Heather Jarvis said she was livid when, during a safety forum at York University on Jan. 24, 2011, a Toronto police officer essentially said if women dressed differently their likelihood of being assaulted would decrease.
“You know, I think we’re beating around the bush here. I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this; however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized,” the officer said, according to multiple reports.
The comment sparked a movement which would spread across university campuses Canada-wide and throughout the world.
“I was livid, completely frustrated at a Toronto police representative saying that, and with the preface of ‘I know I shouldn’t say this but’ . . . clearly he’s gone through training and knows that that’s not the right thing to say, but still believes that,” Jarvis said.
Slutwalk is born
Instead of brushing off the remark, Jarvis and York University graduate Sonya Barnett co-founded Slutwalk Toronto on April 3, 2011, which eventually spread to include Slutwalks as far away as India.
“We decided to challenge the language, the victim blaming [and] the slut shaming . . . we had no idea it would strike a nerve with so many people,” Jarvis said.
One of the goals of Slutwalk was to draw attention to rape culture — not a new idea, but one that reached new levels of public awareness in 2011.
Originally a women’s movement term from the 1970s, rape culture has “stayed with us,” according to Aalya Ahmad, a women’s studies professor at Carleton.
“Certainly the issue is back on the map in a major way . . . there is more mobilization at the moment around the idea of rape culture, which is a good thing,” she said.
Rape culture, Ahmad said, isn’t looking at rape as isolated incidents of violence. Instead, it’s looking at how culture encourages dominance and violence, such as when people use the word “rape” in casual conversations.
The police officer’s comment is a perfect example of the pervasive nature of rape culture, Jarvis said.
“Slut shaming and victim blaming occur not only in education and awareness attempts around sexual assault, in everyday social culture, in . . . media, and clearly in police forces and the institutions that are set out to care for and protect people,” she said.
Calgary debate topic stirs controversy
Almost half a year after the original comment, the idea of addressing how society handles issues of sexual assault culturally, as opposed to case-by-case, was brought up at the University of Calgary. The university’s debate society announced they intended to hold a debate on the motion that they “would hold women partially accountable for rape.”
The debate was cancelled after public backlash, according to debate society vice-president (internal) Fatima Madhi.
The incident was really a misunderstanding, Madhi said via email. The debate society hoped to promote the “Don’t Be That Guy” campaign, not to argue that “women should be blamed for being raped,” she said.
“The motion was initially worded poorly,” she said, adding the event was renamed and rescheduled after the misunderstanding was clarified.
Three sexual assaults in a month
Around the same time, a string of sexual assaults on Carleton University’s campus led to an increased demand for a sexual assault support centre. At the forefront of protests led by the Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Centre was rape culture, the end of which was advocated for on posters.
The last six months have sparked the most campus activism for the issue since the Coalition’s founding in 2007, according to founder Julie Lalonde.
It’s the activism that has given the idea of rape culture so much exposure in 2011, Ahmad said.
“The idea has gained a lot of momentum recently, thanks to young feminists taking it on and addressing ‘slut shaming’ through Slutwalk and other events,” she said.
But with Sexualassaults.ca reporting that over 25 per cent of North American women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime and almost 21,000 reported cases of sexual assault in Canada in 2009, according to Statistics Canada, sexual assaults and rape culture aren’t going anywhere soon.
More than just a few universities
Rape culture isn’t just limited to Carleton, the University of Calgary, and York University.
In a Dec. 6, 2011 speech for Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, Minister for Status of Women Rona Ambrose announced new funding for proposals for projects focused on preventing violence against women on university and college campuses.
“With women under the age of 25 still experiencing the highest rates of sexual assault . . . among Canadians, university and college campus communities face unique challenges in their efforts to make their campuses the safe and supportive places they should be,” Ambrose told listeners.
Will the momentum hold in 2012?
However, whether or not 2011 was an unconventional year in terms of media coverage and addressing the issue of rape culture is still contested.
Lalonde said she doesn’t think the various movements represent a shift in student opinion.
“I think, whenever something public happens it creates this space to have that discussion, but students have always been on the ball about this,” she said.
Carleton president Roseann Runte said while the student activism wasn’t necessarily unique, it’s part of a continuous push for change that’s gaining momentum.
“I think it’s progression,” she said. “I think people are more aware and they’re going to talk about it and that’s a good thing. I don’t think that in 2012 it’s going to disappear.”
Despite the new attention to rape culture, the issues aren’t going anywhere any time soon, according to Carleton women’s studies professor Shelley Rabinovitch.
“I wish I believed that there was a ‘sea of change’ in how [Canadian] culture in general views sexual assault, but unless it is full-on violent sexual assault, most folks just don’t view unwanted touching, comments, etc . . . as ‘crime,’” she said. “I’m glad to see the super-fast take off of the Slutwalk, [but] the media is still full of comments from men in power claiming these activists are just ‘over-reacting.’”
Still, Jarvis said in the year since the original comment was made, she’s starting to see real change with Slutwalk.
“People are talking about sexual violence unlike I’ve seen in my entire life, unlike many people have commented they’ve seen for decades . . . the amount of people who can now talk about sexual violence, victim blaming, slut shaming, rape culture, can understand those terms and know what they mean, and therefore know how to recognize them, is massive.”
