Walkers at the starting line on April 20, 2017. (Steve Barnum/Sidelines)
Men sported high heels at the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event on Thursday that was held to spread awareness of rape, sexual assault and gender violence.
Barbara Scales, director of the June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students, was out leading the event.
“Today is an event where our (Interfraternity Council) men are getting together and walking in heels for a mile just to represent that we are supportive of women who have been victims of violence and trying to bring awareness of that,” Scales said.
Scales explained that this is the third year the event has taken place and men have always been eager to get involved in spreading awareness of sexual assault and domestic violence towards women.
She also explained the importance stepping in when seeing someone being victimized.
“I think any time that you see someone that is being violated, whether it’s sexually, whether it’s domestic violence, intimate partner violence, whether someone’s being caught offside their name, someone stepping in (is important), and I think everyone can take part (in it),” Scales said.
Interfraternity Council President Thomas Denney was the IFC liaison of the event and was out helping facilitate everyone and lead the fraternity men through the mile-long walk in heels.
“The importance of today is to show that not only the fraternity community but the whole MTSU community does not support sexual assault and rape,” Denney said.
He described the event as being a way that men can take themselves out of their normal situation, can remove themselves from the normal masculine stereotype and to literally walk in women’s shoes to show support and provide awareness to the community on the problems we face with sexual assault and rape.
“I feel like a lot of times we’re ignorant about how prevalent sexual assault and rape are, especially on a college campus,” Denney said.
He emphasized that the first thing anyone can do to spread awareness of sexual assault is simply doing their research. He then went on to say that the second thing anyone can do, as far as being an advocate goes, is to use social media to spread awareness and educate others about sexual assault prevention.
Ramsey Ferguson, a junior at MTSU and the president of Alpha Tau Omega, was walking to show support of the women in his life. He explained that he can’t imagine them being put through certain situations that other women are put through daily.
“My feet really hurt. And for that to represent a fraction of what women have to deal with, even today with as much progress that has been made, I can only imagine what it’s like for women to have to deal with everything that they do,” Ferguson said.
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