“Two, four, six, eight, no more violence, no more rape” could be heard around the center of the University of West Florida campus as men marched in high heels.
Men from Sigma Alpha Mu and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternities, along with Kevin Bailey, vice president of student affairs, walked a mile in high heels for the fight against sexual violence on April 4.
Walk a mile in her shoes is an international men’s march to stop rape, sexual assault and gender violence started by Frank Baird in California in 2001. UWF’s sexual assault prevention organization Everyone’s Issue and the SAMs organized the first annual walk a mile in her shoes event at UWF.
“I’ve been trying for two years to get it on campus,” event co-planner Josh Englund says. “And we finally got it on, so it’s kind of like a dream come true and hopefully we get to make it bigger next year.”
Even though there were only five guys who walked in heels, there were cheers from other students around campus says Holley Frommel, Everyone’s Issue treasurer and event organizer.
“It was a really great experience to see men really get behind this issue and really want to do something to raise awareness about sexual violence and prevent it in their campus and surrounding community,” Frommel says. “And it was great to see the attention we were getting from other students who, maybe, were not aware of the march.
“They were getting standing ovations. We had our college women coming out of their sorority houses and clapping for them and cheering them on as they saw them march by on campus.”
Bailey led the march this year while wearing 3 inch red pumps and he struggled with the balance, especially while walking around the Commons on the brick walkway.
“It was hard,” Bailey says. “The 3 inch heels that I had were hard to maneuver in but that’s what women do on a daily basis, so to be able to be a part of this and kind of experience what they may go through as the name says, I was happy to do it, although it’s hard.”
Everyone’s Issue and the SAMs plan on organizing this event again next year.
“We hope to grow the event next year for 2012 and hopefully make it a relay competition among all the fraternities,” Frommel says.
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