The Slut Walk.
It's a shocking name, especially for us plain-spoken Midwesterners. We don't much like to read words like this, especially in our local newspapers, much less ponder what such an event might do to our young people.
Yet, beyond its shocking title, the event's purpose is both practical and admirable. Surely, its founders proposed, we could ask better of men rather than simply demand that women change their clothes so that men may not attack them. As though men are not capable of controlling themselves.
Yes, I loathe--with every fiber of my cotton-briefed being--the tight tops and skimpy shorts that most retailers make available to girls today. And I was secretly delighted to find out last year that, on her first day of high school, my very own daughter was pulled aside and ordered to change into shorts that weren't so, well, short. It is good to have a backup band, especially when the lead singer's message is so easily discounted.
But there is another side to that coin. Our society should expect better of our young males, as well. As much as the bra-less mothers of the revolution preach about the evils of objectification, we also need someone representing the other bookend, passionately preaching to our young sons the wisdom of bodily control and respect for all.
So it was with a bit of pride that I read Eric's Facebook post yesterday, in which he listed participating in the Slut Walk as a part of his busy day. (Yes, he also went to a movie and pretended to be a Zombie, but those are not the things I'm focusing on right now, thank you).
I certainly did nothing in my parenting to raise this young man who can walk among women who are asking for better. He has always had this way of looking at the world, a way that is much more expansive and enlightened than my own bifocaled approach. I credit his teachers, his mind, his generation for fostering Eric's mindset in life.
As for the rest of us, for whom "slut" is either a bad memory or just an ugly, uncomfortable word? Maybe yesterday's Slut Walk is a wakeup call to us, a chance for us to find our rusty voices and put them to use for something that is larger than ourselves.
I, for one, could really use a focus that extends beyond the "me" of my world.
I've been thinking about the word "modest" lately. It's meaning seems to have drifted from middling, mild, and agreeable, to under-performing, prudish, and half-hearted.
ReplyDeleteI like modesty. The quality of assuming knowledge is incomplete, that my cell phone conversations might not interest you, that, in short, I Am Not As Hot A Shit As I Think I Am.
Modesty is not assuming my ideas don't count, I ought not speak up, or, even bald and gray, I don't have the power to make a woman smile that certain Mona Lisa smile.
Three cheers for modesty. Two will do.
I want to be clear - I'm not saying immodest dress is license for attack. Good heavens no. I'm merely musing about how "modest" seems to have changed meaning.
ReplyDeleteJerry-You are always good with me. I understood that your point was about the watering down and misuse of "modest" rather than the talking up of skimpy threads. Thanks for commenting!
ReplyDeleteJane