By Emily Mathis
Say to someone that you are going to attend a ‘SlutWalk’ and you might get some curious looks. But a SlutWalk is the newest social movement sweeping the nation. From New York to L.A. and in between people have been stepping out to show their support for SlutWalk, and now it’s come to Kansas City.
It started with one cop’s comments about how to avoid being raped. According to accounts he told a group of Toronto law students that the way to not get raped was to “avoid dressing like sluts.” This comment sparked the movement. A group in Toronto, fed up with victim-blaming and slut-shaming that comments like that support, put together a march to protest. SlutWalk Toronto happened on April 3, 2011 with more than 3,000 women and men walking the streets of Toronto.
It didn’t end there. The cop’s comments and the march garnered attention from around the world. Taking the idea from Toronto’s lead, marchers organized events in both Canada and here in the U.S. In Canada, there were more than 10 other marches that spanned across the country. In the U.S., there have been SlutWalks in Orlando, Phoenix, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, and many more cities.
There are also those who disagree with the terms that Slutwalks are attempting to reclaim. Many of the disagreements are from women of color who think that the term ‘slut’ isn’t inclusive of all races. These women agree with the idea of protesting the victim-blaming culture we live in, they just think that perhaps Slutwalk is more a white woman’s event. How do we change that and make the event all-inclusive? Because let’s face it rape and sexual assault affect all races.
The SlutWalk started as a way to fight back against the kind of attitudes that many have been fighting against for a long time. Victim-blaming and slut-shaming lead to the idea that women are responsible for being victims of rape and sexual assault. This idea can be dangerous to buy into. It’s hard enough to talk about being sexually assaulted let alone reporting it; women shouldn’t have to worry about attitudes like the cop’s on top of everything else. The SlutWalk is a great way to continue the fight against these attitudes and rape culture.
If you are interested in finding out more about the event follow SlutWalk KC on Facebook or go to slutwalkkc.com.