SlutWalk Movement, Protesting Sexual Violence, Arrives in New Delhi, India

The SlutWalk movement seems to have arrived in New Delhi, India, albeit with a slightly tamer version of "slut" than adheres in other parts of the world. Young women marched to protest sexual violence and harassment, apparently a problem in India.

The SlutWalk movement began when, on Jan. 24, an officer of the Toronto Police Department suggested women could protect themselves from sexual violence if they were to avoid "dressing like sluts." This angered women for a number of reasons.

First of all, rape is a crime of violence and not one of sex. The profile of a victim does not necessarily correlate to someone, as the Canadian cop suggested, who "dressed like a slut." In any case how one dressed ought not to be an issue, since sexual violence or rape is a horrendous crime that harms and traumatizes the victims for years after, even if the rape is not accompanied by murder, which is often is.

Second, it is the opinion of the people participating in the SlutWalk movement that the term "Slut" is an obsolete pejorative dating from an era in which women being sexually active was universally frowned upon. In modern times, it is quite acceptable, at least in the western world, for women to be sexually active before marriage. In any event, the term is inherently sexist as it has only applied to women and not men. Of course some women have gotten around that by referring to sexually active men as "male sluts."

The SlutWalk protests involve young women marching down a public street, carrying signs and chanting slogans against sexual violence and harassment, dressed -- as the ill advised Canadian police officer would say -- like sluts.

Instances of rape and sexual harassment, ranging from "unwanted staring" to actual fondling and touching in crowded streets and metro stations, is on the upswing in New Delhi. However, the SlutWalk protest, renamed "Shameless Front" in Hindi, did not feature the kind of skimpy costumes and cosmetics that have featured similar protests in the West. However the point is being made that Indian women are asserting themselves, as did one woman who carried a sign, "Stop Staring: This Is Not an Invitation to Rape Me."

Indeed.