Quick Thoughts on Slutwalk

The crowd congregating at Queen's Park

I went to Slutwalk today.

The crowd was great! Tons of people of all ages, men and women and gender queer, people of all colours, and sexual orientations. The signs people made were clever and thoughtful. I loved seeing the outfits that people chose - lots of slutty clothes. There were spontaneous outbursts of chanting; and some folks brought percussion instruments and were playing an awesome beat that people were dancing to.

The range of speakers was pretty good. The organizers (Sonya Barnett and Alyssa Teekah) talked about the word "slut" and why we were reclaiming it, and about sexual assault on university campuses (especially York); and about the institutional power that we were opposing. Deb Singh of the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre talked about working with survivors and their experiences with the Toronto police blaming them for their assaults. Michael Kaufman of the White Ribbon Campaign talked about the responsibility that men have to discourage rape and to combat rape culture.

Jane Doe also spoke. I was so impressed with her. She has such a positive, energetic, forceful personality. I had wondered what kind of character it took to sue a police force, and now I know. She spoke about the problems with the current police training programs, and issued a challenge to mayor Rob Ford to institute real change.

I teared up several times.

I've been getting pissed off at feminists on the internet recently for massive intersectionality fails, and failures to check their privilege. So it was encouraging to see the organizers, as young feminists, making an effort to be inclusive and acknowledge all the various groups that are effected by rape, and who were at the walk, and who the organizers worked with.

I came away from the walk pumped and excited and feeling really positive. There's a huge group of us who care about equality, and who are demanding change.

On the march

All photos were taken by me.
For news coverage, better photos, and video, see CityTV, Toronto Star gallery and article, the Toronto Sun (stay away from the comments), and CBC