On the “Slut Walk”
The other day I heard an NPR interview with the leader of the “Slut Walk” movement and the Seattle Slut Walk. As I understand it, the movement encourages women to dress as sluts wearing string bikinis and other provocative outfits and parade as in a demonstration to make the point that rape and sexual harassment and molestation are not their fault and they should not feel any guilt themselves if they are molested or raped. Let me point out that I do not share the “old school” view that “she had it coming” or “she was asking for it” if she was dressed provocatively and was raped. I agree wholeheartedly that there is NO excuse for rape or molestation.
However, the female leader of this movement is looking at the situation, naturally, as a female, and does not truly understand the adult heterosexual male. I have obtained, through experience, reading, psychology classes, being married for 45 years, etc., a very superficial understanding of the adult heterosexual female, but, at the gut level, I am still baffled, and at the “gut” level, I would contend that this movement, while not being totally baffled at the make-up of the adult heterosexual male, certainly does not comprehend what “makes him tick.”
As a “card carrying member” of the community of adult heterosexual males, I would like to attempt to give this movement a brief insight into what makes adult heterosexual males “tick.” First and foremost, males are far less complicated, physiologically and emotionally, than women. The old joke, that men often name their penises because they don’t want a stranger telling them what to do, has no small degree of validity.
One of the women participants in the “walk” told the NPR reporter that “women should be able to wear anything that they wanted and have no fear of sexual assault or rape.” Ideally in the perfect world that might be true, but unfortunately, the perfect world does not exist (at least on this celestial sphere). The statement by this woman is so incredibly naïve as to stagger the imagination!
Let me present my case. Unlike women, so I am led to believe, men are aroused by the VISUAL sight of the female body. The degree of that arousal varies, but consider history and the untold number of men who have killed and been killed in the pursuit of attempting to satisfy this arousal. This is what makes the statement of the woman above so incredibly naïve. If she found a man attractive, what would she do? She would dress to get his attention – i.e. – wear clothes that would accentuate her feminine “attributes” – her curves. If this NOT be true and men are not sexually aroused at the sight of feminine curves, there would be no Victoria’s Secret, Playboy and other such magazines and “strip clubs” would not exist. Indeed, if men were not aroused by the sight of “feminine curves” there would be NO HUMANS because there would be NO reproduction.
Permit me, if you will, to take this back a step to the beginning – whenever that was. Think about this, when a man and a woman meet, what goes through their minds often without being consciously aware? First, what do men find attractive in a woman – and this can be at the conscious or the subliminal level. AH, what else, those wonderful curves. – full breasts and wide hips - but WHY? The answer, whether or not we are aware of it, lies in the “biological prime directive” – to use Star Trekian terms. (Am I dating myself or what!!) Humans as well as other species are “wired by nature” to reproduce and propagate the species. Full breasts and wide hips indicate the ability to produce healthy children and, therefore, provide a good chance for a man to pass along his genes.
But, what about the woman? What does a woman find attractive in a man – again based on the conscious or subliminal level. On the physical level again, a woman would look for broad shoulders, muscle, strength, health – but WHY? Again we look to the “biological prime directive.” First of all, we must acknowledge that a woman’s “investment “ in the relationship is MUCH greater than that of the man, for the woman must carry the child for the nine month gestation period and then be responsible for nurturing the child. What does she NEED? She needs protection for herself while she is pregnant and protection for herself and her child when the child is young and they both are vulnerable. A healthy man with strong muscles would be able to protect both she and her child and provide them with food. Again, for both the male and female the “biological prime directive” is propagation of the species.
To return now to the original issue of the “Slut Walk” – I am afraid that the organizers of the “Slut Walk” simply do not fully understand the primitive power of male arousal at the sight of the human female body. I sense that the organizers are quite willing to use this “power” to entice someone to whom they are attracted but are unaware of the power of the forces that they unleashing and are, then Indignant when it “backfires” on them.
To sum up my position – there is NO excuse for sexual assault or rape, but wearing clothing that consciously accentuates and emphasizing, (and, indeed, “flaunts”) those wonderful curves, triggers those primeval male urges and, while it does not cause rape and sexual assault, it certainly DOES enhance the chance that it will happen. Again, it is not a perfect world.
The NPR reporter announced that there would be a “Slut Walk” in Detroit. On a personal note, I would love to attend and be enchanted by those wonderful curves, but I am NOT going to rape or sexually assault anyone. I TRULY wish that I could say the same for all of those of my gender.
As always, I welcome comments!
loved it.