The Ecuadorian Slutwalk Manifesto 2013

Translation by: Elizabeth Vásquez

Quito, 20th April, 2013.

We, the women, men and people of diverse sex-gender conditions driving forward Slutwalk - Ecuador, speak from the standpoint of our local context yet in solidarity with those who promote the Slutwalk movement in various parts of the world. We publicly denounce the social, cultural and institutional attitudes and practices of abuse, commodification, stigmatization and oppression that women and people who occupy the feminine places of society are subjected to and we proclaim:

1. Given that "slut" is a word that describes multiple forms of female autonomy and insubordination, particularly in the realm of sexuality, we come forward as sluts. For that's what we have been called for having a tubal ligation, for having more than one partner, for dressing hyper feminine, for going out alone at night, for initiating sex, for having an abortion, for giving "no" as an answer, for being women and loving other women, for choosing not to have children, for changing our bodies in ways deemed contrary to our sex, for using contraceptives, for filing a divorce, for refusing to accept violence in the name of femininity, or in the name of family, or in the name of motherhood, among many other acts of sovereignty over our own bodies and lives. So if doing the above makes us sluts, and given that this is not going to change, then sluts we are.

2. Given the repression that transgender people and others who assume unconventional gender expressions suffer, we dress as sluts. A diversity of genders leads this slutwalk because we support aesthetic freedom and gender diversity as transfeminist issues. We think that feminism should not be the exclusive domain of women, nor should gender transgression be the exclusive domain of trans people. And therefore, we stand for all gender expressions that break away from the patriarchal aesthetics that draw a binary world with two rigid places in it: one for "feminine women" and one for "masculine men". And we celebrate the aesthetic subversion that is embodied in the hyperfemininity of sluts and queenies, as much as in the masculinity of tomboys, butches, and female-born men; or in the androgyny of those who refuse to assume an unambiguous gender expression.

3. Given the repression that sex workers suffer - the paid among the unpaid sluts - we ally on a single side of "all sluts". We reject the stigmatization of sex workers and affirm their rights; especially their right to occupy the public space. We celebrate the contributions that sex workers have made when it comes to defending women's ability to negotiate sex; not just in economic terms. And we celebrate, above all, the need to overcome the deceitful patriarchal division of women into two sides - "the sluts" versus "the decent" - a division that often makes "the decent" believe that they are in a better situation that "the sluts". We are ALL sluts!

4. Given the denial of female pleasure, and since "slut" often translates as "woman who enjoys sex", we call ourselves sluts. Since so many words exist to positively name male sexual autonomy and pleasure - player, stud, hunk, "the man" - and yet few to no words exist to positively name female sexual autonomy and pleasure, besides slut and its synonyms, we refuse to remain wordless and we reclaim ourselves as "positively sluts".

5. Given the familial, social, political, judicial and media justification of sexual and gender violence as self-provoked by attitudes and aesthetics of female insubordination, we raise the voices of sluts. And we will not keep quiet until institutions and society learn to correctly place the social and legal responsibility for sexual and gender violence and start judging, not the victims for being "good" or "bad", "sluts" or "decent", but the aggressors for being aggressors and the rapists for being rapists.

6. Given the marks of control and punishment inflicted on female and feminized bodies, which assume the form of femicides and hate crimes in their worst expression, we acknowledge ourselves as "collectively sluts". Because the murders, rapes, and extreme forms of violence against women, trans people, sex workers and other gender and sexual dissidents, are not isolated acts against specific bodies but rather systematic attacks on the collective identities those bodies contain. We demand that the State recognize that patriarchal tutelage is what is behind female genocide; since it is the former that renders us subjects with available and disposable bodies. We demand that the State acts accordingly upon this fact; criminalizing femicide and promoting laws and policies that favour the full autonomy of women and people of other sex-gender conditions over their own bodies.

The time has come to reclaim the word "slut" so that it never again hurts us, blames us or stigmatizes us. Let us walk together and let society hear and understand that we say NO to gender violence and we say YES to aesthetic and sexual freedom, autonomy and equality for all women, men and people of diverse sex-gender conditions.

WE ARE ALL SLUTS!!