Author: Kelsey Longmuir
Monday, Feb. 16 through Saturday, Feb. 21 marked Occidental’s annual V-Week. V-Week is organized by the cast of the Vagina Monologues, along with Circulo de Mujeres, the Center for Gender Equity, and Project SAFE, supplemented by ASOC funding. V-Week serves to raise awareness about violence towards women and girls using events that promote female empowerment, sexuality and education.
“As part of a much larger movement, the Vagina Monologues is dedicated to ending violence against women and promoting awareness about the sexism that still exists and affects both men and women,” Sarah Arvey (senior) said. “I see it as a movement that empowers, educates, and begins a necessary dialogue.”
V-Week raised money for the international V-Day campaign and Children of the Night. The V-Day campaign donates money to domestic anti-violence groups and is working to create anti-violence networks in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Large portions of campaign funds are currently concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Children of the Night is a non-profit, L.A.-based organization that provides assistance to children forced into prostitution.
Cast members of the Vagina Monologues sat in the Quad all week selling tickets to Friday’s performance and answering questions concerning the V-day movement. They took turns walking around the Quad in a full-body vagina costume.
On Wednesday, Feb. 18, in coordination with V-Week, the Center for Gender Equity hosted the first speaker in their monthly Feminist Faculty Speaker Series. Professor Caroline Heldman of the Politics department discussed what she referred to as gender scripts, traditional roles that are often unconsciously played.
Her presentation focused on female scripts, especially that of marriage. Heldman said the purpose of her presentation was not to criticize these scripts, but to remind listeners that they have the freedom to challenge them.
“Did you all know that you all are the unhappiest generation since we’ve been studying misery?” Heldman said. “A lot of this has to do with the rise in hook-up culture; both sexes are happier in committed relationships.”
On Thursday, Feb. 19 female faculty and staff shared their stories at the Oxy Women of Power Panel. Speakers included Assistant Dean of Students for Community Life and Director of the ICC Brandi Jones, Associate Director of Intercultural Affairs Naddia Palacios, and Campus Dining Production/ Servant Assistant Kathy Lauriha.
The Vagina Monologues were held on Friday, Feb. 20, in Thorne Hall, by an all-female cast of Oxy students from every class year and is reviewed on page. (See review on page 15)
The week culminated with a Sex Toy Party in the Center for Gender Equity. Local distributors brought products to educate and sell to attendees. “I think the sex toy party was a really fun way for us to end V-Week,” Erica Liepmann (senior) said. “Part of the mission of the Vagina Monologues is to create an environment in which women are able to discuss their vaginas and their sexuality. The sex toy party facilitated an open dialogue about female masturbatory pleasure and about healthy, loving, respectful and reciprocal sexual relationships with partners.”
Other cast members thought that Occidental’s V-Week still had room to improve.
“One thing that disappointed me during the sex toy party was the explicitly heterosexual references, there were few references to lesbian sex, self pleasure, or other sexual relations,” Arvey said. “In our events and in our dialogues about gender and sexuality, it is important to me to be inclusive and representative of our diversity, which goes far beyond even the binary gender and sexuality that are often referenced.”
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