W hen I read the initial report on SlutWalk I wasn't sure what was more outrageous. A cop with his defences down or the unleashing of the word ''slut'' back into the mainstream. It seems so retrograde, belonging to a time when, in Australia, at least, panel vans, all-over tans and Chiko Rolls ruled.

I admit it's difficult to look away. How could an old-fashioned Canadian policeman have known his fatherly advice to a small group at a Toronto university safety forum - that women should not dress like ''sluts'' if they didn't want to be raped - would have been taken so literally? Several women in his audience didn't just get mad, they got tweeting.

The result was that the SlutWalk movement gathered momentum at a speed that is testament to the power of social media. Within months, marches were set up in Canada, the US and Britain. Even as I sat down to write this piece, in a matter of hours two further Australian Facebook SlutWalk chapters had been set up. Marches will be held in Sydney and Adelaide next month, and in Melbourne and Brisbane later this month.

The term slut has a colourful past. Back in the 15th century a slut was a woman who was "dirty, slovenly, or untidy".

(As a mother of young children whose domestic life has disappeared under a growing pile of washing and dirty dishes, and a thick patina of dust, I take umbrage.)