Amber Rose’s Slutwalk Takes A Wrong Turn

“Men like a woman with a past because they hope that history will repeat itself.”

- Mae West 

By Mumia Ali: In an age where it seems that every minute of one’s life can be used as reality-show fodder or ammo for a pet cause célèbre, I suppose it should come as no surprise that the latest tempest in a teapot controversy that is Hip Hop impresario Kanye West’s life has fueled such an endeavor – his one-time squeeze, Ms. Amber Rose, has announced that she will be hosting a Slutwalk all her own out in Los Angeles later this summer, in response to Mr. West’s “30 showers” remarks about her during a well-publicized radio interview he did last month.

The Slutwalks, for those out there who may not be aware, got their start up in the Great White North a few years back, and are ostensibly supposed to raise awareness of the high rates of rape and sexual assault against women, especially those who may dress or otherwise behave in “slutty” ways. Of course, the problem with such notions, is that the fantasy rarely comports with the facts.
As AVFM colleague Ms. Janet Bloomfield notes on her personal blog:

“Second, this is IMAGINED assault and street harassment. Here’s something that confuses me: RapeCrisis.co.uk reports that only 9% of rapes occur in dark alleys and over 80% of rapes are committed by men known to the women who claim to be raped. Really? Over 80%? How about 91%! Math ain’t THAT hard, bitches.

So if 91% of rapes are committed by men we know, why all the hysteria about avoiding men we DON’T know on the street? Surely, we are only supposed to treat the men we KNOW as potential rapists, and more or less go easy on the men we DON’T know? Apparently not. It turns out that we should treat ALL MEN EVERYWHERE AT ALL TIMES as potential rapists.
Who knew?”

Here in the States, forcible rapes are literally a shadow of their former self, the lowest point they’ve been since such stats have been recorded by the FBI and DOJ. Here’s Harvard cognitive scientist and evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker giving a presentation based on his book, The Better Angels Of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, where he makes the case that violence of all kinds, including rape, have not just declined over the years, but have gone way, way down, and haven’t gone back up.
Like the false flags that have been the bread and butter of the Slutwalks themselves, what Ms. Rose fails to grasp in her being miffed by West’s comments, is the fact that had it not been for another woman’s remarks about Rose’s past, West would have never said anything in the first place.
For those who follow Black celeb gossip, you will know well by what I mean. Khloe Kardashian, the younger and much more outspoken sister to West’s wife Kim, got the whole ball of slut-wax rolling when she brought up Rose’s past as a stripper during a heated Twitter exchange. Rose’s response was to note that Khloe’s sister Kim was in the same position, basically “whoring” herself by using her body in a sexual way to support her family – most notably, in her participation in a sex tape with singer/rapper Ray J, brother to singer/actress Brandy Norwood years back. It was this barb by Rose, that West was responding to, in fact.
That brings us to something that is rarely acknowledged by self-proclaimed feminists – that “slut-shaming” is in truth a woman’s thing – and for good reason:
Because it would undermine the entire notion of men somehow wanting to control womens’ sexuality/bodies/choice, and would highlight the fact – FACT – that women can be incredibly competitive when it comes to vying for mates.
For example, in his excellent work The Evolution of Desire, University of Austin, TX Prof. David M. Buss notes the following on a mating tactic known as derogation of competitors:

“The fact that female promiscuity is abhorred by men in committed mates and is exploited by women to undermine rivals is reinforced by the prevalence of derogatory terms for this activity in the language.
Although there are words for men who are promiscuous, such as Lothario and Don Juan, they are fewer in number and less derogatory than the words for women. Indeed, such terms applied to men are sometimes not intended to be derogatory at all but are said with admiration or envy. In contrast, John Barth’s The Sot Weed Factor illustrates the range of insults hurled by women. An English woman competes against a French woman by using these labels to cast aspersions on her character: harlot(1), whore(2), sow, bawd(3), strawgirl(4), tumbler(5), mattressback(6), windowgirl(7), galleywench(8), fastfanny(9), nellie(10), nightbird(11), shortheels(12), bumbessie(13), furrowbutt(14), coxswain(15), conycatcher(16), tart(17), arsebender(18), canvasback(19), hipflipper(20), hardtonguer(21), bedbug(22), breechdropper(23), giftbox(24), craterbutt(25), pisspallet(26), narycherry(27), poxbox(28), flapgap(29), codhopper(30), bellylass(31), trollop(32), joygirl(33), bumpbacon(34), strumpet(35), slattern(36), chippie(37), pipecleaner(38), hotpot(39), back bender(40), leasepiece(41), spreadeagle(42), sausage-grinder(43), cornergirl(44), codwinker(45), nutcracker(46), hedgewhore(47), fleshpot(48), cotwanner(49), hussy(50), stumpthumper(51).
The French woman uses a comparably long list of counterderogations in her native language. In literature as in life, denigrating a competitor’s promiscuity decreases her attractiveness to a man in the marital market.”
(pp. 115-116)

I’m sure you’ve noticed that immediately after each slur, was a number in parentheses, something I added to the quoted text above to note the sheer number of such derogatory terms for promiscuous women – that are uttered by other women themselves. In all, the above passage lists more than fifty(!) such terms. Women have a vested interest in putting down other women whom they see as potential competitors for mates – and the easiest, quickest way of doing so, is to suggest that a woman is sexually loose.
So, the Slutwalks are factually wrong all the way around – the empirical evidence does not support them, nor does premise upon which they are based – and as such, Ms. Rose’s argument for hosting her own stroll down Sunset Blvd., is shaky at best. If not just outright wrong.
What has started out as what can only be rightly considered a family affair involving West’s in-laws and one-time girlfriend, has metastasized into an ugly mess that Ms. Rose seeks to capitalize on in a self-righteous show of indignance – and in so doing, has done much, much more than merely calling herself fighting against supposedly being “slut-shamed” by a former lover…
…she has shown herself both to be grossly ignorant of the facts, and worse, to have no class.
Which is a problem an increasing number of Black women in particular, seem to have these days.

About Mumia Ali

Mumia Ali, aka "Obsidian" is a Men's Issues blogger from Philadelphia who focuses on Sexual Politics, Class, and Race, from the male perspective. He is a cofounder of the Men's Issues blog collective known as Just Four Guys, and is Editor of Urban American Affairs for A Voice for Men.

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