This year’s Satirically Lessening Unfair Theories walk welcomes people on campus to walk in anything ranging from underwear to a turtleneck and slacks.

The S.L.U.T Walk is Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and EIU FEM is meeting in the South Quad and will be walking around campus.

Dana Gilbertsen, the president of EIU FEM, said the S.L.U.T Walk is a march, which started in 2011 in Toronto when a woman had been raped and a police officer told her women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.

Gilbertsen said this year’s S.L.U.T Walk is dedicated to relaying the message of no matter what a person is doing they do not deserve to be victimized for it.

“The ultimate is to help the people in the march feel empowered and feel as though they have control over their bodies,” Gilbertsen said. “On the other end, my goal is to educate people on campus not involved in the march.”

One in four women report surviving rape or attempted rape in college and Gilbertsen said whatever the case might be; universities do not want to talk about it.

Although the word slut may offend many people, EIU FEM is using the term as a way to empower women to be above the derogatory word.

“I know the word slut is used rather frequently on campus,” Gilbertsen said. “You see it on social media, you hear it in general conversation. It is everywhere.”

Last year’s group walked around campus with signs various signs including one saying “My dress is not a yes,” and “Abolish rape culture.”

Emily Stockdale, the vice president of FEM, said many times the word slut is not well defined, but commonly used.

“It’s definitely a way to control female sexuality and degrade them for being sexual in any way, when men are expected to do that,” Stockdale said.

Stockdale said a lot of people chose to overlook rape as a way to not deal with the task at hand.

“I also think that since there is this stereotype that women who get raped are sluts because they dressed a certain way,” Stockdale said. “That invalidates the victim

Stockdale said she wants to educate students on the issue and make sure they know it does happen at Eastern. She said the people who have suffered from those experiences deserve to be heard and need to feel safe.

“If we can empower one rape survivor through this walk then I’ll feel like we accomplished something and that we’ve done enough,” Stockdale said.

T’Nerra Butler can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]