SlutWalk hopes to shift blame away from victims

Women's rights activists marched from the National Mall to the White House last Saturday to support a movement called SlutWalk. Protests under that name argue it's wrong to link sexual violence against women with the ways in which they dress.

West Hollywood resident Lindsay Horvath spoke to KPCC's Larry Mantle about the movement. She says she helped organize first SlutWalk in Los Angeles earlier this year.

“I don’t know that any person who dresses provocatively is saying that they are not expecting to get some sort of attention from an onlooker," she said.

"What they are not doing is inviting a crime to be perpetrated on their person. Rape and sexual assault is not about sex – it’s about power. It’s about control. It is a crime. It does not happen because a woman is dressed provocatively.”

A Toronto police officers remark that women should avoid dressing like sluts for their own safety prompted the first SlutWalk in April. Similar protests have sprung up in cities throughout Canada, the U.S., India and Europe.