Niggers, faggots and sluts...

Niggers, faggots and sluts...
by Dawn Coyote
06/14/2007, 6:50 AM #

“If you have no desire to fuck Paris Hilton, you're, like, a rapist[?]” (pissenlit)

Contributing to rape culture isn’t the same as committing rape. You may be someone who will never come close to rape or date rape or coercion in your whole life, but if you habitually characterize women as bitches, as sluts, as consumable sex objects that you want to fuck or you don't want to fuck, you are adding to the environment in which rape is perpetrated by those who are so inclined. Perhaps you never do this, either. Perhaps you just yuck it up when other men do it. It happens all the time, right? Characterizing women in this way demonstrates power and dominance. It elevates men's value by diminishing women’s value in relation to men, and thus it adds to an environmet where rape is perpetrated with impunity, where it is often not reported by the victims, and where is all too seldom punished.

If you talk about Paris Hilton or any other woman in a demeaning manner, if you call her degrading names because of her apparent freedom with her sexuality, if you make her sexuality a key to your vilification of her (ie. she’s a rich bitch, arrogant, and a slut), then you are contributing to an environment in which women will be targeted with sexual violence and with other forms of violence.

Characterize women in a degrading manner and you contribute to rape culture.

If I call someone a nigger, you can readily tell me how it adds to the culture of prejudice, to the social climate which devalues blacks in relation to whites and how it contributes to the environment in which discrimination, even violence, can be perpetrated against blacks?

If I call someone a faggot, does that not also contribute to an environment of intolerance, of hate? Doesn’t it dehumanize the person who’s the object of my derision? What about others like him? And what happens to people we systematically vilify and dehumanize? How well do they get on in the world?

So, how is "slut" any different that "faggot" or "nigger"?
Does anyone think it's okay to use the word "nigger" these days? As a society, we generally accept that some people form romantic and sexual relationships with members of their own gender. If you’re a woman, your sexuality is still an invitation to harassment and humiliation.

Note: there are lots of things I’ve said and done that make me guilty of contributing to this problem. That doesn’t make what I’m telling you any less true.

If you still don’t get it, that’s okay. I’ll try an illustration. If you disagree with me, I hope you’ll reply with a cogent argument, because I’m prepared to listen. Convince me that I’ve got it wrong, and you’ll be doing me a favor.

And FYI: Paris doesn’t want to fuck you.

dawncoyote