More than 100 people marched through the streets of Ottawa to reclaim the word “slut” Sept. 14. Ottawa’s fourth annual SlutWalk was a celebration of feminism and a condemnation of rape culture and victim blaming, according to Fateema Ghani, a fourth-year student at the University of Ottawa and one of three head organizers for SlutWalk Ottawa 2014.
“We scrutinize sexual assault victims to a point where the onus is on them, and it’s gotten to the point where we question victims and survivors more than perpetrators,” Ghani said.
Rayne Fisher, a third-year Carleton University student, has participated in the SlutWalk for two years.
“When I came to university, it became very clear that people treat women like it’s their responsibility to fall under certain lines, and if you don’t, there will be consequences. It became very apparent that our society isn’t looking at the issue of rape and violence against women with the right mindset, and I wanted to be a part of something that worked to change that,” Fisher said.
Heather Jarvis, who spoke at the Carleton University Students’ Association Sexual Assault Awareness Week on Sept. 17, is one of the founders of the first Canadian SlutWalk in Toronto.
The movement started in 2011 when a Toronto police officer made a public comment that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized,” according to the Toronto Star.
“It was the last straw,” Jarvis said. “[It] had been a rough year already . . . There was a context to our anger.”
She said between 3,000 and 4,000 people showed up to protest the officer’s comments at the first Toronto SlutWalk in 2011, a number that has continued to grow.
Between 150 and 200 people attended in Ottawa this year. That is a larger number than in years past, according to Ghani.
There are now over 250 SlutWalks around the world. Each community personalizes the event with “their own local issues,” Jarvis said.
Jarvis described the fight against rape culture as “an uphill battle.”
Jarvis said people approach her saying that 40 years ago, they were protesting the exact same concepts.
“We’re still here and we’re still fighting about the same shit. That can be really disheartening,” she said.
Julie Lalonde is a Carleton graduate who co-founded the Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Support Centre on campus and Hollaback Ottawa, an organization committed to challenging street harassment.
She defined rape culture as a culture where we teach women not to get raped, instead of teaching men not to rape women.
Lalonde said she believes society as a whole does not believe it would ever condemn the victim of a sexual assault or rape case.
But when it comes down to the individual circumstances, there always seems to be justification for victim blaming, according to Lalonde.
Lalonde, who said she has attended all of Ottawa’s SlutWalks, said sexual assault is a problem on university campuses because students don’t understand what consent is and are “fundamentally ill-equipped.”
“It’s also important to think about the timing,” Lalonde said. “The same week that a man is charged with three sexual assaults on campus, students think it is okay to wear shirts with the words ‘fuck safe space.’”
Ghani, Lalonde, and Jarvis all acknowledged the most notable sign of progress since the derogatory comments that sparked the SlutWalk’s existence is that terms like “slut-shaming,” “rape culture,” and “victim-blaming” are being used in the media today.
Four years ago, those terms and phrases were not in the vocabulary of the media, Lalonde said.
