“La Marcha de las Putas,” the Ecuadorian version of a Slutwalk, congregated a variety of feminist causes in Quito over the weekend.

About 3,000 “putas” (men, women, trans people, citizens, LGBTQ individuals, activists, etc) walked to bring visibility to their daily experience in a sexist society where street harassment has long been an accepted part of the culture.

Globally, Slutwalks emerged as a public rejection of the idea that a woman’s public presentation should lead to shaming, sexual profiling, or violence. In Ecuador, organizers describe their cause as a struggle to see women treated equally in all the spaces they inhabit.

People came from all over Ecuador to march in Quito on Saturday. Despite the rain, the “sluts” bared their bodies among their posters, paint and coloured flags. Their skin was their microphone. The took the streets to protest the male gaze that still marginalizes them in society.

This is the second annual “Marcha de la Putas” in Ecuador. It’s organized by feminist and LGBTQ rights collectives who have been active for ten years or more. They organize the Slutwalk to bring visibility to the fact that many times, a woman just walking down the street is interpreted by some men as an invitation for sexual harassment, discrimination, abuse, oppression and a capitalist patriarchy that interprets women as a sexual object to be consumed, says Ana Almeida, one of the organizers.

“We want to communicate a message against violence against women. Women’s bodies should be respected. We can’t keep stigmatizing women for how they dress. Nothing justifies violence. We want to redefine the word “slut” and what it means to women and to men.”

The rain didn’t stop the protest.

“I want to say: I’m a free woman, owner of my own body,” said Adriana Manzano. “This is my second year at the march, to say ‘enough!’ to violence and stigma. And I’ll keep coming out every year to do the same.”

The slogans weren’t just written on posters and skin. A religious figure dressed in red with a large cross hanging from their neck held the reins of a school girl puppet. Her hands were bound the to the strings of the puppeteer, who sometimes forced her to kneel.

“No means no!”, “Naked or dressed we demand our lives”, “My body, my decision” were some of the slogans yelled by the walkers.

Original story