a comeback article.

thereu

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 8th June 2011 - 18:40pm

What I find most disturbing about beepert's comment is how rabid she is, let's not forget that this is a site for young people to express their views, and I don't think it's appropriate to approve such an actively unkind comment.

I also find it breathtaking that she thinks that she can determine the truth of what Dirty says she saw and heard. I imagine as a sentient being, Dirty is capable of determining this, and I must say, as a man who was previously unaware of the SlutWalk movement, my first response upon hearing about it was "Who IS in favour of rape?", I would not be surprised at all if most man passing had that same response.

Also, with regards to your claims of being multiethnic, I just had a brief look through the pictures on your facebook page, I managed to spot a total of 5 people who were possibly not caucasian and the rest of your diatribe concerns minor factual errors such as the precise wording of your placard and the time you departed for the march, which don't really seem important.

Frankly, if your movement is cool with having a go at young people trying to get involved or who don't agree with your every point, then you should probably resolve your own problems, before starting on societies.

beepert

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 8th June 2011 - 19:19pm

Dirty -

Right. The thing is, if we'd have specifically targeted black women, we would have been accused of 'tokenising' them. Indeed, of the men, women and children of colour that DID attend, you claim: 'I viewed their presence there as tokenistic'.

Those people chose to come of their own volition. We didn't encourage them to come in order to make the march look more diverse. YOU are the one silencing them by reducing their attendance on the march to something so trite.

We thought that flyers and a facebook group would be a public, democratic way of interesting people in the march. We didn't target anyone, instead welcoming all genders, ages, sexualities, religions, and, of course, ethnicities. We thought that went without saying, but after Aura Blogando's post, we did have discussions about it. We put a link to a Minority Ethnic Women's network on the flyers.

Despite this, we are being accused of ACTIVELY 'trying to obliterate [your] voice'.

I just won't accept it. Being told I'm a racist or a Neo-Nazi is downright slander (even though you're claiming we slandered you!!). It's almost funny, because it's so ridiculous. But not funny enough to stop me being incredibly p***ed off.

That's my opinion, anyway. The other organisers might have other thoughts

Stormer007

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 8th June 2011 - 20:36pm

@beepert, there's no need for rudeness or slander. You're accusing dirty of not checking her facts and publishing her views without ensuring her facts are correct, or at least very similar, yet you're doing exactly the same!

@dirty, you're awesome!

Snyd

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 8th June 2011 - 20:40pm

I was on the Cardiff Slutwalk. I read this review yesterday and dismissed it as a load of bull..just one of the many being generally churned out across the web against the Slutwalks just for the sake of it.

I am shocked to read that the writer WAS actually on the Slutwalk and the same one I was on!

I was surprised that the march was NOT full of students as I'd expected, and thought this may have been due to 10am being too early after the night before! I thought there was a great mix of people there!

The Slutwalkers were predominantly white, but there were a few non-white people there which was brilliant considering the legitimate concerns of the black community in particular.

I am sorry that so many women of colour feel that the Slutwalks have not been all-inclusive. Fortunately many women of colour can at least understand that this was not deliberate on the part of the organisers....far from it! I have witnessed organisers having grave concerns about how women of colour are feeling about the Slutwalks. There was always the will to be all-inclusive, it was never intended otherwise, but it is counter-productive to attempt to stop the Slutwalk wildfire now that it has taken off.

The kick off point was not years in the planning, but a knee jerk reaction to a comment made in Toronto. It happened to capture the interest of predominantly white women (but others too) across the world because of legitimate concerns to do with rape universally. There is now to be a Slutwalk in India! Many black women too support the purpose of the Slutwalks even if they feel that they cannot march with us.

I was surprised that Cardiff Slutwalk was not as flamboyant as many of the others but I put this down to the lack of students who surely would have gone to town on their costumes!

When you say "The majority of demonstators fit the stereotypes of feminism" you seem to mean white women, rather than all the students who didn't turn up.

Helen Mary Jones made the strongest speech, maybe because she was an experienced speaker with a strong voice! You may well believe that she brought nothing new to the debate, but then not all women sit around debating all the time, so it was new to some of us!

If I would have had the guts I may have asked for the megaphone myself...maybe you should have done if you had something new to contribute. You seem to have been focussing on a foot at the time!

For anyone who wants to judge the Cardiff Slutwalk for yourselves please see the photos on the Cardiff Slutwalk page and the BBC and Channel 4 footage.

I had a lovely time. I think that the organisers did brilliantly! Must admit though that I was ready to march on for a bit longer, I was just getting into my stride!!!

beepert

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 9th June 2011 - 12:22pm

@ thereu: 'Frankly, if your movement is cool with having a go at young people trying to get involved or who don't agree with your every point, then you should probably resolve your own problems, before starting on societies.'

I'm sorry, I thought this was an article with a section for comments, not the work of a small child. Dirty wants this piece to be treated as a serious article, and that's how I treated it. THAT is why the factual errors are important.

However, if it's NOT an article, then it's not important, and I won't waste my energy on it.

I've got nothing more to say on here. Seeing as the author lied about having written this piece (on our fb page), I refuse to take anything she says seriously. In fact, I won't take anything on this website seriously from now on, as they seem to publish any old bs riddled with errors and claim it's an 'article'.

Sprout Editor

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 9th June 2011 - 14:00pm

As already explained, this is an opinion piece. dirty wrote what she saw and was initially and probably still is in favour of the march and future marches. We understand and respect that you're angry, but your tone and attitude do not assist in having a sensible debate. dirty never once accuses the organisers of anything, but of the event as a whole.

Stormer007

Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 9th June 2011 - 14:45pm

Oh well, we still all love and respect dirty, even if you don't. If anything, it just means you're a fool for not getting to know her and try and understand her opinion. You may have lost all respect for this website, but I've lost all respect for you.... well, I say lost, I never actually had any. Oh well, it's your loss.