“I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this, however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized,” said Constable Michael Sanguinetti of the Toronto Police Service at Osgoode Hall Law School on Jan. 24. According to the officer, women who dress in skirts or tight clothing are basically asking to be raped or assaulted.

Constable Sanguinetti’s comments were made when he visited a safety forum at Osgoode which is part of York University in Toronto, Canada. Even though only ten people were in attendance of the forum, his comments spread everywhere online and inspired the SlutWalk movement. The SlutWalk movement is a protest against rape culture usually associated with women who are thought to be bringing their attacks upon themselves.

This idea that women are “asking for it” is completely insane and delusional. It also denies women the freedom to express their identity and beliefs through fashion, something very important to women. This brings up the constant heated debate on women’s issues and their rights compared to those of their male counterparts.

Women are the victims of assault and rape more than men are and now it seems that the people investigating this trend have beliefs that the victims were partly to blame for being attacked.

Those outraged over such thoughts and Constable Sanguinetti’s comments were inspired to start the SlutWalk. The first SlutWalk was held in Toronto, Canada on April 3 where over 3,000 gathered at Queen’s Park and then marched to the Toronto Police Station. The dress code for the women attending the march was ordinary, everyday clothing to symbolize ordinary women who are raped everyday. However, some of the women who participated brought a new meaning to the SlutWalk when they actually tried to dress provocatively like “sluts.”

What was a relatively small march grew to an international movement that spread to 20 countries including the United States, Brazil, India, Australia and England. The SlutWalk was held in Manhattan on Saturday, Oct. 3 and was organized by Holly Reinhardt, a 22 year old woman from Williamsburg. In organizing the SlutWalk, Reinhardt hoped, as said in the New York Daily News, “publicity will make people get involved to help stop sexual assault.”

Junior Heidi Rodriguez commented on the SlutWalk saying, “I don’t see why the officer made such a statement! It’s crazy out here; men see a pretty young woman and they don’t know how to act whether she’s wearing sweats and a turtleneck or a mini skirt and tube top.”
Junior Aharisi Bonner agrees with her comment, adding, “Clothing is just a material and it sends a message of ‘This is who I am’ − not ‘I want to be sexually attacked.’” Aharisi goes on to say that the officer’s comments were out of line and inappropriate. Religious Studies teacher S. Barbara Mackiewicz relates the SlutWalk to the negative perception of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute and says that in participating in the SlutWalk women are “forever setting free the ‘Mary Magdalene.’”

Whether you are a victim of rape or assault or not, it is important that the idea of women asking for this negative attention from men needs to be changed and the SlutWalk is beginning to do so by making it public. Although the SlutWalk has received both positive and negative responses, it can be said that it has been a successful feminist action and will not go away until women’s fundamental rights of choice of dress and freedom of expression are respected.