What's Wrong With "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes"?

A local organization that aims to prevent sexual assault of women sponsors an annual event in Charlottesville called "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes" (part of a national event). They ask men to put on women’s shoes and walk a mile on the Downtown Mall to raise awareness about sexual assault.

Local media usually covers the walk and includes plenty of pictures of men wearing women’s shoes.

What’s wrong with this event? Well, we could begin with the whole not so subtle promotion of cross-dressing. This practice is forbidden in Deuteronomy 22:5: "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God." It seems odd that an agency dedicated to eliminating sexual assault would sponsor an event that essentially promotes (even subtly) a sexual fetish (men dressing in women’s clothing). Sadly this is par for the course for a society saturated with sexual titillation and line crossing. The irony is apparently lost on event organizers.

More to the point, the underlying message is that sexual assault of women would be reduced if only men would sympathize more with women. In other words, things would be better if men could only act more like women. This is one of the fatal fallacies of the feminist movement. In truth, women are most protected from exploitation and abuse not when men act like women, but when men act like godly men. Men were designed to be self-sacrificial defenders of their wives, children, and homes, just "as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her" (Eph 5:25). This is the high ideal to which men need to be called, and it does the most good for our wives and daughters.

JTR