PARTS OF A WHOLE: RECLAIMING WOMEN’S BODIES
Globally, some battles have been won – the fights for the right to vote, work, own property have borne fruit. Some continue – the fight for access to contraception, legalisation of abortion in some countries, equal pay, equal representation. The big battle for the near future is over perception. Who gets to tell women how to dress, live, behave? Here’s how that battle is playing out.
Slut Walks
This global movement calls for the end of rape culture – which uses victim-blaming and slut-shaming to discredit survivors of sexual assault. It also seeks to reclaim the word ‘slut’ to keep it from being used to control a woman’s bodies and sexuality.
The first Slut Walk was held in Toronto in 2011, in response to a Toronto police officer’s statement that if women want to avoid rape, they shouldn’t dress “like sluts”. Since then, around the world, women have taken to the streets in plunging necklines, skimpy tops, tiny skirts, often accompanied by men also holding placards about the irrelevance of clothing when it comes to assault.
In India, the first slut walk, or Besharmi Morcha, was held in Bhopal in 2011; since then there have been similar marches in other cities. Many women walk in saris and salwar-kameezes, as a reminder that women are sexually harassed no matter what they wear.
#FreeTheNipple
This campaign aims to end the discrimination that allows bare-chested men to be shown on social media, but censors bare-breasted women. The movement was launched by filmmaker Lina Esco in 2012, who decided to promote a film by posting clips of herself topless in New York. She used the hashtag #FreeTheNipple. As Facebook continued to take down her posts, celebrities from Miley Cyrus and Rihanna to Chrissy Teigen joined in and posted photos of their own. The movement has since spread around the world, with women in India joining in too.
Pussy Marches
In 2017, a subversive pink cap or ‘pussyhat’ became a new symbol of women’s resistance. It was worn widely at the Women’s March/ Anti-Trump Protests of January 21, the day after Donald Trump was sworn in as President. The protest was a reminder that the man now in the Oval Office had in 2005 said that women would let him “grab them by the pussy” because he was famous. It was also an attempt to reclaim the word, which is usually used in a derogatory sense. Over 400 marches were simultaneously carried out across the US on the same day.
The Big Latch On
This is one of a number of global campaigns run by mothers to de-stigmatise public breastfeeding. Althought it is not illegal to breastfeed in India, it can invite demands to desist and sexual affronts.
Januhairy
In 1999, actress Julia Roberts made headlines for wearing a dress that exposed unshaven armpits. Body hair on women is now a more mainstream political statement, in Nike ads, Miley Cyrus videos. Last year, UK-based students Laura Jackson and Ruby Jones launched Januhairy, a campaign urging women to stop spending time, money and mindspace on ridding their bodies of hair. The campaign urged women to then post images of themselves online. Januhairy was celebrated again this year and is set to be an annual feature.