Many people will enjoy chocolates and candlelit dinners Thursday, but Feb. 14 marks another kind of V-Day — one advocating against violence toward women and girls.
One in every three women will be raped or beaten in their lifetime — about 1 billion, according to V-Day, an activist movement that seeks to bring violence toward women and girls to public attention.
Typical V-Day events include productions of “The Vagina Monologues,” but this year it will feature One Billion Rising — a campaign to raise awareness of this statistic and advocate change.
People around the world will perform a dance created by One Billion Rising on Feb. 14.
University of Idaho students, faculty and staff, as well as community members, will dance in a flash mob at noon in the Idaho Commons.
The Women’s Center is hosting the dance and encourages everyone to participate. They will have a rehearsal of the dance at 7 p.m. Feb. 13 at Bliss Studio in room 208 of the Gladish Community & Cultural Center, located at 115 NW State St. in Pullman. If you are interested, but cannot make the rehearsal, instructions for the dance can be found at onebillionrising.org.
Whether you are into dancing or not, V-Day is an opportunity to become more aware, and make other people aware, that violence toward women and girls is a problem in our society.
The fact that one in three women, including mothers, daughters, sisters and friends, will be raped or beaten is unacceptable.
We can only control our own actions, and not the actions of the people who commit these crimes, but we can raise our voice against violence toward women.
Participate in V-Day events. Write to your legislators and let them know violence is a problem. Be aware of what is going on around you — look for evidence of violence within your own circles, and try to break the cycle.
We can’t stop every instance of violence, but recognizing and educating ourselves about abuse is instrumental in ending it.
One is too many, let alone 1 billion.
— KC