On a sunny Sunday afternoon in April, close to two hundred people gathered at Marianne’s Park to participate in Guelph’s first annual SlutWalk. As a sister event to the SlutWalk in Toronto, the group is set out to shift the stereotypes that surround sexual assault and make clear that those who encounter it are never at fault. The main message SlutWalk Guelph promotes is that “… society has taught ‘don’t get raped’ rather than ‘don’t rape’ so we want to change the language and teach people what it means to obtain consent.”
The SlutWalk Guelph Team consists of University of Guelph students Kara-Lynn Carder, Elsa Bagg and Alexandra Bogoslowski. Team member Kara became involved as a result of a class project to get outside the classroom and do something for the community. She had originally planned to invite the SlutWalk Toronto information-board to speak at the University of Guelph. But the following weekend, Kara and friend Elsa attended the ‘Do So Much Conference’ where they had the opportunity to meet and speak with Heather Jarvis, the co-found of the original SlutWalk based out of Toronto. This inspired the two to start discussing the creation of a SlutWalk based out of Guelph.
“If it hadn’t been for Matthew Peacore of the CSA’s ASAP committee, who overheard our conversation […] about possibly creating a SlutWalk here in Guelph, none of this would have been possible.” Peacore offered the CSA’s assistance with the cause, which resulted in the CSA co-sponsoring this movement. The third member of the team, Alexandra, joined when she overheard the others discussing it since she too had planned on getting involved with the movement. It is said that the Guelph chapter came about “…very quick and sort of happened by coincidence.”
When the Ontarion asked about how SlutWalk Guelph differed from the original based out of Toronto, they spoke about not only being in “solidarity” with the original movement, but wanting to focus on specific issues based in the Guelph community. “The original Toronto movement focused on the Toronto Police Services asking them to do better in their training and enforcement. While this is an important issue, it is specific to the Toronto community.” said the team. “With SlutWalk Guelph our mission is to question and end victim blaming, slut-shaming and sexual assault within the Guelph and Wellington area.”
They were also very pleased with the outcome as the crew had high hopes, but knew that many movements would “take years to create a solid base of participants.” “We even joked at one point saying ‘well, at least we have 20 volunteers plus family coming’ to keep ourselves from being disappointed.” But this was not the case as Marianne’s Park began to crowd with people on the afternoon of April 21. The team even positively states that they “would have been satisfied if only a few people had shown up because even one person means that the word is out and it’s important to people.”
Many discussions occurred on Facebook following the event and the SlutWalk team tried to address as many comments as possible. One major topic of discussion was the need for various permits from the police in order to hold this event.
Some shared their thoughts about needing to obtain a permit from police in order to rally, and how they felt it impeded on their right to protest. While the SlutWalk Team understands these opinions, they state that “the permit was obtained to ensure the participants safety in the event and allowed the city to work with us rather than against.” Some of the Facebook commenter’s main issue with the permit was that they had to stay on the sidewalk, but they assured “this isn’t the case for all permits and will not be a restriction in next year’s events as we will have four months to apply for the permit.” While many were opposed to the need for a permit, “… its use was the reason we pulled this event off successfully.”
Even though there was much controversy surrounding the name, its members believe the shock factor will begin important discourse on the issues of the march. Most criticisms were aimed at the reappropriation of the word slut: “We understand the controversy surrounding the name SlutWalk, however we see many movements leave little impact with names such as ‘End Sexual Violence.’ The name SlutWalk has a shock factor that creates an open and honest dialogue on issues that are normally stigmatized in our society.” Although the team understand the criticisms, they stick by the original movement and want to keep the name.
As members of the Guelph campus and community, the members of this team see the need to address issues surrounding sexual assault, violence and victim-blaming within the community. “This issue is often talked about behind closed doors, or not at all, and we want to create a positive space for discussion.”
To get involved with SlutWalk Guelph, follow ‘slutwalkguelph’ on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr for future updates.