in your pants, fool!'). Rape is a tool to bully, violate, oppress and inflict severe physical and mental agony on their victims. It is a deeply rooted hatred, and not merely a man who can't help himself when he sees a short skirt. If you want to know what it to be a Slut, a Slut without freedom of movement, freedom of speech, freedom of safety -- then place yourself inside the skin of the Ultimate Slut. Women and girls inside most aspects of the sex trade are raped, battered and murdered whatever they wear, whatever environment they are placed in. What does any Slutwalk do that makes any practical difference to that? However, unless I was in Toronto where the march was a direct response to a comment about "sluts", I personally wouldn't feel comfortable walking under the label. I have no interest whatsoever in reclaiming or reinventing a word that is used to attack and label women, let alone use it in reference to myself. Lastly, I have found some of the SlutWalk approach most problematic related to an ahistorical understanding of women's organizing. Ironically, or maybe not so much, SlutWalk advocacy has come at the expense of the feminist movement, demonizing a struggle that has many hard-won victories to its credit. It turns out that 'slut' isn't just an adjective. It's a character. A fictional character, beloved of patriarchal culture, who encrapulates eons of virgin/whore-fueled misogyny, and was invented to absolve violent dudes of rape behavior. Sluts