Belen Sassone/ Staff Writer
After a Toronto police officer told college women that they shouldn’t dress like sluts if they wanted to prevent sexual assault, a movement began.
The SlutWalk aimed to show that victim blaming and name calling are unacceptable. Thousands of angry people—men and women alike—marched the streets. Since then, the SlutWalk has been hosted in over 200 countries, including the United States.
Amber Rose, who is no stranger to slut-shaming, hosts a SlutWalk every year in Los Angeles, and has spent a lot of time bringing awareness to the issue. She believes that reclaiming the word “slut” and using it for empowerment helps take away the negative power it holds.
Rose’s walk has inspired many others to do the same.
At FIU, the National Organization for Women chapter has participated in the walk for many years. It’s important to give college students the opportunity to stand up for themselves and express their frustrations.
One out of four female undergraduates will be a victim of sexual assault before she graduates, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. This may be higher considering many attacks go unreported.
With this in mind, people should understand just how hurtful derogatory words like “slut” are.
I, as well as many other women, have been called this based on what we wore, the pictures we posted, how we acted around boys and our reaction to a male’s advances.
This was all before any of us had been sexually active.
After years of hearing jabs like this, women may begin associating sexuality with something dirty. If you enjoy sex, you’re disgusting; and if you don’t want to engage in the activity, you need to loosen up and enjoy yourself.
Putting so much conflicting information into a woman’s head could cause them to shut down and repress their desires. Instead of teaching girls to be comfortable in their own skin, society is telling them that they should be ashamed.
Events like the SlutWalk could help change that. Watching women reclaim the word “slut” and march proudly has helped me stop caring about what people say, and I hope it has the same effect for others too.
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Photo taken from Flickr.
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