Do These Pants Make Me Look Fascist?

Perhaps the irony of the Slutwalk movement is not that it attempts to normalize the sexualization of women's bodies in public spaces where fashion ads dominate but rather that it began when a group of young women decided to take seriously the advice of a male cop in the first place. This is my third thought after reading Judith Butler's Truthout interview with Kyle Bella, Bodies in Alliance: Gender Theorist Judith Butler on the Occupy and SlutWalk Movements.

I wonder: If a cop walks up to Judith Butler, says, "Just because I'm wearing this uniform doesn't mean that I'm a cop," and then proceeds to beat her up with a baton, what would Judith Butler do? Do clothes make the man? Do clothes make the woman? What if the cop who gave advice (i.e. "Ladies, cover up your bodies to protect yourself from potential rapists") to the original Slutwalk organizers was a woman? I don't know. I'm not Judith Butler.

Okay, so attributing authority to clothing is one thing. But there's the issue of Judith Butler's advice to the occupy movement, which is the same as Angela Davis's wisdom: Protect non-white people of different classes, genders, physical abilities. Then, Miller takes it one slur further when she said, "Of course, there is always the risk that it will become another boy-driven movement and forget these communities."

I think there is evidence that the occupy movement is more than a "boy-driven movement." Look at who made the occupy movement possible. Hint: Everybody who is involved with it. Who says that women of all shapes and sizes aren't asserting themselves in the movement? Ask Lisa Fithian, Marisa Holmes, Monica Lopez, Georgia Sagri and the Parents of Occupy Wall Street. The thing is, are these women participating because of their gender solely?

Did Julian Assange, his allies at Wikileaks, perhaps Pfc. Bradley Manning, the late Mohamed Bouazizi, Scott Olson, or David Graeber assume their roles because of the gender? I don't know. They performed for their own specific beliefs and reasons, but ultimately, they acted. The difference is, men in the dominate culture are assumed to risk their lives for the greater good of the community. That's why men are predominately cops.

If Judith Butler ever wrote a book on what would have might happened had Bradley Manning been a woman, I might read it. Or maybe a queer writer ought to write it because Manning is after all not straight or a woman or a distinguished professor at that sacred liberal arts institution of higher education known by one word "Berkley." That said, there's something to be said about ignoring ideologies when brutal repression is kicking you in the face.