TORONTO — Thousands were expected to strut their inner slut Sunday in Toronto at the first-ever SlutWalk — a grassroots march organized to voice outrage over a police officer's recent suggestion that victims can be blamed for sexual assaults because of how they dress.
"Our stance is that a slut is an attitude, not a look," said march organizer Sonya JF Barnett on Friday. "We want people to come as they are. If they're comfortable in fishnets and stilettos, great. If they want to wear jeans and a parka, that's great too."
Barnett, 38, and her friend, 25-year-old University of Guelph student Heather Jarvis, came up with the idea for SlutWalk a few weeks ago in response to a Toronto police officer's comments at a university safety forum.
On Jan. 24, Const. Michael Sanguinetti told a group of students at York University "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized."
Both the police force and the constable have since apologized for the comments.
But Barnett said the fact that an officer would make those comments in the first place points to systematic issues of "victim-blaming" within the police service.
SlutWalk, which started as just a small gathering of a few friends, is expected to involve more than 3,000 people. The march and rally will start at Ontario's legislature with speeches and then wind its way to Toronto police headquarters.
Many of those who signed up did so on Facebook and Twitter.
Barnett said she is still in shock at how much the idea has "snowballed" into a movement, as organizers from across Canada and the U.S. plan similar walks.
Ottawa and London, Ont., have scheduled their own SlutWalks next week while protesters in Vancouver, Dallas, Boston and Birmingham, Alabama, are also in talks with her about doing their own satellite events.
"We're doing this to re-appropriate the word 'slut'," said Barnett, a Toronto resident who works in the arts sector. "It doesn't mean necessarily a woman but it does mean someone who is sexually confident and isn't ashamed to enjoy something like sex. Sluts aren't immoral or unethical people."
Those planning on attending the march come from all walks of life, she said: men, women, seniors, university students, parents, gay and straight.
Organizers of SlutWalk say they expect the march to be an annual event. They say they hope to start a dialogue on retraining police officers and provide a outreach program to high school and university students.
Toronto police spokeswoman Const. Wendy Drummond said no one from the force will be speaking at Sunday's event, but officers will be there to monitor the march, which is a standard practice for all demonstrations.
"Those comments by that one officer were not reflective of the service," she said. "That is not how we trained our officers and who we are and for that we apologized. It simply is not how we do business."
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