My middle daughter is a sophomore at CentralWashingtonUniversity. This past weekend she and nineteen other courageous young women presented their performance of “The Vagina Monologues” in conjunction with the annual V-Day activities.
Eve Ensler wrote the “Monologues” in 1994 to address the social stigma surrounding rape and abuse. The success of the “Monologues” helped Ensler and a group of New York City women created V-Day, an organization with a simple mission: to stop violence against women and girls.
All proceeds from the performances were donated to ASPEN, an Ellensburg organization that assists victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and to V-Day.org. and was sponsored by the CWU Center for Student Empowerment, the Wellness Center and Planned Parenthood.
Care2 feminist writer, Ximena Ramirez, reported in November of 2011 that, “.. there are few people who really change the world for the better, but there is one person who shows us all that it is possible and that it can really start with just one person. (http://www.care2.com)
2012 V Day Eve Ensler
Enter playwright and activist Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues” and V-Day Founder and Executive Director.
If you’ve never heard of Ensler before you will thank me. The passion, love, dedication, and unwavering drive with which she fights for a world free from violence is infectious, admirable, and awe-inspiring. For myself and thousands, if not millions, of other women she is my hero.
Her latest post, “Over It,” on the Huffington Post is just one example of what a powerful and amazing woman she is. .. Here at Care2 we are Over It (too).”
“Over It” is now the final set piece monologue of “The Vagina Monologues.”
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-rape-eve-ensler-is-over-it-and-so-am-i.html#ixzz1mEpmn1Oj
It follows in complete form.
“Over It”
By Eve Ensler, Tony award winning playwright, performer and activist
“I am over rape.
I am over rape culture, rape mentality, rape pages on Facebook.
I am over the thousands of people who signed those pages with their real names without shame.
I am over people demanding their right to rape pages, and calling it freedom of speech or justifying it as a joke.
I am over people not understanding that rape is not a joke and I am over being told I don’t have a sense of humor, and women don’t have a sense of humor, when most women I know (and I know a lot) are really fucking funny. We just don’t think that uninvited penises up our anus, or our vagina is a laugh riot.
I am over how long it seems to take anyone to ever respond to rape.
I am over Facebook taking weeks to take down rape pages.
I am over the hundreds of thousands of women in Congo still waiting for the rapes to end and the rapists to be held accountable.
I am over the thousands of women in Bosnia, Burma, Pakistan, South Africa, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Afghanistan, Libya, you name a place, still waiting for justice.
I am over rape happening in broad daylight.
I am over the 207 clinics in Ecuador supported by the government that are capturing, raping, and torturing lesbians to make them straight.
I am over one in three women in the U.S military (Happy Veterans Day!) getting raped by their so-called “comrades.”
I am over the forces that deny women who have been raped the right to have an abortion.
I am over the fact that after four women came forward with allegations that Herman Cain groped them and grabbed them and humiliated them, he is still running for the President of theUnited States.
And I’m over CNBC debate host Maria Bartiromo getting booed when she asked him about it. She was booed, not Herman Cain.
Which reminds me, I am so over the students at Penn State who protested the justice system instead of the alleged rapist pedophile of at least 8 boys, or his boss Joe Paterno, who did nothing to protect those children after knowing what was happening to them.
I am over rape victims becoming re-raped when they go public.
I am over starving Somalian women being raped at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, and I am over women getting raped at Occupy Wall Street and being quiet about it because they were protecting a movement which is fighting to end the pillaging and raping of the economy and the earth, as if the rape of their bodies was something separate.
I am over women still being silent about rape, because they are made to believe it’s their fault or they did something to make it happen.
I am over violence against women not being a #1 international priority when one out of three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime — the destruction and muting and undermining of women is the destruction of life itself.
No women, no future, duh.
I am over this rape culture where the privileged with political and physical and economic might, take what and who they want, when they want it, as much as they want, any time they want it.
I am over the endless resurrection of the careers of rapists and sexual exploiters — film directors, world leaders, corporate executives, movie stars, athletes — while the lives of the women they violated are permanently destroyed, often forcing them to live in social and emotional exile.
I am over the passivity of good men. Where the hell are you?
You live with us, make love with us, father us, befriend us, brother us, get nurtured and mothered and eternally supported by us, so why aren’t you standing with us? Why aren’t you driven to the point of madness and action by the rape and humiliation of us?
I am over years and years of being over rape.
And thinking about rape every day of my life since I was 5-years-old.
And getting sick from rape, and depressed from rape, and enraged by rape
And reading my insanely crowded inbox of rape horror stories every hour of every single day.
I am over being polite about rape. It’s been too long now, we have been too understanding.
We need to OCCUPYRAPE in every school, park, radio, TV station, household, office, factory, refugee camp, military base, back room, night club, alleyway, courtroom, UN office. We need people to truly try and imagine — once and for all — what it feels like to have your body invaded, your mind splintered, your soul shattered. We need to let our rage and our compassion connect us so we can change the paradigm of global rape.
There are approximately one billion women on the planet who have been violated.
ONE BILLION WOMEN
The time is now. Prepare for the escalation.
Today it begins, moving toward February 14, 2013, when one billion women will rise to end rape.
Because we are over it.”
Follow Eve Ensler on Twitter: www.twitter.com/eveensler
I want to thank my daughter Larkin, her sisters, and all those who’ve presented “The Vagina Monologues” over the years. Thank you for reminding me that the ONE BILLION WOMEN on the planet who have been violated need my solidarity.
Peace to You ..
