Yet it is one of many questions that are now being asked, not only about the state of so risqué a movement but of feminism as a whole, and it is provoking a veritable storm of media attention and female introspection the world over.
What Janet was clutching at, in her usual 'offend now, think later' manner, is this: will marching through a busy city in your bra and pants really decrease your chances of sexual assault? More importantly, will it challenge the long-held and seemingly-immovable assumption that a woman wearing next to nothing is a woman begging for a pinch on the rear? For the thousands of young women who are planning to attend one of the many planned Slutwalk marches - in Boston, London and New York - the answer to both questions is an enthusiastic - and oft-unthinking - yes.
Young protesters at Boston's first ever Slutwalk march.
By taking the officer's unfortunate statement literally, and by dressing as they please, these feminist protesters believe they are advancing the cause of gender equality. They say, quite rightly, that fashion should not dictate the likelihood of a sex attack - women have, after all, been raped wearing tracksuits, overalls, even Burqas. But many second and first-wave feminists have hit out at the movement for precisely that idea, saying that it only busies itself with the semantics of sexist fashion, not sex attacks.
Now back to Janet again, and she also picks up on this rather reductionist approach to female sexual empowerment, concluding her polemic by stating that she'd gladly fight for equality in Parliament, the workplace or the boardroom, but 'not the right to prance about in public in my pants.' She raises a valid point, and one so intentionally inflammatory yet so deeply rooted in common sense that I suspect many of the more foam-flecked-and-furious feminists will carelessly ignore it: the radical notion that women have to couple the right to wear whatever they want with a substantial degree of responsibility.
Rod Little, writing for The Spectator, likens it to leaving his windows open when nipping to the shops for a pack of cigarettes - 'It doesn't lessen the guilt of the burglar that I've left my window open, or even remotely suggest that I was deserving of being burgled. Just that it was more likely to happen.' This may seem a little facetious on the surface, and is definitely problematic in itself (he finishes by ridiculing the woman to whom he presented his argument, who replied 'I AM NOT A HOUSE! I AM NOT A HOUSE!), but it's relevance cannot be ignored. Should we be telling women to throw all caution to the wind in a mini-skirt, or should we be telling them to be mindful of those for whom a dress is a yes?
Whatever the answer (and by God, there appear to be thousands), Rod and Janet were not the only ones to simultaneously question and condemn the march. Numerous older women have expressed their horror at seeing 'a handful of pretty young girls so carelessly unraveling everything feminism has fought for over the ages.' This might seem like the melodramatic over-simplification of a much larger problem, but it's a concern that is shared by many of the more battle-hardened feminists in society.
What a large number of these women find so problematic about the movement is the appropriation of the word 'slut' by many young girls who have never fallen victim to any kind of sex attack. Theoretically, the majority of women who make up the numbers on marches such as these have no right to reclaim the word for other women - a word traditionally used to degrade and belittle those who either pay for sex or like a lot of it.
Just imagine for one moment that you had fallen victim to a rape, or had experienced violence as a part of sex work. The assault left you so physically and mentally shaken, you had trouble drawing together the inner courage to report the crime. You then decide to attend a female empowerment rally -- all gung-ho sisterhood and fervent knee-slapping -- at which many women who are blithely unaware of your plight were labeling you a slut and attaching a certain degree of pride to the word you'd previously had shouted in your ear during your violation.
Slutwalk protesters want to end 'rape blame' culture.
This may seem a little extreme. It isn't. 'Slut' is often the cat-call of the would-be rapist, or the salacious young men who populate the numerous pubs and clubs on a Saturday night. It is often the last thing many rape survivors will hear from their attacker before they rush off in to the night, and it will almost certainly serve as some kind of perverted justification of said attack in a court of law. Lest we forget, a mere 6.5% of rape cases lead to a conviction, a deeply worrying statistic that is suggestive of the national attitude to female sexuality - that a dress is, indeed, a yes.
Yet despite the widespread sensitivity connected to this defamatory term, the 'Slutwalkers' appear not only to have reclaimed the word as a tenuous 'yay team female!' symbol, but also to have shamelessly attached it to thousands of victims and survivors without their say-so. The result is an uncomfortable alliance between those who understand the crippling severity of sex crimes and those who simply want to prance around in their underwear, in broad daylight, with friends and the safety-net of police protection.
As if this hadn't cast enough aspersions on Slutwalk's validity and sensitivity (and heaven knows, if even Germaine Greer can't stomach the idea then surely you know you're on to a loser), a second more pernicious and predictable issue has arisen, and concerns the unfounded - yet surprisingly widespread - assumption that all men are potential abusers lurking in alley ways, just waiting to pounce on the scantily-clad.
Now it is true that we live in a society where the overwhelming majority of rape victims are female. Moreover, rape victims are still made to feel like the perpetrators of the crime committed against them, and this 'rape blame' culture does need to fizzle out somewhere. 'It diverts attention away from the real cause of the crime - the perpetrator - because it creates a culture where rape is OK and where it's allowed to happen - after all, she must have been asking for it, right?', asks an organizer on the event's facebook page, to a storm of 'likes' and comments.
Yet like most societal truisms, the conceit that men are from Mars and women are from Venus has a slick, if not disturbing, plausibility here. That is to say, men are more often than not seen as the guilty party in any given situation where the woman wishes to discard all responsibility, because she claims it is her right by virtue of gender.
Put simply, a woman wearing a short dress is far more likely to brand the man glancing at her across the bar a greasy old pervert instead of taking a step back, looking at herself, and appreciating that this is as inevitable as it is natural. Excess flesh on show equals more eyes on you, and a certain degree of responsibility (checking that all drinks are attended to, and that everyone stays relatively close together) is a useful tool to possess in this situation. Yet the Slutwalkers live in fantasy land, and believe that sexual attraction can be removed from the human psyche just as easily as clothing can be removed from the body.
What they fail to realize, though, is the utterly ruinous effect this belief can have on the majority of men who are innocent and harmless. Now of course, all men are 100% responsible for their actions, and any unwanted physical or verbal attention is a definite no-no. But for as long as men and women have co-inhabited the planet, a certain spark has existed between the sexes.
To combat 'rape blame' culture is one thing, and totally commendable; to operate under the assumption that all men are predatory monsters and potential perpetrators is quite another, and to expect zero male attention in a revealing outfit is just plain naive. Sadly, they tend to go hand in hand with no questions asked and no clear distinction made.
This somewhat Orwellian idea - that women can wear whatever they like without turning a few curious heads - is not only unrealistic, but also grossly unfair. Indeed, it is one of the most basic human instincts to appreciate sexuality and beauty in another person, and many men and women will respect one another's boundaries and admire from afar.
'Slutwalkers' say they wish to reclaim the word 'slut', as it has too long been used as a weapon against women.
Sadly, this 'look but don't touch' attitude is in danger of becoming a flat-out 'don't look or do anything' as women such as those attending the Slutwalk aim to simultaneously reclaim their sexuality in a little black number while vehemently repudiating any innocent male glances. This is also endemic in those who would wish to re-write the cognitive workings of every single man on the planet - or in those who would impose a 'rape tax' on all men, regardless of their innocence, as was briefly proposed by radical feminists in the European Parliament.
On the less radical end of the spectrum, a lot of young women today say that they don't dress up 'provocatively' for male attention, but to feel good about themselves. This is fair enough. When I put on a tight shirt and a stylish pair of jeans on a Saturday night I'm not doing it for the lascivious elder men who prowl the toilet corridor. But to assume that only the utterly seedy and downright creepy will show any interest is itself a form of blame culture, and can only breed fear. Because as long as a male glance remains amicable, distant and non-regular, the man's behavior is not in any way suggestive of a deep-seated desire to violate.
Until movements such as the Slutwalk can understand and appreciate this, we are caught in a giant catch-22 where no-one wins and no absolution is granted for the many thousands of rape survivors all around the world who have had their choice of clothing cross-examined as a motive for their terrible suffering.
Ultimately, despite all the madness in the method, the message is perhaps the only thing we should be taking from this movement - women should be able to step out wearing anything from a revealing boob-tube to a modest maxi dress and not have to fear for their lives.
But we as a collective should be fearful for the thousands of girls attending this march who now feel the need to strip off and psych up in order to feel equal, and all in the name of throwing caution and common sense to the wind. A little responsibility is not a bad quality to possess - it is crucial to note here that having responsibility is emphatically not the same as having accountability - and it may prove substantially more effective in the long run than a semi-nude jolly in your frilly whites.
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