Slut Walk Trafalgar Square on Saturday 4th June at 1pm

This started at the beginning of the year when a police officer in Toronto suggested that women shouldn't dress like "sluts" if they wanted to avoid being raped or assaulted. Constable Michael Sanguinetti was addressing students from York University at a safety forum last January when the remark slipped out. Although he later apologised and was disciplined by the Toronto police department, some women felt that his words revealed the inadequate treatment of sexual assault victims by many law enforcement agents

As you can imagine these remarks have sparked a string of complaints and now a number of internation protest marches.

"women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized"

If you get dressed up and wear a mini skirt or low cut top and get sexually assaulted then people assume you said yes at the time but then changed your mind when you sobered up. 

What happens though if a girl of 11 is dressed provocatively to look older and is then gang raped?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/us/09assault.html?_r=1 

Or how about a woman who gets drunk and the police officers who are there to help her home safely take advantage and rape her? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/nyregion/at-rape-trial-of-officers-woman-tells-of-hazy-violent-night.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp

Obviously it is the mothers fault for not knowing where her 11 year old daughter was and allowing her to dress that way and it was the other womans fault for getting so drunk she was unable to remember large chunks of the attack.  

I have been sexually assaulted as well as physically assaulted. One of my boyfriends very kindly gave me my first black eyes and tried to rape me when I refused to have sex with him. Another guy I know pushed me down the stairs trying to pin me down to get a grope but I managed to get away and that was in high school. My cousins boyfriend (of the time) tried to attack me in my own room because he thought we would have fun behind my cousins back, She couldnt believe he would do such a thing and so I got blamed. One of my friends got absolutely hammered, pinned me down in a pub and tried to strip me off it took 3 other friends to get me away from him, I jumped straight in my car and he jumped on the bonnet as I tried to drive off. My boyfriend at the time said that it was my own fault because I shouldnt hang around with the boys and I shouldnt have been wearing what I wore. It was a short skirt but knee length and a blouse but thats not the point. Some of these were people I thought were friends I grew up with one of them and the others I had known for at least 6 years having gone through high school with them. I was still a virgin up until the time my drunken friend and my cousins ex did what they did and then I was with my boyfriend for a few years and were even engaged, so no sexual promiscuity there. I am also teetotal so I was in control of my faculties.
I never told anyone but it took its toll on my confidence. It took me a long time to get over what had happened but if you met me in the street you would never ever guess that this was my past as I refuse to be a victim.

I dont like the word slut its very derogatory but I do like the organisers of the Slut Walks reasons:

“SlutWalk is not an event to recruit sluts, but to defend sluts”

Historically, the term ‘slut’ has carried a predominantly negative connotation. Aimed at those who are sexually promiscuous, be it for work or pleasure, it has primarily been women who have suffered under the burden of this label. And whether dished out as a serious indictment of one’s character or merely as a flippant insult, the intent behind the word is always to wound, so we’re taking it back. “Slut” is being re-appropriated.

We are tired of being oppressed by slut-shaming; of being judged by our sexuality and feeling unsafe as a result. Being in charge of our sexual lives should not mean that we are opening ourselves to an expectation of violence, regardless if we participate in sex for pleasure or work. No one should equate enjoying sex with attracting sexual assault.

We are a movement demanding that our voices be heard. We are here to call foul on our Police Force and demand change. We want Toronto Police Services to take serious steps to regain our trust. We want to feel that we will be respected and protected should we ever need them, but more importantly be certain that those charged with our safety have a true understanding of what it is to be a survivor of sexual assault — slut or otherwise.

We are tired of speeches filled with lip service and the apologies that accompany them. What we want is meaningful dialogue and we are doing something about it: WE ARE COMING TOGETHER. As people from all gender expressions and orientations, all walks of life, levels of employment and education, all races, ages, abilities, and backgrounds, from all points of this city and elsewhere.

We are asking you to join us for SlutWalk, to make a unified statement about sexual assault and victims’ rights and to demand respect for all. Whether a fellow slut or simply an ally, you don’t have to wear your sexual proclivities on your sleeve, we just ask that you come. Any gender-identification, any age. Singles, couples, parents, sisters, brothers, children, friends. Come walk or roll or strut or holler or stomp with us.