Crowding Baltimore's Inner Harbor, roughly 200 to 250 people gathered to raise awareness about sexual assault and victimization. Last Saturday, Sept. 17, Hollaback Bmore! hosted the rally entitled SlutWalk Baltimore, a movement dedicated to fighting against street harassment.
After marching from the Inner Harbor to the War Memorial Lawn outside of Baltimore City Hall, several speakers informed and empowered the movement with personal stories, causes and even a bit of humor.
SlutWalk was organized in response to a Toronto Police Officer's claim that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized".
"I can say I was very happy with the turnout," Shawna Potter, director of Hollaback Bmore!, wrote in an e-mail to The News-Letter. "Every person there was passionate about helping to end the culture of victim-blaming. You could tell from the moving protest signs, great outfits and enthusiastic chanting. We even got a few passersby to stop and listen to the speeches and performances at the rally.
On first glance they were stereotypical young white college-aged men whom you could assume would not care about what we had to say, but you could see in their faces a wash of understanding and support as they listened to the stories."
SlutWalk comes to the Baltimore area in a timely manner, as earlier this year in April, a transgender woman was attacked in a McDonald's in East Baltimore. The woman suffered head trauma and a seizure from the incident.
The marchers consisted of different genders, ages, races and backgrounds. Some were survivors of sexual assault, others were impassioned supporters of a fight to end victim blaming, shaming and rape culture in general. Hopkins was represented by a number of students attending the event.
"It's a cause I'm passionate about, and I have personal ties to the issue," sophomore Megha Sharma said. "[SlutWalk will] help people become more aware of rape culture and other things of that nature that sometimes get swept under the rug."
The JHU Feminist Alliance also had a strong presence at the event, inspired by personal experience.
"It's important that we're out here representing the people at Hopkins who think things need changing," sophomore Tom Smith, president of the JHU Feminist Alliance, said. "I'm a transgender and I believe criticizing people for what they wear applies especially to transgender men and women."
Hopkins students were the vast minority compared to students and residents of the greater Baltimore area. Baltimore residents Michelle Zimmerman and Cait Mortenson both admit to feeling safer walking down 28th Street, which is considered to be a sketchy area, than in front of the frat houses in Charles Village.
"The original case [in Toronto] is so ludicrous. Dress doesn't mitigate the crime of rape," Mortenson said. "Nothing will ever make it okay. That's why I'm here."
Julia Salevan, a student at the University of Maryland, College Park said she attended because she is open about sex.
"I don't want to be shamed for it. I'm really tired of seeing sex being used as a weapon," Salevan said.
Mark Stewart, also a student at UMD, attended to advocate its cause.
"There are a lot of questions in life that are hard to figure out while some are very easy," Stewart said. "This is one of the easy ones and it's absurd that people don't realize that."
One of the more striking participants was UMD student Hannalore Gerling-Dunsmore, a survivor of sexual assault.
"I don't think women should have to go through what I had to, and still continue to go through [it]," she said. "My story was turned into a spectacle. People thought it was funny because I was drunk when it happened. I was 15 and he was in his twenties. I was only able to come forward about it this summer, and I was lucky because I have a supportive mom who got me through it. Other women shouldn't deal with that. We shouldn't be blamed."
Following the march, outside of Baltimore City Hall, the group congregated to listen to a variety of speakers. First was Rodkell James, a spoken word poet and survivor of sexual assault, who performed her poem "Tape Player," about her assault and how she is empowered to move forward with her life even though the memories still haunt her.
Next was Corey Reidy of United Workers, who talked about the aversion she had faced working in a bar and various restaurants, and the various projects that United Workers is currently undertaking to help combat this.
Following that was a bit of comedic relief from comedienne Luce Tomlin-Brenner. "We can no longer shame women for having sex because it turns out, scientifically, that all people who like breathing also like sex!" Tomlin-Brenner said in her stand-up routine.
The event then took on a very somber note when Keynote Speaker Kate Rush-Cook took the stage and detailed her six hour awful situation in 1993 that included being kidnapped, robbed, terrorized and raped, as well as the subsequent investigation and trial, where the rapist's defense accused Rush-Cook of being a prostitute because she was dressed in a camisole in a bad part of town at night, even though she was in the car, and, at gunpoint, made to go with her captor.
The man was acquitted of all charges after a juror overheard Rush-Cook crying to her mother in the bathroom about how she wanted to be able to go back to normal life and wear her normal clothes, not the sweater, turtleneck and pinstripe pants "victim clothes" that her lawyer had told her to wear for the trial.
The juror somehow mistook this statement as Rush-Cook saying that she wanted to dress provocatively.
After Rush-Cook, Katie Cussino took the stage and performed "My Short Skirt" from "The Vagina Monologues" as a reminder and empowerment to the group that women should be allowed to wear what they want and feel good about it.
"[I hope] people will walk by [the event] and ask ‘what the hell is going on?" Mortenson said.
For the first event of its kind in Baltimore, it was a successful start that paves the way to stronger movements to come.
"I had no idea what to expect - I just hoped for the best," Potter wrote. "Even if only five people attended, as long as their hearts were in it, it would've been totally satisfying.
"There is always room for improvement. If we decide to do SlutWalk again next year, that will remain a priority throughout the process. Victims/Survivors come in all races, ages, orientations, classes, gender identities, abilities, etc., just like those who assault and rape. Exclusion is not an option because ending sexual assault, and victim-blaming of those who survive it affects everyone."
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