The Feministing Five: Sonya Barnett and Heather Jarvis | Feministing {featured read}

Sonya Barnett and Heather Jarvis are the co-founders of SlutWalk, an incredibly badass protest organized against victim-blaming that was spurred by comments made by a Toronto law enforcement officer who said that women who don’t want to be assaulted, raped or otherwise “victimized” should avoid dressing “like sluts.”

It has also been the subject of much discussion over the past few weeks, inspiring awesome and necessary conversations about violence, assault, and victim-blaming in forums both new and old.

On their website, they proclaim that they 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.”

The event in Toronto was so successful that at least 24 more SlutWalks are now in the process of being planned all over the world. I was completely honored to speak with Sonya and Heather about their reasons for starting SlutWalk, their plans for the future, and of course, that whole desert island thing. Read More >>