The only way the horrific so-called “slut-shaming” that the young woman at the centre of the #Slanegirl incident can be understood, is as a product of the proliferation of sexist objectification of women and the commodification of women’s bodies pushed by corporations and the mass media in the recent period. In the light of the warped and sometimes hateful portrayal of women and women’s sexuality that capitalism has promoted in various guises throughout its history.
The accepted invitation to visit Britain in September 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI has afforded the Vatican a major platform to promote their reactionary and bigoted ideology.
The misogynistic massacre of Santa Barbara, California is yet another horrific expression of a society that is based on the constant oppression of women. However, this expression of hatred also triggered a massive backlash. A storm of tweets around the Twitter hashtag #YesAllWomen showed not only deep rooted anger but also the potential to build a powerful mass movement against sexism.
“It felt like a prison, no time for lunch and I was on call 24/7... There was no choice about which men you saw and some men wanted sex without condoms. If you refused to have anal sex you had to pay a penalty or the ‘security’ men would beat you up.” This is part of a testimony from Isobel, contained in the Immigrant Council of Ireland’s 2009 report on sex trafficking in Ireland, found on turnofftheredlight.ie , a campaign against prostitution and sex trafficking supported by a number of trade unions as well as women and immigrant groups.