Slutwalk

by Marcia Barhydt

If you think that one small voice won't be heard, you need to read this article. It's shocking and it's almost magical at the same time. And it's a testimony to the power of women, one at a time.

I live near Toronto, Ontario, a city of 2.5 million residents; it is extremely diverse, welcomingly ethnic and proudly supportive of gays and lesbians. Liberal views and lifestyles tend to be the norm and citizens are, I believe, widely feminist and embracing of equal rights.

So then, imagine the shock that occurred when, on January 24th, 2011, a Toronto Police Officer, speaking to a group at York University, gave shocking insight into the Force’s view of sexual assault by stating: “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”. Imagine, if you can, the reaction of the audience of young women as well as the liberal population of Toronto. It's common knowledge that sexual assault isn't about sex; it's about power. And for a police officer to suggest that victims are responsible for their attacks is deeply offensive.

Now comes the good part: two young women attending York University decided to do something about this unacceptably offensive comment. Along with the help of a handful of other women, they organized SlutWalk Toronto, a protest march, on Sunday, April 3. The march started at Toronto's provincial government buildings and ended at police headquarters.

This quote is from the organizer's website, http://www.slutwalktoronto.com:

With your help, SlutWalk has become a mechanism for increased dialogue on victim-blaming, slut-shaming, misogynist and oppressive ideas that need to be challenged. These damaging ideas affect all of us and play into racist, ablest, homophobic discussions, discussions about status, class, sex work, indigenous rights and more that need to be challenged.

To see the determination of these women to keep this protest alive is inspirational; what happened next is amazing.

There are now SlutWalks all around the world. An online search yielded walks in Texas, Australia, many other Canada cities, many cities in England, Amsterdam, Mumbai, South America, Singapore, Kuala Lampour, South Africa. And these awareness walks are not scarcely populated. The walk in Cape Town, South Africa was 2,000 marchers strong! On Facebook, the measure of all things current, the group SlutWalk has been "liked" by 13,574 people.

So, what's the connection between SlutWalks and Women's Post readers? We need to support our daughters and granddaughters for their courage. This is a battle we fought ourselves in the '60s with the advent of mainstream feminism. Fifty years later, the battle continues.

We need to do anything, everything we can to help our sisters and daughters fight this battle and win it this time. We need to add our voices to theirs and we need our voices to be as loud today as they were 50 years ago.

We need to make this stop.

©Marcia Barhydt, 2011

Image courtest of Tara Chapman.