11.46 am, Thursday May 24 2012

'SlutWalking' movement takes off in Australia

11:30 AEDT Fri May 20 2011
By Anne Lin, ninemsn
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Women march through downtown Boston in the US during the
Women march through downtown Boston in the US during the "SlutWalks" earlier this month. (AP)
The walk was held in response to a Toronto police officer who said women shouldn't dress like
The walk was held in response to a Toronto police officer who said women shouldn't dress like "sluts" if they wanted to avoid being raped. (AP)

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More than 9500 protestors have already registered on Facebook to attend "SlutWalks" across Australia to campaign for the right to wear what they like without being sexually harassed.

The anti-rape protest was sparked by the comments from a Canadian police officer, Michael Sanguinetti, who told students during a personal safety talk that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised".

The police officer has since apologised for his comments, but the movement against blaming the victims of sexual assault has gone global, with protests spreading across the US, Europe and now Australia.

Social networking sites are being used to organise the event in Australia, which happens in Melbourne and Brisbane on May 28 and Sydney on June 13.

Other protests, including Adelaide and Canberra, are set to follow.

One of the Melbourne organisers, 28-year-old Clementine Bastow, told ninemsn that the main message SlutWalk hopes to convey is that those who experience sexual assault are never the ones at fault.

"It doesn't matter what they were wearing, doing, saying — the only person at fault is the perpetrator," Ms Bastow said.

Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, told ninemsn the way a woman chooses to dress has no link to the likelihood that she will be sexually assaulted.

"What women wear should not dictate how they are treated. Everyone is entitled to live their life free from discrimination, harassment and violence and what an individual woman decides to wear does not in any way change this principle," Ms Broderick said.

"The fact is that one in five women over the age of fifteen will be sexually assaulted at some stage in their life. That is the problem we have to solve and what they wear has absolutely nothing to do with it."

According to the recent ABS Crime Victimisation survey of 2009/2010, there were 43,000 reported cases of sexual assault nationally.

The survey also found that women overwhemingly recorded higher rates of sexual assault than men, with 79 per cent or 34,000 of the victims being female.

Sydney resident Audry Autonomy, 27, told ninemsn she will be going along to the protests because she has "experienced victim blaming and slut shaming for too long" in her work as a sex worker.

Ms Autonomy said the SlutWalk is an opportunity to stand up to the stigma and discrimination aimed at her colleagues, and believes sexual assault should not be a part of any workplace, regardless of what industry women are in.

"Sexual assault is just as traumatic, just as brutal, and illegal in a brothel, as if you're a nurse, a childcare teacher or a police officer. Rape can never be ok and sexual assault is always inexcusable."

 

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