Slut Walk Toronto

What the what? you may be asking! Well I did something that is pretty important to me yesterday. I went on a peaceful protest - to protest the blaming of victims of sexual assault by police, judges, and a whole lot of regular people who think that if a woman had just done (insert anything here) she could have avoided being raped. Which focuses the blame on the woman and not on the rapist.

Why is this a big deal? you might ask. Well Heather Mallick had some excellent things to say about this in a recent article but this is the one that stands out the most to me:

"In 2002, British teenager Lindsay Armstrong, 16, was raped. In court she was told to hold up the thong she'd been wearing when attacked. “Little Devil,” it read. Lindsay had been very proud of her fashionable underwear and, her parents said, she was mortified by having to show them in court. “She was horrified and crying,” her mother said. Three weeks later, Lindsay killed herself."

so much bravery

Here's another reason: recently Kenneth Rhodes, was granted a two year conditional penalty with no jail time for raping a 20 year old woman in Manitoba. The judge said the victim gave out signs that "sex was in the air" because she was wearing a tube top and said she'd be interested in skinny dipping. He called the rapist a "clumsy Don Juan" who may have misunderstood when he raped her along a darkened highway. "I hope they appeal. I would like some justice. This is not real justice to me. It's a slap on the wrist," said the victim. The woman said she has suffered severe psychological trauma from the attack, including trust issues with men and a fear of being alone.

And another: Fernando Manuel Alves, 46, got handed a nine-month conditional sentence, again no jail time, for his second arrest for rape. In sentencing, the judge said Alves was not pathologically dangerous but had committed a "crime of opportunity". It was revealed during the trial that the woman woke up in Alves's bed bruised and bleeding after having been drugged at a downtown Vancouver nightclub. The woman told the court her will to live had been drained because of what happened to her and that she no longer feels safe.

These are among the many reasons why 9 out of 10 women don't even report being raped. Here's the latest one: in January, a representative of the Toronto Police told a group of university students that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”.

  
So 2, yes only two, women decided to do something about it. They organized a walk - a slut walk - and a facebook page. And yesterday 2 thousand, yes two thousand, women and men walked to police headquarters to ask for better training for police officers. You know who does the training now? other officers. You know what they have said to this request? nothing.

there I am to the left of the person in the sunglasses

So I marched in my fish nets and short skirt and shit-kicker boots, with that sign that says "STOP the victim blame". Because my best friend from high school was raped in her first months of college by a highly revered athlete and she was blamed and shamed and she dropped out of school and never got a university degree. Because as Jane Doe said in her speech yesterday "if women could end rape, we would have". Because no one should ever be raped but she certainly should not be blamed for it. Because it's time to lay the blame at the rapists door, and it's time for men, especially men in positions of power like police officers and judges, to start taking responsibility for how some other men behave. But we should none of us be silent.