I think the great thing about this cause area, to end violence against women and other genders, is the diversity of opinions about who women are, who victims are, who survivors of violence are. Our cause area is made up of billions of faces, representing all aspects of society. This means we gather our strength from our diversity, because it will take billions of voices to make this change. It only makes it harder to gather such diversity into a cohesive voice to make change, but we must do it. The idea of slutwalks comes out of the nonsense that clothing invites rape and pushes wearers to the status of “less than” in our society. These events, like all events that push boundaries, will bring awareness to those who may need to see the ludicrousness of linking clothing to rape acceptance. Not all people, even victims, will understand them. There are, of course, many campaigns that exist to address these issues in other formats. I hope we can support them all, as it takes many, many types of speech to effect changes in society. I think we may want to consider forgiving survivors who can’t understand all the messages our cause needs to put out there because their wounds are deep and we don’t know what will trigger them. Just as we don’t always know what someone else does that could trigger us. Solidarity takes acceptance and support, however different we think we need to pursue this common goal.

Check out your local community for an Abolish the Blame or SlutWalk event and consider supporting their message to stop blaming victims of crime.

September 22nd is an Abolish the Blame event in Richmond, Virginia. Check them out on Facebook events and their page: slutwalkrva. And follow them on twitter slutwalkrva