Leaders of the student theater group Athena’s Players led a discussion of the return of their on-campus production of ‘The Vagina Monologues’ and related women’s issues last night.
‘The Vagina Monologues brings women’s issues such as rape awareness into an open forum,’ said Suzanne Hillinger, secretary of Athena’s Players.
The meeting also included a discussion on related issues, such as the creation of a forum for discussion of women’s concerns, including a possible BU rape crisis center. These events would be held on what has come to be known as ‘V-day.’
‘V-day was created to get some action going on, to create venues to talk in a comfortable environment,’ Hillinger said.
Some tentatively scheduled events include conducting self-defense classes and inviting various speakers to talk on campus, according to Lindsay Holland, the Athena’s Players’ treasurer. The BU Women’s Center will also participate in the event by ‘spearheading a Talk Back following each performance to talk about the issues that ‘The Vagina Monologues’ have raised,’ she said.
The organizers also plan to hold ‘The Clothesline Project,’ which involves stringing t-shirts designed by victims of sexual assault, which expose rape issues along Marsh Plaza.
There are many myths associated with sexual assault, said Lily Green, of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, which will receive donations from fundraising conducted on V-day, along with Spotlight on American Indian and First Canadian.
‘Rape is never about sexual frustration or alcohol,’ Green said. ‘It is about power and control.’
Another common misconception is that rape typically occurs in dark alleys by strangers. Green shunned this myth by noting that 80 percent of rapes occur in the survivor’s home, including dorm rooms, she said, by someone that the survivor knows. Green said the media was responsible for perpetuating this myth.
Roberta Goldschneider, of BAARC, said 3,500 cases of sexual assault occur on college campuses each year, increasing the need for an on-campus rape crisis center.
‘The most vulnerable group is freshmen,’ she said.
To combat this crisis, BAARC runs a hotline for rape cases, run by volunteers who undergo 50 hours of training.
‘Some volunteers provide immediate information,’ she said. ‘But if the caller calls years or decades after the incident, they will direct the caller to counseling. Typically our volunteers serve as medical advocates who actually accompany the survivor and walk through the entire process [of approaching the case] with her.’
Over the years, ‘the number of survivors who feel comfortable coming to BAARC has skyrocketed,’ she said.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
