Walk a Mile in Her Shoes

I witnessed a UVA awareness event while having brunch at The Nook. A bunch of male athletes, along with some women, walked the mall in heels and passed out flyers for SARA (sexual assault resource agency). At first I thought this "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes" was supposed to be an empathy-building exercise for the young men statistically likely to sexually assault women. And I thought it was doing a grave disservice to the community; these guys prancing around and joking weren't going to have the least bit of understanding until they were wearing heels while trying to escape from someone larger and stronger than themselves who was threatening (or had already started) to harm them. However, once I caught a glimpse of the flyer I saw it was just to promote the resource. At which point I thought it was a cute gimmick, but perhaps the patrons casually dining in outdoor cafes weren't the citizens who would most urgently benefit from knowing about the free help available to victims.