SAVE: $300,000 in Taxpayer Money for Men to Parade around in High Heels

Last week 400 Mississippi State men were pressured to walk around campus wearing high heels. [i] Billed as a rape awareness event, the activity was funded by a $300,000 grant awarded to the university under the Violence Against Women Act, [ii] as part of VAWA’s $9.4 million Violent Crimes on Campus program (Section 304).

Let me get this right…American taxpayers are spending $300,000 to pay college students to play dress-up?

Four Rapes

Rape is a terrible thing to happen. Fortunately at Mississippi State, rapes are rare. According to campus police reports, only four rapes were reported from 2005 to 2010. Of course not all rapes are reported, but it’s safe to say there is no epidemic of rape at Mississippi State.

But in 2011, the MSU Department of Outreach and Sexual Assault Services received a $300,000 grant from the Office of Violence Against Women.

According to director LeWanda Swan, the money would be used to “flood the campus with prevention education.” That included distribution of flyers in campus bathrooms that featured questionable statistics such as, “one in four women will be raped in their lifetime.”

On March 5, 2012, MSU students were treated to the spectacle of a “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event.

Coercion

To round up the 400 men, the campus Inter-Fraternity Council issued a Standards Requirement mandating at least 80% participation. Non-participants faced revocation of their individual privileges and possible termination of the fraternity’s charter.

Re-Education

During the event, organizers repeated the claim that women are more likely to be victims of non-lethal partner violence than men. Apparently these persons hadn’t bothered to read the most recent CDC violence report, which found a 6.5% male victimization rate, compared to 6.3% for women.[iii]

Not surprisingly, many found the event preposterous. “It’s ridiculous, it’s humiliating,” explained one man. “Not all men are rapists, but that is basically the message than an event like this conveys.”

Ideology

The Violence Against Women Act is rooted in a gender ideology – dubious at best -- that partner violence is caused by men’s need for patriarchal control. This theory has trouble explaining why women are equally likely to abuse…but please, let’s not allow the facts to confuse the matter!

So forcing college men to traipse around campus in high-heels, re-educating them into domestic violence ideology, and subjecting them to public shaming shouldn’t come as any particular surprise.

[i] http://www.avoiceformen.com/featured/mississippi-state-students-forced-to-walk-a-mile-in-her-shoes/

[ii] http://www.reflector-online.com/news/sexual-assault-grant-to-benefit-students-1.2546486#.T1uVa3mP8v9

[iii]http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/NISVS_Report2010-a.pdf