You could not make this up

The local news today featured prominent coverage of the Ottawa SlutWalk. No, I am not making this up. You get up on a Monday morning, pour a cup of tea, reach for the morning paper, hoping for a couple of lazy, enjoyable moments, and.....bam! You are confronted with an hysterical debate on what defines a slut. Hey, I thought the dictionary had already defined that. No?

But here it was in black and white. Yes, folks, over the weekend here in the Nation's Capital, women held a SlutWalk (their term, officially). Their wish was to make the point that even if you dress like a slut, you are not a slut. Whaaaaaaaat??!! The organizers stated that they..."wanted to take control of the word slut and reclaim it". One 22-year-old went on to explain that she wanted..."to embrace the word slut as somebody who is sexually responsible and aware, whether I have one or a hundred partners." (Not that a word can be a somebody, but let's not get technical here.) And as a mother, if my 22-year-old daughter had had 100 partners, the word slut might spring to mind. But again, let's not get technical.

It gets better. "To me a slut is someone who can say yes or no -- and just because I identify as a slut that doesn't mean I say yes to everybody. To me a slut is just somebody who is in charge of their own body and in charge of their own sexuality." Another chimed in with...."the word has a long history as a derogatory term. Some people think it can be turned into something positive. It's a movement that I want to become a part of."

OK. Let's get this straight. The "Concise English Dictionary" defines the word slut as...."a dirty, slovenly woman, a slattern, a bitch...." But these women want to re-define it. How can you re-define a word, seriously? Now women want to dress like sluts, walk like sluts, talk like sluts, shout their sluttishness proudly to the stars, but not actually be seen as sluts. What other words should we re-define? House? Kitchen? Dog? Virgin? What about derogatory descriptions of men?

How about "abuser"? The dictionary defines abuse as...."to maltreat, to act cruelly, to violate, to deflower, to deceive..." So, if men decide to "take back the word abuser and re-define it, would this wash? As if. Feature a group of men marching to make "abuse" a positive thing. "We are abusers, but we don't choose to abuse everyone. We want to turn the word abuse into something positive." The quotes would read..."To me an abuser is someone who is in charge of their own relationships and their own women. I want to embrace the word abuser -- whether I beat one or a hundred women." Please. How pathetic.

These young women are so misguided. If you parade around dressed like, well, a slut, don't be surprised if men take a run at you. Sure you can always say no, but you can't stop the sexual aggression; it's hard-wired. Why do you think dress codes were invented? What do you think decorum means? And, by the way, decorum applies to men as well. There is still a bylaw on the books here that prohibits men from appearing in public bare-chested. Too bad it's not enforced.

Instead of getting on with their lives, making a contribution, volunteering in their communities or standing up for something worthwhile, these young women are parading around dressed as sluts and proud of it.