Apr 12 2011
The Activist Beat – 04/12/11
The Activist Beat with Rose Aguilar, host of Your Call on KALW in San Francisco is a weekly roundup of progressive activism that the mainstream media ignores, undercovers, or misrepresents.
Over the next few months, men and boys across the country, from Jackson, Mississippi, to Ogden, Utah, will wear high heels to raise awareness about sexual assault and rape.
Walk a Mile in Her Shoes is an international men’s march to stop rape, sexual assault, and gender violence.
According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, someone in the US is sexually assaulted every two minutes, 1 in 6 women and men in the US has experienced an attempted rape, 60 percent of assaults are not reported, and 15 out of 16 rapists will never spend a day in jail.
On Friday, a few dozen men in heels took to the streets of Anchorage, Alaska. The state has the highest sexual assault rate in the nation. According to the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center, more than half of the women living in Alaska have been assaulted. How many women never report the assault? Wouldn’t it be nice if Sarah Palin were asked about this? Just once.
The men in Anchorage held signs saying, “No Means No!”, “Shatter the Silence,” and Got Consent???”
On Saturday, hundreds of men, including a two-year-old boy, struggled to walk in heels to benefit the Rape Crisis Center in Lubbock, Texas, where more than 300 people were sexually assaulted last year alone. Seventy-five percent of Texans either have been or know someone who’s been sexually assaulted.
In the comment section of the Lubbock Avalance-Journal, Jeff Ross wrote, “Walkers included men of many different types, conservative and liberal, young and not so young, gay and straight, many different skin tones, many different shapes and sizes.”
Men also marched in Redding, California, Columbia, South Carolina, Westminister, Maryland, Orem, Utah, Palestine, Texas, and Newport News, Virginia.
This event has yet to receive national media attention. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, so maybe a major outlet will pay attention to this important issue.
Over 100 similar events are scheduled in the coming months. Visit walkamileinhershoes.org for more information.
A related event, Denim Day in LA, will kick off on April 27 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Denim Day was first took place in Italy after the Italian High Court ruled that a 45-year-old man was “not guilty” after raping an 18-year-old young woman because the court believed that there was no way he could have raped her without taking her jeans off. The 1991 decision stated that “it is common knowledge that jeans cannot even be partly removed without the effective help of that person wearing them and it is impossible if the victim is struggling with all her might.”
The decision was later reversed, but the shock and outcry around the world sparked the creation of Denim Day. Women and men are asked to wear jeans as a sign of solidarity and support for sexual assault survivors. It doesn’t matter what you wear. Nobody has the right to assault you.
Denim Day in LA is being organized by the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Over 500,000 people are already registered. For more information, visit denimdayla.org
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