Although seeing college women in high heels on campus is not uncommon, the same cannot be said for many college men.

A group of male students at Western Kentucky University put themselves in this exact situation when they donned stilettos in support of raising awareness for issues of rape and sexual assault.

Fifty fraternity members, including representatives from all 12 of WKU’s fraternities, participated in the walk held March 21 for the second year. Bryan Hartzell, president of the Interfraternity Council at WKU, said this year’s event was more successful with 20 more members participating.

‘Our council wanted to make it better, and we thought it could be a really big event and make a big impact,’ Hartzell said. ‘It was something that we felt could unite our fraternities and support the women on our campus.’

WKU students are not the first to participate in the walk. Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, the organization that put on the event, has sponsored similar walks throughout the country, according to the organization’s website.

Participants met outside the university’s Chi Omega sorority house the morning of the walk and got settled into their new footwear. The walk began at about 11:15 a.m., starting from the east side of campus, up the campus’ main hill and down the other side.

The walk concluded with a speech during which they presented the amount of money raised, Hartzell said.

With the support of both fraternity members and sorority women, who walked behind the men and donated to the cause, the students were able to raise $1,000.

‘We had a lot of sorority girls and nonaffiliates come, and they walked behind the guys to show that while we were supporting them, putting on high heels and walking in their shoes, they were supporting us,’ Hartzell said. ‘It was one big support system.’

IFC officials wanted to spotlight a cause they believe does not get enough attention from media and the public, Hartzell said.

‘I think people are scared to talk about rape and sexual assault,’ he said. ‘And to be able to do something kind of lighthearted can open up the door to be able to talk about rape and sexual assault.’

One of the biggest challenges for the men involved was actually walking in the heels, said Phil Korba, IFC’s activities chair.

‘It was my first time walking in heels and probably my last time,’ he said. ‘I was doing pretty well at the beginning, but toward the end, my ankle started giving out and I just said, ‘Guys, we’re having a problem.”

Hartzell said walking down the campus’ main hill was his biggest struggle.

‘Walking down that hill in high heels was terrible,’ Hartzell said. ‘I don’t know how girls do it.’

Korba said he worked with many different outlets to publicize the event, including visiting sorority houses to discuss it and even appearing on television.

Despite the rise in participation from the year before and numerous attempts to publicize the event, Korba said it was still a struggle to get men to sign up. In the future, Korba said, he hopes that more men from the fraternities will be eager to participate.

‘We put a lot of PR into this thing, and I don’t understand why more guys didn’t want to participate,’ Korba said. ‘We need to figure out how to make it more approachable so guys will like it better.’

Regardless of the lack of the enthusiasm on the part of some of the men, Korba said he feels the event has an important purpose.

‘It’s a great event to show women that guys really do care,’ Korba said. ‘It’s not just the girls that are the only ones that are affected by rape and assault. It’s also their families and friends, the people who care most about them. We thought it would be a great way to show women that we care, and we want to stand up against the men who do that.’

dspearl@syr.edu 

Published on March 28, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Diana: dspearl@syr.edu | @dianapearl_