“No means no” and “Don’t call a girl a slut for the same reason you call a guy a legend,” read some posters carried around campus by students participating in the annual Preventing Sexual Assault (PSA) “Slut Walk” on Friday, Oct. 14.
The “Slut Walk” is a student-led march organized by the on-campus organization PSA. PSA directs this event to raise awareness of sexual assault, specifically on college campuses such as the University of Maryland.
“We’re just trying to create a community of people who are there for each other and can support each other, but also having people walk by noticing that there is a sexual assault problem on this campus, but all college campuses, and its important to acknowledge that,” Anna Gerstein, junior public policy major and executive board member for fundraising, said.
Gerstein became involved with PSA after her experience with sexual assault on campus. During her first semester of college Gernstein was sexually assaulted by an athlete. A few days later she was walking through campus and saw PSA writing catcalls in chalk on the sidewalk.
“I approached Amanda, the president, who is now one of my closest friends, and I told her that I got sexually assaulted a few days prior,” Gernstein said.
From there Gerstein began her involvement with PSA.
“I think the biggest thing is today we’re trying to take back the word slut, and slut’s just used in a derogatory way to shame women and degrade women,” said Gerstein, “We’re trying to take that word back and show that we need to be empowered by the word.”
Sarah Jane Runge, a senior government/politics and womens studies double major, delivered an emotional account of her experience with sexual violence as a high schooler. Jane emphasized the importance of recognizing the signs of intimate partner violence.
“I guess the point of what I wanted to say, because I know it didn’t happen during college, is that intimate partner violence is a thing that happens, and it’s everywhere,” Runge said.
Jane also acknowledged the toxicity of rape culture on campus.
“The rape culture UMD has kind of promoted and supported, we make it really easy to pretend like it doesn’t matter,” Runge said.
Anger over the administration’s handling of sexual assault increased after the circulation of President Darryll Pine’s controversial comments in the fall of 2021 when he said in an interview that he does not think we have a “big problem here in Greek life,” within an article written by The Diamondback.
Deena Habash, a freshmen social data science major, highlighted the importance of acknowledging that people of all sexualities and genders can experience sexual violence and that it is an ongoing issue.
“Lesbians are constantly fetishized for the pleasure of men, and when we don’t conform to their wants, we get told things like we are sluts and whores, simply because we didn’t conform to their patriarchal needs to fuel their desire to see two women kiss,” Habash said.
Habash asserted that to combat sexual assault, “We just have to be intersectional about that fight.”