By Patria Alvelo

At least one in four college-aged women will be the victim of sexual assault during her academic career. (1) According to the Bureau of Justice, at least 80% of women who experience sexual assault know their assailant. Shockingly, women between the ages of 16 and 25 are three times more likely to experience sexual assault than women of any other age group.  Here in New York, more than 23,600 sexual offenses were reported to law enforcement officials in the year 2000.  While this statistic is staggering, rape is the most unreported crime in the nation.  Sexual assault and violence against women do not discriminate along lines of race, socioeconomic status, age, or location. These crimes affect everyone.

In the early-nineties, playwright and activist Eve Ensler began interviewing women of all ages, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds about their vaginas.  These interviews were converted into monologues, which Ensler began performing on stage fifteen years ago.  Shortly thereafter, in Ensler's words, "revealing the very personal stories of women and their private parts gave birth to a public, global movement to end violence against women and girls called V-Day." (2) In the ten years since it entered the mainstream, V-Day has coalesced into a global movement that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues and other events.  In 2007, more than 3,000 V-Day events took place in the U.S. and around the world.  To date, V-Day has raised over $45 million, educated millions about violence against women, and funded over 5,000 community-based anti-violence programs all over the world. (3)

To me, and to those who helped me organize Sarah Lawrence's V-Day 2008 events, V-Day and The Vagina Monologues are not about equating women with their body parts.  These events are not meant to exclude men or to reinforce any sort of essentialist stereotypes about women.  V-Day is about women reclaiming their bodies, their voices, and their power.  V-Day is about empowering and educating students, faculty, staff, and community members.  V-Day is about ending violence against women all around the world. 

My fellow Women's Historians and I realized that Sarah Lawrence's campus had not participated in V-Day for several years.  Since many of us had personally felt the effects of violence against women in our own lives, we yearned to join the movement against it.  We decided to commit ourselves to organizing a collaborative project that would involve not only women's history graduate students, but undergraduates, faculty members, and staff.  In spite of our diversity (which was plentiful!) our solidarity was palpable and powerful.  Our desire to create a movement on the Sarah Lawrence campus was strong enough to supercede any potential discord. 

We decided to direct our efforts toward raising funds for Victims' Assistance Services (VAS) in Westchester County.  The mission of VAS is to provide free comprehensive clinical and support services to all crime victims, to provide educational activities to prevent victimization and re-victimization, and to raise the awareness of government, law enforcement, healthcare providers, schools, the criminal justice system, and the community at large about the unique needs and strengths of crime victims. Victims Assistance Services was established in 1981 to provide free, confidential assistance to victims of crime, their families, friends and survivors throughout Westchester County. Their skilled counselors, social workers and bilingual advocates aid those who have suffered from rape, incest, homicide, domestic violence, child and elder abuse and theft. Their services include crisis intervention, safety planning, emergency financial assistance, court assistance and accompaniment, help in replacement of documents, assistance in applying for Crime Victims Compensation and referrals for those who require long-term counseling. VAS provides ongoing support groups for survivors of four particular types of crime, operates the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program in cooperation with ten leading Westchester Hospitals, and advances a year-round outreach program to help people enhance their personal security and to help assure that victims are treated fairly, with dignity and respect.

VAS is a crucial resource for members of the Sarah Lawrence Community and the county at large.  Thanks to the collaborative efforts of all of our V-Day volunteers, we were able to host a three-day Craft Fair and Bake Sale, a Silent Art Auction, a screening of Until the Violence Stops, a clothing and cell phone donation drive, and two performances of The Vagina Monologues.  Because of the dedication of my fellow organizers and the generosity of the Sarah Lawrence community, we managed to raise a total of $3,000 for Victims' Assistance Services.

(1) Hirsch, Kathleen (1990) "Fraternities of Fear: Gang Rape, Male Bonding, and the Silencing of Women."   Ms., 1(2) 52-56.

(2) Ensler, Eve (2008) The Vagina Monologues, xii.

(3) All statistics from vday.org.