SlutWalk Manchester

 WHO RUN the world? Girls, apparently.

And if the latest SlutWalk in Manchester is anything to go by, word is spreading faster than Beyonce’s leaked pop song. But is it for the right reasons? (That is if you can get your head around the reasons in the first place.)

The protest makes us look cheap and insecure. Furthermore, it does nothing for the fight against rape. If anything, all you'll get from walks such as these is a load of blokes falling out of Wetherspoons thinking they've landed in a warped mirage of a Playboy party.

Two thousand women (and men) turned out on Friday at the Town Hall to take part in the Manchester leg of the SlutWalk – part of a series of international protests which began when police constable Michael Sanguinetti commented that “Women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised,” during a crime prevention speech at York University, Toronto.

His comment was uneducated and unnecessary. He looked stupid. He knew it. He apologised.

The press coverage of his comment alone resulted in women worldwide uniting in the belief that a woman should not be blamed for being raped – no matter what she happened to be wearing. It was a strong message. But then came the SlutWalks.

Yes means yes and no means no, yes? Reclaiming the word ‘slut’ by marching around town in our smalls aimed to assert the female authority of our own sex even further.

According to the ‘SlutWalk Bulletin’ handed out during the evening’s event in Manchester, ‘When women choose what to wear, we are not choosing what feels comfortable or looks good, but negotiating our way through the maze of social and cultural values which our clothing embodies.'

However you can’t help but think the protest makes us look cheap and insecure. Furthermore, it does nothing for the fight against rape. If anything, all you'll get from walks such as these is a load of blokes falling out of Wetherspoons thinking they've landed in a warped mirage of a Playboy party.

It’ll take more than worldwide walks to change the meaning of a word which is so often tied to sex-work, the adult entertainment industry and the Daily Sport.

That’s why it’s rather confusing seeing women chanting “I’m a person not a prop, sexual harassment has to stop,” whilst dressed in broad daylight in a way they normally wouldn’t dream of. Perhaps though the key here is that women taking part in the marches feel part of a fight, a cause, against male domination, so that the protest does good by making them feel good: reinforces their sense of worth, and of female solidarity.

On the other hand this could be social media gone mad. Here in the West, we’re lucky that we have the freedom to express ourselves through fashion and popular culture. Unfortunately some gruesome male attitudes will only slowly change.  

As Australian journalist, Jim Schembri summed up: “It's a man's world. That's why it's such a mess. All right-thinking men can't wait for women to take over. It could use a good cleaning.” 

Whether the SlutWalk will achieve that is unlikely no matter how empowered it makes those women who take part feel.