V-Day 2013 is a year away. That’s enough time for you, me, Eve Ensler, and a billion of our friends to rise together to end violence against women.
Personally, I’ve loved Ensler’s work for the past 4 years, ever since I was a Florida State Women’s Center volunteer that worked the door at a showing of the Vagina Monologues. I cringe now when I remember texting my friend, “Why do ‘radical feminists’ use the word vagina all the time? So uncomfortable.” That night I learned how powerful it is to take control over your body and your sexual future. I learned that the way women are treated on this planet is connected to the way we treat every living thing. One Billion Rising extends past liberating women because a movement against violence is a movement everyone benefits from.
The campaign’s goal is to get one billion women to rise on 2/14/2013, coming together in dance to end gender violence across the world. Why 1 billion you ask? Well the numbers show that 1 out of 3 women worldwide will be beaten or raped in their lifetime which averages out to one billion women.
Eve Ensler explains her motivations for the project in an op-ed for the Huffington Post where she writes:
“In honor of the women of Congo who are rising in the face of the impossible, V-Day is calling the 1 billion survivors of violence on every continent of the planet to join and RISE. On February 14, 2013, we are inviting, challenging, and calling women and the people who love them to walk out of their homes, schools, jobs to strike and dance. To dance with our bodies, our lives, our heart.”
I can’t think of a better way to show love for myself and the women around me than dancing to end violence. So, please sign up for the campaign here.
Where will you have your rising? Sound off. I wanna join your dance party!
Image Credit: V-Day Organization.
