A Toronto group is protesting to raise awareness about rape victimization after a police officer stated that women looking to avoid rape should stop dressing like “sluts.”
SlutWalk Toronto participants will be marching from Queen's Park to Toronto Police Service's building on April 3. The group has over 1,500 supporters.
Sonya Barnett, co-founder of the group, was already angry after a recent case in Manitoba where a convicted rapist was kept out of jail because the victim was accused of dressing and acting flirtatiously.
“When [this] comment came out, I just…lost it!” she said.
Const. Michael Sanguinetti spoke at a campus security forum Jan. 24 at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School when he made the statement.
Karlene Moore, a counselor and advocate at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre (TRCC), says that what a woman wears, says or does has no impact on whether she is a target.
“That’s a myth…it’s [all largely] about opportunity,” she added.
She describes Const. Sanguinetti as “offensive, wrongly educated, and frankly, typical” of what the police force’s opinion is on rape.
Alyssa England, a volunteer with SlutWalk, says she knows people who have gone to the police to report that they have been sexually assaulted.
“They have been asked not if they’re okay…but what they were wearing, if they were a virgin before they were assaulted, how much they had to drink…it happens all the time, and it’s not okay.”
But the group is not just raising awareness about rape. They also want to “take back” the term Slut, saying that “slut shaming” is becoming prevalent because of what they call the word’s archaic definition.
“I thought,” Barnett said, “if someone can claim the word Queer or Fag…then maybe we can do the same for Slut.
“Throwing the word Slut out so slanderously was what was so anger-filling, because the word so often gets thrown around as an insult, and because I myself identify as my own contemporary definition of slut: someone who is sexually confident and not ashamed to enjoy consensual sex.”
“It doesn’t matter…if you have sex with everyone…[rape] still isn’t consensual,” England said.
“We need to speak up against it, especially because it’s so engrained in the culture that we live in and the police force that enforces this culture so violently at times. It’s ridiculous.”
For Anthony Easton, another volunteer with SlutWalk, the changes he wants go beyond reinterpreting one word.
“[It] becomes not sexual positivity, but sort of maintaining my sexual self in a culture that ignores and avoids sexuality at all costs,” he said, adding that he is queer and had to fight for his ability to choose a his sexual partners.
“I think we also have to sort of apologize and…work in solidarity. But solidarity means allowing those who have had their voices taken away from them to have priority.”
The Toronto Police Service’s treatment of rape and victims is a high priority for the group.
Changing how the police work
“We should be opening a conversation with them, discussing how they train their officers,” Barnett said. “The victim is still blamed for [rape], slanderous comments are spoken and no one is reprimanded.”
After the backlash, Const. Sanguinetti issued an apology. But Barnett does not think it was genuine.
“I think he was forced to apologize,” she said. “It’s not enough … it’s just a sign that further education has to happen.”
If she could talk to him, Barnett says she would still try to have a civil conversation.
“He needs to be open to the idea that there is a part of society that feels this isn’t a slander; this is something that should be embraced.”
Erica Scholz, SlutWalk’s Volunteer Coordinator and volunteers with the TRCC, would prefer to be a little more aggressive.
“I’d almost want to bring a woman who had been sexually assaulted,” she said, “and have them tell [Sanguinetti] how his comment affected them.
“It makes them feel responsible…that they deserved it. Nobody asks to be raped…no matter what.”
So far, moves by the group to open dialogue with the Toronto Police Service, first by getting Police Chief William Blair to speak at their event, have “hit a brick wall.”
“No matter who we talk to, we’re shifted department to department. Nobody wants to reply to us,” Barnett said.
“I doubt it will be a shock that we show up on their doorstep, but it will be a real shame [if] they don’t even want to start [talking] with us.”
No comments:
Post a Comment