JOIN US on Saturday, October 3rd at 10:00AM in downtown Providence for the first annual
Walk a Mile in Her Shoes march – the men’s march to end sexual assault and domestic violence.
This will be a fundraiser for the RI Crisis Assistance Center
Put Yourself in Her Shoes™
Each year, an ever-increasing number of men, women and their families are joining Walk a Mile in Her Shoes®: The International Men’s March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault & Gender Violence. Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® is a fun opportunity for men to educate the community about a very serious subject and to rally the community to take action to prevent sexualized violence.
First You Walk the Walk
There is an old saying: “You can’t really understand another person’s experience until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.” Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® asks men to literally walk one mile in women’s high-heeled shoes. It’s not easy walking in these shoes, but it’s fun and it gets the community to talk about something that’s really difficult to talk about: gender relations and sexual violence.
Then You Talk the Talk
It’s critical to open up communication about sexual violence. While hidden away, it’s immune too cure. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get people talking. People unfamiliar with it often don’t even want to know it exists. It’s ugly. People that have experienced it themselves want to forget about it. How do you get them talking now, so they can prevent it from happening? And after it’s happened, how do you get them to talk about it so they can recover?
Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® provides several opportunities to get people talking. For preventive education, it helps men better understand and appreciate women’s experiences, thus changing perspectives, helping improve gender relationships and decreasing the potential for violence. For healing, it informs the community that services are available for recovery. It demonstrates that men are willing and able to be courageous partners with women in making the world a safer place
Not Just a Women’s Issue
Sexualized violence does not just affect women. It affects the men who care about them, their families, their friends, their coworkers, and their communities. Sexualized violence is epidemic. Some of the statistics: Every two minutes someone in America is raped. One in six American women are victims of sexual assault. That means someone you know, someone you care about, has been or may become the victim of sexual violence. It may be your mother, your sister, your friend, your girlfriend, your wife, your coworker, or your daughter.
This march is a brilliant exercise in perspective in which men, dedicated to this important cause, will walk a mile in a woman’s shoes. Clad in high heels, the men will march a mile through downtown Providence to raise awareness about sexual assault and domestic violence.
Women, children, and families are highly encouraged to attend and march! This march is an opportunity for everyone to show their commitment to this issue and to raise community awareness of our organization and cause. Women, however, can leave the high heels at home. You already know how uncomfortable they are.
We realize that by marching you’re already committing to helping our cause and speaking out against sexual violence. You might believe that NO ONE should have to wear high heels and you might wonder why we’re asking you to wear them. We’re asking men to purchase and wear (preferably red) high heels for this march for a couple of reasons.
High heels are one of the myriad of uncomfortable things that our media and pop culture tells women that they should wear. Some like them, some don’t, but most have probably worn them and suffered. This is a chance for men to put on those same shoes and think critically about the ways that we raise men and women differently.
Equally important to making an impact on you, the marcher, is that we be seen and noticed during the march! We want the community to think critically about gender and sexual violence issues even more than we want you to! We want all of Rhode Island to start talking about violence against women – because that’s how things change.
While wearing high heels is optional, we highly recommend you procure shoes and bring them to the march! If you are unable to find any that will work (it can be difficult finding size 15 shoes in a red high heel!) we will have a limited number of heels for rent at the event.
Check back regularly for more information as the date gets closer! We hope to see you on October 3rd in downtown Providence for our march!
