This week on college campuses and in major cities all over the world, the V-Day campaign will host a series of events and a production of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. The goal of the initiative, now in its fifth year, is to spread awareness about–and attempt to end–violence against women and girls.
At Saint Louis University, students and faculty have organized panel discussions, lectures and a performance of TVM.
“This year’s production of The Vagina Monologues is being contextualized within a larger educational framework, which highlights the role of the University in addressing both the academic and practical aspects of higher education,” said Mary Elizabeth Hogan, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, as she introduced last night’s discussion panel on community-based responses to ending violence against women.
About 30 people attended the event to hear remarks and engage in dialogue with local anti-violence activists, among them Nina Balsam, author of Missouri’s adult abuse law and legal advocacy project director of the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic Violence; Cathy Blair of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital AWARE program; Sharon Homan of the School of Public Health; and Jeanne Muerer, co-director of Women’s Place and founder of the SLU Graduate School in Nurse-Midwifery.
Tonight, Jean Bethke Elshtain, of the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, is scheduled to deliver a lecture titled, “Woman and Violence: A Catholic Understanding of Human Rights.”
“She’s what people call a public intellectual,” said Eloise Buker, Ph.D., director of the women’s studies program. “She’s part of an international conversation about issues of ethics and war.”
“Elshtain will defend V-Day and its necessity because of the controversy surrounding it,” said Una moderator Jenifer Poell, adding that she hopes supporters and critics of V-Day and TVM alike will attend and participate.
Friday afternoon, various student groups interested in stopping violence against women will have tables in the quad to celebrate
V-Fest. Friday evening will begin the student production of TVM, which will run through Sunday.
The Vagina Monologues is a collection of first-person accounts of real women talking about their sexuality and, of course, their vaginas. This year, following the scripted monologues, men and women will perform monologues they have written on the theme of a world free of violence. After the performance, there will be reflection and discussion lead by two faculty different moderators each evening.
“V-Day is clearly important. Last year we raised over $6,400,” said Poell. “Imagine what that can do to help one woman, 20 women, 100 women.”
Poell stressed the importance of such dialogue, saying, “Sometimes people don’t know (TVM) is associated with the V-Day movement. They just assume the money’s going to Planned Parenthood. It calls for people to be open-minded and not assume things about something that may seem a little different.”
Laura Renaud, TVM organizer and Una core group member, said “On SLU’s conservative campus maybe some people lead sheltered lives and don’t realize what a huge problem violence against women is. And that’s why it needs to come to SLU.”
Sponsors of this week’s events include the College of Art and Sciences, School of Social Service, The Women’s Commission, the women’s studies program, the political science department and Una.
“It’s part of our mission as a university to be concerned about issues of social justice and an issue of social justice is the violence women experience,” Buker said. “What we’re trying to figure out is what we can do to undo that violence, to unlearn that violence, so we can put an end to it.”
