MORGANTOWN — If you’re going to talk the talk … well, you know, Sam Wilmoth said.
Wilmoth was among the 30 or so men Sunday who were wobbling around in female footwear on the unforgiving concrete sidewalks of Morgantown.
The occasion was the annual “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” fundraiser for The Rape and Domestic Violence Information Center.
RDVIC has made the walk a staple of its programming since 2009.
The idea is to give a literal footprint to the awareness and advocacy work the nonprofit organization does across north-central West Virginia.
Information tables and raffles were also part of the event at the Farmers Market Pavilion on Spruce Street.
Participants walked a one-mile circuit around the pavilion and back again.
Wilmoth grinned as he freed his toes from a pair of 3-inch heels. He’s done several RDVIC walks over the years.
“I got ambitious this year,” he said, showing off the Tommy Hilfiger kicks with the tricky heel and high arch that turned out to be higher than he thought once he put them on.
“At least I didn’t fall down this time.”
Then he got serious.
“The shoes are a metaphor,” he said, “and they’re an imperfect metaphor at that.”
That’s because sexual harassment and violence isn’t just a “women’s issue,” he said.
From #MeToo, to Bill Cosby and Brett Kavanaugh, Wilmoth said, it’s now everyone’s issue.
Or it should be, he said.
Galiana Palma, who works as a prevention educator with RDVIC, said the same.
“The idea is to educate people,” she said.
“The idea is to get people talking about it, so it isn’t some taboo subject. It needs to be brought out of the darkness.”
If you’re a victim of sexual violence, or you know someone who is, call RDVIC, Palma said. The Monongalia County telephone number is 304-292-5100.
In Preston and Taylor counties, the numbers are 304-329-1687 and 304-265-6534, respectively.
The website is http://rdvic.org/, and everything is confidential, Palma said.
“We’re here for you,” she said.
Wilmoth said he enjoyed being here for Sunday’s walk, but he did add a participant-caveat:
“If you’re a man and you show up for something like this, you get a lot of praise that I think you don’t always deserve,” he said.
For him, walking a mile in a woman’s shoes means walking over to the next cubicle to shut down the line of suggestive remarks against a female co-worker in the office.
It means walking over to the telephone to report to authorities that someone you know — whether male, female or transgender — has been a victim of sexual violence.
“You show up every day,” he said.
Tweet @DominionPostWV. Email jbissett@dominionpost.com.
