No dress code
Over a thousand of people across gender, sex, race, education and profession all gathered outside the State Library of Victoria for the annual SlutWalk 2016.
September, 3 hosted the annual ‘SlutWalk’ Melbourne event where supporters and sufferers of sexual abuse and harassment gathered together, and marched down to Federation Square to help raise awareness of gender inequality.
The mission is to raise awareness about sexual injustice and gender inequality. It aims to uplift individuals and shift the paradigm of rape culture.
The ‘SlutWalk’ first started in Melbourne in 2011, where victims could share their survival stories and inspirational courage about their individual battles with the stigma of sexual abuse.
The aim of the march is to empower women and men and create an event which allows for a safe environment to speak up.
No more victim blaming, sexual violence, derogatory labels and no more gender inequality is what the event aims to promote.
Event co-founder and co-organiser Karen Pickering told The Age, that the SlutWalk’s timing was perfect, after the recent traumatic event that took place at Berwick High School. Young girls were named on a porn sharing website and were supposedly told by their superiors to stop wearing short skirts to prevent anything like this ever happening again.
The Co-founder told The Age that the school’s recommendations were ironic but not surprising.
“Every year this event coincides with the issue of policing women’s clothing. There’s a lot of push-back against that now. But people come here every year because the issue hasn’t gone away” She said.
Catherine Manning was one of the speakers on the day. Her Facebook post went viral after venting about the Berwick high schools response to females students. On the day she encouraged people to call out ‘slut shaming’ for what it was.
The Annual ‘SlutWalk’ march consists of girls wearing as little clothing as they feel comfortable. There is no dress code and that is exactly the point.
The event hopes to prevent farther victim blaming for sexual assaults and promote the fact that it doesn’t matter what clothing you wear, how you behave or what gender you are ‘no’ means ‘no’.
The host of the day, Burlesque dancer Amy Broomhall who wore a hessian sack spoke out about victims and reminded them that it wasn’t their fault. Miranda Sparks along with many others speakers shared their traumatic experiences on the day to empower individuals who attended the event.
The host, Amy Broomhall acknowledged on the day that attendant numbers are growing each year, but there is still a long way to go.
Kiandra Lane is a first year Master of Communications (Journalism Innovation) student, with a Bachelor degree in journalism. You can follow her on Twitter Kiandra__Lane.
The annual SlutWalk 2016 had no dress code, follow Kiandra__Lane to read more.#Melbournians #fedsquare
Breaking the paradigm of rape culture, Follow @Kiandra_Lane to read more. #melbournetodo #SlutWalk
Hopes rise to fight the stigma of gender inequality after increased numbers at the SlutWalk 2016. FollowKiandra__Lane to read more#SlutWalk
