By: Vinny Sottile
For the fourth consecutive year, UCF hosted a SlutWalk event on Wednesday, a march that informs people about the culture of sexual assault victims. The event was started on April 3, 2011 in Canada in response to a Toronto policeman suggesting women could stay safe from rape if they would “stop acting like sluts.”
“A lot of people don’t really know the story behind what’s been going on and use the word slut jokingly,” Nicole Maragh, a senior health science major said. “I think it is something that needs to be changed, and they are doing a good job of making that happen.”
The event was held on a gloomy day, and the wind was blowing the march banners wildly, one reading “I only consent to pizza.” These are but a few of the signs that officers of the College Democrats at UCF were displaying to show their support of SlutWalk and its mission to end what they call “rape culture.”
“The policemen at York College told the student body that women would be better off if they didn’t dress like sluts,” said the UCF College Democrats women’s caucus representative Samantha Barrell. “We are trying to stop rape culture and make the rapists accountable for their actions.”
Every year since the beginning of SlutWalk at UCF, the College Democrats and women and men alike gather to make signs proclaiming their role as sluts and working to end rape culture. They also parade signs around campus, circling the Reflection Pond. They eventually come back to where they listen to speeches put on by members of the UCF community that have either been affected by rape personally, or have experienced rape culture.
“I think this is an important event because it draws attention to an issue that a lot of people at this age just don’t acknowledge,” Fawn Goldstein, a senior psychology major said. “Those things are rape culture which is basically the idea that if a woman dresses provocatively or drinks too much, or walks alone at night, she deserves to be raped.”
Due to the bad weather, only the first half of the event took place, which was the making of promotional signs that they would later use for the actual walk, and the distribution of material about rape culture, for the main purpose of bringing awareness to the problem.
“This event is calling attention to the fact that rapists rape,” said Mia Warshofsky. “Nobody asks for it.”
The walk itself and the speakers have been postponed until March 26th at the Reflection Pond.
