Signs in hand, Denise Holling and a handful of activists stood under a gray sky at the corner of 72nd and Dodge Streets on Thursday. A flattened piece of cardboard read, "Honk if you hate rape." A chorus of car horns sounded as they passed. The group hoped to draw attention to their upcoming rally.
Their numbers swelled to near 75 on Sunday during the Omaha SlutWalk, a local chapter of a global campaign to end victim-blaming. The crowd — an almost equal split of men and women — marched from Gene Leahy Mall through downtown Omaha, carrying signs and chanting. "No means no," they shouted.
Onlookers stared with looks ranging from mild curiosity to encouragement as the parade made its way across the streets.
There were fishnets, dresses and corsets. Mostly jeans and sweatshirts. There wasn't a dress code. To care about this cause, Holling said, you only need a heart.
The rally caught fire in January after a police officer in Toronto met with a group of college students to discuss campus safety. He suggested women avoid sexual harassment by not dressing like "sluts." In response, an estimated 1,500 people crowded the streets of Toronto in April. It was the first ever SlutWalk, a play on the officer's words. Since then, the movement has spread to other parts of Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere across the globe, including South Africa where rape is considered a national crisis.
Their mission is two-part: end victim-blaming and end "slut-shaming."
"This sparked something in people that they've been waiting to say for a very long time, and now they have their chance and platform to say it," said Holling, the organizer of Omaha's chapter.
"The purpose of SlutWalk is to raise awareness about common rape myths, to shed light on the real causes of rape and to end victim-blaming and shift the blame back where it belongs, which is on the rapists."
Rape is a violent crime that deals with exercising control over another person, said Lynne Lange, the director of Nebraska Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Coalition.
"It's not an issue of people being singled out because they're dressed a certain way," she said.
Unfortunately, victim-blaming does remain strong in our society, Lange added. "A lot of this centers around the need for education. People tend to focus on the victim instead of focusing on holding the perpetrator responsible."
The group's other aim — re-appropriating the word slut — is "second-fiddle," Holling said, though it's hard to ignore, given the rally's name.
It grabs people. To a degree, that's the point, she said. But it pushes some of them away.
It's by far the event's strongest criticism, Holling said. A few even responded on the group's Facebook page, asking coordinators to change the name, proof the word "slut" still carries weight, she said.
"Referring to a woman as a slut is a way to cut her down. It doesn't really stem from any of her choices," she said. "It stems from wanting to make her feel bad about herself."
The group's solution is to "own" the word to eliminate its power, rather than discourage people from using it.
"They're not grabbing as big of an audience as they can with the title, but I think the premise is beautiful," said Lindsay Novak, a certified sex therapist and director of the Pelvic Pain and Sexual Medicine Clinic at Methodist Women's Center in Omaha.
"(People) are missing the message in sexual assault awareness as (organizers) try to reclaim the word."
Victoria Lopez, 18, hopes the controversy isn't enough to turn people away. She spoke to a group of about 35 people who gathered at the Dundee Dell near 50th and Underwood Streets following the march.
Lopez shared her own experience. She supports the cause so strongly, she said, because she was raped. "Yes, it happened, but I am not a victim," she said. "I am a survivor."
She was wearing a knee-length pink floral-print dress the night it happened, she said, one she couldn't wear to the rally because it's considered evidence in her case that is currently winding its way through the courts.
Others shared their reasons for walking, too. One wore pajamas, the outfit she said she was raped in. . Their words were met with tears, applause and a promise to keep fighting on behalf of sexual assault victims everywhere.
"When I first started (organizing the event), I was concerned that nobody would care . . . I was wrong," Holling said, her voice filling the room.
"This is not the last you will hear from us . . . This is the beginning."
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