Time magazine named "The Protester" as its 2011 "Person of the Year." It is in that spirit that I have named feminism's most visible entity of 2011 as my Woman of the Year: The Slutwalker.She is personified here in my own original digital depiction (above.)
She started walking in Toronto in April, and before too long, her sisters were walking all over the world.
She even has her own well-researched and documented Wikipedia entry which succinctly explains the movement and its criticisms this way:
"Participants protest against explaining or excusing rape by referring to any aspect of a woman's appearance. The rallies began when Constable Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto Police officer, suggested that to remain safe, "women should avoid dressing like sluts." The protest takes the form of a march, mainly by young women, where some dress in ordinary clothing and others dress provocatively, like "sluts." There are also speaker meetings and workshops. Some objectors have remarked that this approach is an example of women defining their sexuality in male terms."
While SlutWalkers marched through downtown Ann Arbor to the University of Michigan Diag in October, SlutWalk Detroit, originally scheduled for June, never happened and its future is still up in the air.
And there lies the challenge for SlutWalk and all recent "occupy" and protest movements: Will they remain a visible force for change, or just fade into history as another passing fad?
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