Men at SF State gave the phrase "walk a mile in her shoes" a whole new meaning Wednesday as they voluntarily strutted around campus in high heels.

Male students donned women's high-heeled shoes for the "Walk in Her Heels," event, put on by The SAFE Place on Campus program, for the purpose of raising awareness on sexual crimes committed against women.

The event began at noon, but men were out on campus since 8:30 a.m. holding posters with statistics about assaults on women and positive messages like "No means no." In order to participate, men had to wear heels to class and around campus all day and carry a small box to collect donations for outreach programs that help abused women.

Music, prize giveaways and performances were among the festivities the accompanied the project. A table next to the stage in Malcolm X Plaza was lined with a variety of high-heeled shoes for the volunteers to use.

"This event was inspired by the national event 'Walk a Mile in Her Heels', which consists of the same concept except that men walk a mile here we just walk on campus," SAFE president Vincent Lam, who was hosting the program, explained. "After the Chris Brown and Rihanna incident, it's really important that people see that violence against women isn't okay and is an issue that needs to be brought to people's attention."

After getting students pumped up and reading statistics of women throughout the two-hour event, Lam and other members of campus organization P.E.A.C.H, an acronym for Peer Educators Advocating Campus Health, performed a remix of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" track and changed the title to "Feel It" to promote men's health and encouraging them to go for regular check-ups to catch testicular cancer.

People were dancing along, and men were encouraged to trade in their trendy sneakers for a pair of high heels.

"The shoes most definitely hurt; I've been wearing them since the early morning," SF State student Zach Szabadi said. "Violence against women is an epidemic. I was really touched when I saw what SAFE was doing for this cause and wanted to volunteer because women shouldn't feel responsible for being attacked. It's a shame no one wants to face the bad things in the world, but if it takes me wearing heels for people to talk about it, then so be it."

Szabadi, 20, said that most of the time he spent in heels, he received many smiles from fellow students and a lot of questions about what was going on. However, he was also sadly surprised to find one man call what he and the other participants were doing "liberal garbage."

"When I hear things like that, it truly amazes me," Szabadi said. "This is a reality, and even if we have to do something a bit shocking we need to get the message out that violence against women is not okay."

Men were not the only ones involved in the cause. Women were also stationed at tables handing out shoes, giving out information and mediating the supplies that were being used to create paper buttons with positive messages about fighting violence against women.

"This is a great event because it gets men to literally see what it feels like to walk in a woman's shoes," SF State student Maricel Cruz, 20, said. "We've had a lot of people come up to the table asking what's going on and they end up taking off their shoes and slipping on some heels."