Explore Gender Education During V-Week

“I bet you’re worried. We were worried. We were worried about vaginas.”

From the first few lines of The Vagina Monologues, V-Week at Rollins is sure to catch your attention. From Feb. 23 to 25, women of all ages were in­vited to audition for The Vagina Monologues. This show, which is based on the stories of over 200 women regarding their ex­periences with sexuality, is only one small part of the upcoming V-Week planned by the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) and Voices for Women.

V-Week will include a va­riety of events during the week of March 28. March is Women’s History Month; March 8 is In­ternational Women’s Day and Voices for Women is using the last week of the month to recog­nize the plight of many women across our campus and across the world.

Many of the same events that appeared in past years will once again occur, including movie showings, breast casting, and many feminist speakers, in­cluding Amy Richards and Jen­nifer Baumgardner.

New to this year’s V-Week, V-Town will take over Mills Lawn on Tuesday, March 29. The event will occur during common hour (12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.), with tents from various organizations all talking about women’s rights. Booths from organizations like Spectrum and Planned Parenthood will be included, as well as fun events like doing henna tattoos. New organizations will be featured as well, including Promoting Awareness and Change Today (PACT) which will be discuss­ing bullying and gender issues involving women. In the words of Holt graduate student Mary Robinson, it will be a “visual, impactful learning experience.”

The Vagina Monologues will be performed on Friday April 1 and Saturday April 2 at 7 p.m. After the performance on Saturday night, the Take Back the Night March will start on Mills Lawn at 9 p.m. and will continue until 12 a.m. The march will be a powerful way to prove that, in the words of Rob­inson, “women have the right to walk at night.”

Students will march and chant, bullhorns in hand, to educate the campus community about rape and sexual assault. OMA and Voices for Women hope that this final night will educate students and provide an understanding environment for rape survivors to share their stories to stop these types of things from happening again.

Men are also invited to get involved in these great oppor­tunities and should feel free to contact the people below to stand up for the rights of wom­en.

Men or women interested in getting involved in this amazing experience should contact Mary Robinson in the Lucy Cross Center for Women at mrobin­son@rollins.edu or Voices for Women members Shannon Full­er at sfuller@rollins.edu, Kim Hambright at khambright@rol­lins.edu, or Shakirra Meghjee at smeghjee@rollins.edu.