SlutWalk, a march and movement aimed at exposing victim-blaming, rape culture, street harassment and sexual violence, will take place on University Boulevard and Fourth Avenue at 5 p.m. on Nov. 19, followed by a speak out at Café Passé at 6 p.m. There will be a resource fair in the Women’s Plaza of Honor at 4 p.m. before the march for anyone struggling with these issues.
Some of the organizations participating in or sponsoring SlutWalk Tucson are the Culture of Peace Alliance, The Men’s Project, the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, the UA Women’s Resource Center and the Feminists Organized to Resist, Create, Change and Empower group on campus.
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The SlutWalk has occurred in Tucson since 2011, after SlutWalk was created the same year in Toronto, Canada, as a global movement and practice after police announced “women could reduce the risk of sexual assault by not dressing like ‘sluts,’ ” according to the SlutWalk Facebook page.
Lili Steffen, a sociology, German and eSociety senior, and Taylor Ducklow, a film and television creative writing senior, organized this year’s SlutWalk Tucson. Steffen is the community outreach coordinator for FORCE and Ducklow runs the event’s social media outreach, specifically SlutWalk Tucson’s Instagram page.
“There’s not a lot of dialogue about rape culture,” Ducklow said. “There’s not a lot of dialogue about what happens when someone is shamed for their sexuality or how it makes someone feel. Campus is actually where, for me, I’ve experience the harshest slut-shaming.”
Kati Standefer, a sexuality writer and activist in Tucson, and Adiba Nelson, a local body-positivity blogger and activist, will speak at the speak out after the march, Steffen and Ducklow said.
The second half of the speak out is open to anyone to share personal stories about overcoming sexual violence or just their thoughts about exposing rape culture in general.
Allyson Hatch, a neuroscience sophomore, said she thinks street harassment like catcalling could trigger some people more than others.
“You never know who has been a victim of sexual assault,” Hatch said. “You never know who’s been a victim of something bad that’s arisen from something like catcalling.”
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Steffen and Ducklow said they’ve had people in the community protest the cause of the event in past years and will not tolerate hate speech at this SlutWalk.
“In the past, we’ve had Brother Dean and the likes of him show up to the event,” Steffen said. “We will have peacekeepers there in the form of our interns who will hopefully try to stay on the fringes and shield everyone attending from any kind of hate speech. Hopefully we’ll also be doing chants and have a solidarity effort to shut that out.”
Fiona Davey, a public health junior, is one of the student directors of the FORCE group.
“Sexism is pretty common on campus,” Davey said. “It’s not just in Greek Life, but fraternity-party culture is a huge problem that’s a part of rape culture. Not talking about that’s also a part of rape culture.”
Eduardo Cruz, an astronomy freshman, said catcalling is inappropriate, but it’s how a lot of men try to get a woman’s attention.
“No one deserves sexual assault or rape—no matter the circumstance,” Steffen said.
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