Before you can talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. That’s the idea behind Walk a Mile in Her Shoes: The International Men’s March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault & Gender Violence.
In order to understand women’s experience, Walk a Mile in Her Shoes events literally ask male participants to walk one mile in women’s high-heeled shoes. What started in 2001 as a small group of men daring to totter around a park in heels has grown to become a world-wide movement that UTC students are happy to participate in. On October 13, our campus’s fraternities participated in a high-heeled relay race in order to raise awareness and funds about sexualized violence against women.
Walking a mile in her shoes isn’t easy to do, if the wobbling gait of the participants was anything to go by, but it is a playful opportunity for men to raise awareness about sexualized violence against women in their community. In addition to raising awareness, participants also raised funds for Chattanooga’s only Rape Crisis Center at the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults. Donations were made to the center in lieu of an entry fee and the participants had to attend a consent workshop and answer questions about what they learned to advance.
“It’s a hot button issue right now. We want to stand with the Women’s Action Council and raise awareness,” said Stuart Parry, a student with Kappa Sigma.
Ten students from Kappa Sigma, ranging from freshmen through seniors, participated in the event.
“We want our freshmen to be just as involved as upper classmen,” said Parry.
Open communication about sexualized violence is critical, and the ideal behind Walk a Mile in Her Shoes is to get communities talking about something usually too difficult to discuss. Every two minutes, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted and one out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. People that have experienced sexualized violence want to forget about it and people unfamiliar with sexualized violence against women don’t even want to know it exists. However, while hidden away, sexualized violence is immune to cure. Walk a Mile in Her Shoes seeks to change that. Worldwide, with tens of thousands of men have raised millions of dollars for local rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters and other sexualized violence education, prevention and remediation programs.
The event was coordinated by Harlee Milligan, the Facilitator for Women’s Action Council, with Andrew Sawyer, InterFraternity Council President. The Women’s Action Council is the student group partnered with the Women’s Center. The two organizations work closely together to advocate for women on the UTC campus and the Chattanooga community.
The UTC Women’s Center holds other events to raise awareness and funds for sexualized violence against women. In October, the Women’s Center sponsored Take Back The Night, an internationally recognized event that is a visible stand against sexual violence. This event included speaker Kate Price, commercial sexual exploitation survivor, a march to raise awareness about these issues in our community, a candlelight vigil to honor victims and celebrate survivors, and a silent auction benefiting the Rape Crisis Center at the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults.
For more information about the Women’s Center, click here. For more information about the Rape Crisis Center at the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults, click here.
“… people unfamiliar with sexualized violence against women don’t even want to know it exists …” That is understandable on one hand but makes two things very difficult if not impossible: a) effective prevention and b) law enforcement. While everyone is likely to take up a “class” in burglary prevention should the local police offer one, there is hardly anyone dares to talk to girls about e.g. what to do “after” it happened. More often than not rape victims will delay calling the police for days, they will have washed off all traces of e.g. semen and they will do so naturally in a state of shock and from feeling utterly debased and “filthy”. However, to catch the perpetrators and esp. to win in court and hopefully that way prevent repeat offenses by the same offender (and often by others who learn through “swift justice”!) the first reaction of women after a rape attempt or worse is paramount. And since the single women in that situation are unlikely to react “reliably” it would mean to teach girls in confidante groups “well ahead” (and, if my anecdotal experiences with that are any guide, it will raise awareness just enough to, say, make that “one in six” a “one in ten” or less).