A diverse group turned out for today's SlutWalk, a grassroots movement to protest against sexual violence, victim-blaming and slut-shaming. The day started with sign-making in Union Square, followed by a march which is still going on with an impassioned rally back at Union Square.
One woman, Holly Meyer, explained why she was marching in a post on the Daily Kos:
One night in January after a lot of dancing at a friend’s house party in Brooklyn, a male neighbor and I made our way back to our building less than a mile away. We’d both consumed alcoholic beverages but nothing unusual for twenty-somethings on a Saturday night. My roommate had a new love interest at home with him, so to give him some privacy I went back to the neighbor’s apartment to crash, which I’d done several times before. I felt safe going back there as I’d spent a lot of time with this neighbor in a Will & Grace, Glee-watching, Katy Perry-listening kind of way. He’d had a homosexual relationship for more than a year prior to our being neighbors and for all intents and purposes I thought of him and treated him like a gay, male friend.
The next thing I know I’m feeling my pants being pulled down off my body. I heard the neighbor mutter, “Time to take charge of this situation.”
You can read most about Meyer's awful experience here—she adds, "When I finally felt able to tell people what happened, I was asked numerous times about what I had been wearing and if I had anything to drink. The fact that I was wearing grey pants and a black sweater and had consumed alcohol that evening should not have any bearing on what happened to me that night in January."
The first SlutWalk took place in Toronto, after a police officer told female students not to dress like sluts in order to avoid sexual assaults. Funny, since that's basically what NYPD cops are now telling women in parts of Brooklyn where a series of attacks have occurred.
