Yes I said it: men, you should wear high heels. Not everyday mind you, unless of course that happens to be your particular fashion statement. You should wear high heels proudly and Walk a Mile in them on April 24. Show up between 1 pm and 3 pm at the Garden of Remembrance, located at the Brookline Public Health Building at 11 Pierce St. Walk from the Public Health Building to Coolidge Corner and back.
You don’t even have to bring your own heels. The Jennifer A. Lynch Committee Against Domestic Violence Committee will provide a pair of red high heels for you. Pat Norling established the committee in 2006 in conjunction with the Brookline Domestic Violence Roundtable.
A recent incident in this year’s presidential campaign tells us why this is an especially important year to support the Walk a Mile event.
On March 8, while his candidate was leaving a political rally, Donald Trump’s campaign manager allegedly grabbed and bruised the arm of a female reporter to keep her from approaching Trump. Police eventually arrested the campaign manager.
While on Thursday a Florida prosecutor announced he would not pursue a misdemeanor battery charge, the details of this incident are not as important as how the Trump campaign dealt with the situation.
Once the allegation was public, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski made no attempt to apologize publicly, personally and most importantly sincerely to the female reporter. Even an explanation that the scene was crowded, he was pulling people away from his candidate and accidentally got too aggressive would have at least been palatable to some people.
Instead the first step the campaign manager took was to deny anything had happened. The Trump campaign backed him up immediately. They even suggested the reporter was delusional.
When video evidence confirmed an altercation had taken place, the next step was to blame the victim for what happened. She’s reported police violence in the past, this is what she does they said.
In the face of photo evidence of the reporter’s injury, Donald Trump suggested the victim’s bruised arms were self-inflicted. He even suggested she might have grabbed him and openly questioned whether he should press charges against her.
This fits a familiar pattern of how dealing with violence against woman is often handled in our society.
- It didn’t happen.
- She’s delusional.
- It was her fault.
- She faked her injury.
- She’s blamed others before this.
- The culprit is an upstanding individual.
- Maybe the culprit is actually the victim?
On April 24 send a different message.
Take a piece of paper and write down the names of all the important women who’ve ever played a role in your life.
Put the piece of paper in your pocket.
Go to the Brookline Public Health Building at 1p.m. at ask to be fitted into a pair of women’s red high heeled shoes.
Start walking with all the other men toward Coolidge Corner.
When you feel like your ankles are about to break or you feel embarrassed at the way you look in heels, and you will, take out the piece of paper.
Look at the names of the important woman in your life you had written down.
You’re walking for them.
