Dozens of students gathered around the Student Union sound stage Wednesday to combat sexual harassment and what is being called “slut shaming.”
The UCF College Democrats, in collaboration with women’s groups like the UCF’s National Organization for Women and American Association of University Women chapters, held a rally and later marched to the Hitt Library and back to the patio.
“I’ve always believed that another person’s appearance should never affect their safety,” College Dems president Nikki Mariutto said. “It was kind of beyond me how a person could blame the victim in a situation of rape and assault. However, when I became a victim, I suddenly started thinking differently – I questioned if I would have been in that position if I had worn a longer skirt or even if I put on a different amount of make-up.”
She continued: “It’s taken me a long time to get to where I am today, and now I realize something more important for everyone to know. Regardless of race, gender or sexuality, you should never feel at fault for a sex crime.”
The rally was attended by Linda Stewart, a former state representative and currently a candidate for the Florida Senate District 13 on the Democratic ticket, and is campaigning in part to combat legislative actions that affect access to abortions and other services involving women’s health.
“Women have been targeted for decades, and we’re tired of it,” Stewart said. “We don’t need the legislators or elected officials telling us what we need to do with our bodies. We can make that decision on our own.”
Also at the rally were students who created and held up signs with words condemning sexual assault and the characterization of women as “sluts” for dressing in a way some would see as provocative. One student wrote the word “Slut” on his chest and held up a sign bearing the words “still not asking for it.”
“There are no ‘blurred lines,’” another sign said.
College Dems member and political science student Ashley Joyce-Nyack, took the microphone and told the story of how she was sexually assaulted as a child and was accused by the perpetrator of provoking him.
“The [perpetrator] then went forward to the cops and told the cops that because of the way I was dressing, because I didn’t know about my own body, that I was asking for it,” she said. “Luckily, this didn’t lead to a lack of justice, but for many people it does.”
Two other speakers, NOW secretary Kayla Infantino and UCF alumna and women’s rights activist Chelsea Daley, showed their support as well. Infantino highlighted the need to “teach people how not to rape instead of teaching people how not to be raped.”
The rally briefly heckled by one student who shouted apologies for “being a white male.” He tried interrupting the rally again by asking for solutions to institutionalized racism, questions which were ignored by those attending the rally.
Following the speeches, Mariutto led a march that followed a route through the breezeway, around the library and back to the Union’s sound stage. The marchers chanted in a call-and-response, which caught the attention of students who happened to be close by.
“Join together free our lives,” Mariutto would begin, to which the marchers responded: “No one will be victimized.”
A student separate from the first heckler walked in front of the march holding a sign behind his back that said “rape ≠ regret,” which inspired marchers to chant louder.
UCF’s Slut Walk is inspired by a global movement sparked in 2011 after a Canadian police officer told students to “stop dressing like sluts” to avoid sexual assault. The College Dems have been hosting the event annually ever since.
“Did you just take a breath?” Daley said. “Great. You deserve respect.”
