[Wamvan] My report on SlutWalk for the Georgia Straight

[Joanna Chiu]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing, Joyce. That method definitely sounds
tedious, but effective!

Joanna


On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Joyce Arthur <jharthur at shaw.ca> wrote:

>  Hi Joanna, although this is an anti-choice article about the March for
> Life, it has info about crowd counting.
> http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/the-numbers-game-how-many-really-attended-the-2011-canadian-march-for-
> It seems like the only truly accurate way to do it is with this kind of
> method or something similarly laborious and time-consuming. I attended the
> March for Women's Lives in Washington DC in 2004, at which they had little
> stickers and a couple 1000 volunteers walking around asking people to put
> them on their shirts. Coverage was good and virtually everyone in attendance
> got a sticker. They carefully tracked the number of stickers their
> volunteers gave out to arrive at a number of 1.2 million, I think it was.
> Joyce
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* wamvan-bounces at lists.resist.ca [mailto:
> wamvan-bounces at lists.resist.ca] *On Behalf Of *Joanna Chiu
> *Sent:* Monday, May 16, 2011 1:23 PM
> *To:* wamvan at lists.resist.ca
> *Subject:* Re: [Wamvan] My report on SlutWalk for the Georgia Straight
>
> Hey Farida,
>
> Thanks for your feedback! It's too bad you weren't able to make it.
> Natalie, Mandavni, Elyse, Rachel, Lau, Isaac and a few other WAM members
> were there. :)
>
> As for the stats, I got the initial 1500 estimate from eavesdropping on a
> news anchor's report, and I got the "over 2000" estimate from the SlutWalk
> organizers. It was corroborated by my own observations too since the numbers
> visibly increased as the march progressed.
>
> I'm also curious about how to best come up with estimates for highly
> attended events, though. The organizers definitely did not have a sign-in
> table, and people joined and left as the walk went on.
>
> For Toronto's SlutWalk, I've seen estimates ranging from 1000 to 3000.
> Clearly, those numbers are just estimates and no one did any head counting.
>
> Does anyone have any advice about this?
>
> Joanna
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 2:16 PM, Farida Hussain <faridahussain1 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Nicely done,
>> Joanna, I didn't attend the walk - thanks for describing who all came and what they
>> said. I like that you began with the "What to wear to slutwalk"
>> consideration - must have been on at least a few people's minds.
>>
>> One question that I always have when reporting on these sort of events is
>> "how many came?" you reported 2000 - was wondering if that is just a
>> ballpark figure frm your own estimation, or if you got that number from an
>> organizer, or was there some sort of sign-up sheet/ registration table where
>> you got that number?
>>
>>
>>
>>   On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Joanna Chiu <chiu.joanna5 at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>>  Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> I attended SlutWalk Vancouver yesterday as a reporter for the Georgia
>>> Straight. I've been following the debates about SlutWalk on the web, and
>>> I've been raring to write a response but I wanted to wait until I attended
>>> SlutWalk Vancouver.
>>>
>>> Just as I expected, the walk itself responded to all the criticisms I've
>>> heard about SlutWalk.
>>>
>>> Here's my report. Please check it out and let me know what you think:
>>> http://www.straight.com/article-392947/vancouver/slutwalk-vancouver-raises-bar-movement-against-victimblaming
>>>
>>> As other WAM members have pointed out, SlutWalks are grassroots events
>>> that organize independently in each city. While Vancouver's organizing team
>>> did an amazing job of thoughtfully unpacking the word "slut," integrating
>>> diversity into every aspect of the event (in a non-tokenistic way), and
>>> addressing complex topics like sex work and transphobia head on, I can't say
>>> that this is true for every SlutWalk in every city because I've only
>>> attended Vancouver's SlutWalk.
>>>
>>> If you have had a chance to attend a SlutWalk in another city, please let
>>> us know what you thought of it.
>>>
>>> I would encourage anyone who attended SlutWalk yesterday to produce media
>>> about it (whether that's blogging, releasing photos or videos, etc.). The
>>> mainstream media's coverage of SlutWalk Toronto's event was awful and
>>> superficial, but as the dialogue is developing and more feminist journalists
>>> are stepping in, the coverage is becoming more intelligent and nuanced (even
>>> when feminist journalists do not fully support SlutWalk).
>>>
>>> Thank you for all your work!
>>>
>>> Joanna
>>>
>>> --
>>> Joanna Chiu
>>>
>>> Freelance Writer
>>> joannachiu.com <http://www.joannachiu.com/>
>>> twitter.com/joannachiu
>>>
>>> Founder, WAM! Vancouver
>>> wamvancouver.wordpress.com
>>> twitter.com/wamvancity
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Wamvan mailing list
>>> Wamvan at lists.resist.ca
>>> https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/wamvan
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Farida Hussain*
>> Student, Journalist
>> UBC Graduate School of Journalism
>> Phone: 604 649 8619
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Joanna Chiu
>
> Freelance Writer
> joannachiu.com <http://www.joannachiu.com/>
> twitter.com/joannachiu
>
> Founder, WAM! Vancouver
> wamvancouver.wordpress.com
> twitter.com/wamvancity
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wamvan mailing list
> Wamvan at lists.resist.ca
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>
>


-- 
Joanna Chiu

Freelance Writer
joannachiu.com <http://www.joannachiu.com/>
twitter.com/joannachiu

Founder, WAM! Vancouver
wamvancouver.wordpress.com
twitter.com/wamvancity
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