Sponsored message
Logged in as
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen
  • Listen Now Playing Listen

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

Amber Rose Is Hosting A 'SlutWalk' in Downtown L.A.

One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.

Model Amber Rose has an official date for her Los Angeles 'SlutWalk,' a movement that started a few years ago after a police officer told a group of female college students that if they didn't want to get sexually assaulted, they should avoid dressing like 'sluts.'

Rose's SlutWalk will take place on October 3 in Pershing Square from noon to 5 p.m. There will be a full day of events surrounding the walk, though those events have yet to be released. You can follow the event's progress on Twitter here. Sponsor, vendor and volunteer information can be found online here. If it's anything like other SlutWalks, we can expect to see people in various stages of dress promoting empowerment.

The 31-year-old model is no stranger to 'slut shaming.' Kanye West, whom she dated between 2008 and 2010, said in an interview on Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club, "It's very hard for a woman to want to be with someone that's been with Amber Rose…I had to take 30 showers before I got with Kim [Kardashian]." This was after some back and forth jabbing in interviews and social media, beginning with Rose saying that Kylie Jenner and rapper Tyga's relationship was inappropriate (Tyga's 25 and Jenner's 17). Khloe Kardashian shot back, bringing up how Rose once said in an interview with Jamie Foxx that she began stripping at age 15.

Though Rose first seemed to do a little slut shaming of her own, bringing up Kardashian's famed sex tape with singer Ray J., Rose decided to organize a Slut Walk. She explained her reasons for it:

It's important for me because I deal with it every day. I deal with it via social media, people out on the street. I feel like women deal with that constantly on a daily basis, and I'm sick of it. I'm here for my girls. We're going to do the Amber Rose Slut Walk this summer, and it's going to be awesome. I'm going to do it in L.A. this year, and hopefully New York, Chicago, Miami.

SlutWalks first came about in April of 2011 in Toronto as a protest. On January 24, 2011, Toronto Police Constable Michael Sanguinetti spoke with another officer about sexual assault on campus at a York University forum on student safety. Sanguinetti interrupted the other officer's comments to say something unfortunate: "I've been told I'm not supposed to say this. However, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order to not be victimized."

Well, that didn't go over too well. Sanguinetti later apologized for his comment, saying it was "hurtful" and that he was embarrassed that he'd made it in the first place. Both Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair and spokeswoman Meaghan Gray denounced Sanguinetti's comments, but his statement did seem to highlight a pervasive problem of victim blaming, according to SlutWalk cofounders Sonya Barnett and Heather Jarvis.

Sponsored message

Barnett and Jarvis organized the protest to reclaim the word 'slut.' "We are tired of being oppressed by slut-shaming; and of being judged by our sexuality and feeling unsafe as a result," SlutWalk Toronto's website reads. "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."

Barnett also drew attention to the case of Kenneth Rhodes, a Canadian man who was sentenced to two years house arrest being convicted of sexual assault in 2011. Rhodes had met a woman at a bar and invited her to a party, but ended up raping her on the side of the road instead, telling the victim that it would "only hurt for a little while." Justice Robert Dewar, a Manitoba judge, was lenient with Rhodes. Dewar pointed out that the victim and her friend were wearing tube tops the night they went out with Rhodes, and that Rhodes believed "sex was in the air." Dewar called Rhodes "a clumsy Don Juan."

The first SlutWalk in April in Toronto drew 3,000 attendees, some dressed provocatively and others not. SlutWalks then sprung up all over the U.S., as well as in Europe, Latin America, South Korea, India and Singapore. Many of these SlutWalks are now annual events.

Rose discusses her SlutWalk in the video below:

One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.

If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible donation today