In late January 2011 in Toronto, Canada, York University students Sonya Barnett and Heather Jarvis
attended a forum on crime prevention and safety on campus. Little did they know that what they were
about to hear would lead them to launch a global protest movement. After hearing a local police constable
tell the audience, “I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this—however, women should avoid dressing
like sluts in order not to be victimized,” Barnett and Jarvis decided to take action. Describing themselves
as “fed up and pissed off” that anyone could blame girls and women for the sexual assaults committed
against them, they “wanted to do something other than just be angry.” So they began the work of organizing
a protest demonstration, using Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media to spread the word. In
early April 2011, over three thousand people gathered in downtown Toronto to take part in the action
planned by Barnett and Jarvis—a protest they called SlutWalk.^79
Barnett and Jarvis’s reclamation of the sexist slur “slut” was intended to shock and to mobilize. “We
called ourselves something controversial,” said Jarvis. “Did we do it to get attention? Damn right we
did!”^80 They designed the SlutWalk protest to stress one main point: no matter what they wear, no matter
what their sexual histories have been, all women should be free from sexual assault. As they stressed,
“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.”^81 Although the most widely distributed photos of the event
depicted women wearing what could be described as “slutty” clothing—worn by participants in order to
directly counter the suggestion that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be
victimized”—in fact attendees at the Toronto SlutWalk dressed in a wide range of styles; many wore
everyday clothes that covered most of the wearer’s body.
Like earlier feminist protests, SlutWalk was deliberately designed to gain media attention—and it did.
The SlutWalk movement quickly became a global phenomenon as information about the event and photos
of the protest went viral. In the months that followed the Toronto march, feminist activists all around the
world were inspired to organize SlutWalks in their own communities, including cities in Australia, Brazil,
India, Israel, and Poland, as well as many cities in the United States. The ability of this movement to
resonate with women around the world—even as sexual mores and definitions of female sexual autonomy
varied greatly in the countries that had SlutWalk protests—was a sign of how violence against women is a
global human rights problem that affects all women’s lives. No matter where or how they live, all women
face the risk of sexual assault and rape. Yet all women, the protesters argued, have a right to control their
own sexual agency. All women have a right to pursue sexual pleasure without shame.