The Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) has announced they will join One Billion Rising, a global activist movement aimed at ending violence against women, in raising awareness about gender-based violence.
In support of One Billion Rising, the CCSS Women’s Centre will host a V-Day dance party and an after-party refreshment period on February 13 for supporters to raise awareness, show support, and discuss the cause.
According to One Billion Rising, one out of three women and young girls (one billion, globally) will be raped, killed, and/or violated during their lifetime. The organization started V-Day 15 years ago; this is the first year that the CCSS has organized a V-Day event.
On February 14 (the CCSS opted to have their awareness-raising event a day earlier due to scheduling reasons), women around the world will walk away from their homes, businesses, and jobs, and unite to dance in a show of collective advocacy.
According to CCSS women’s director Megan Marshall, the campaign is very important, as it shines light on a very serious issue for women all over the world.
“This touches so many people’s lives,” she says.
Marshall urges all students to come to the events and show their support.
“Gender-based violence is a very serious issue,” she says, “and it shouldn’t be okay to have physical or sexual acts of violence against anyone.”
According to first-year psychology student Tasha Jaffey, violence against women isn’t a single-sided issue. “If we’re speaking about western culture, in my experience, I just think it’s just as much a woman’s responsibility to not be in that situation in the first place,” says Jaffey.
Marshall is aware of the challenges around getting students to attend the events, but she remains optimistic about One Billion Rising and believes that the momentum it has produced will only continue in the future.
“This is an international day of action and there are walkouts and millions of people taking action all over the world,” says Marshall. “The whole point is to get one billion people to say no to violence against women. That’s why the average student should show their support.”
Correction: In our print version of this story we called the V-Day event the Vagina Day event. We apologize for the mistake.
I do not wish to engage, in this letter, the confusion about the event’s name. Rather I would like to discuss ‘victim blaming.’ Violence against women is not a single sided issue. Nothing in our society is one dimensional, however, women are not responsible for violence against women. To think that it is the responsibility of women to avoid violence is victim blaming.
I do not believe that it is the fault of Tasha Jaffey for although her statement is putting the responsibility on the victims of violence, particularly women, Jaffey herself is also a victim, a victim of a society that systemically blames women for the violence and the inequality we suffer. We are socialized and conditioned to think this way through popular discourses seen in mass media. So, let us quickly deconstruct what is being said here.
Firstly, to say that “it’s just as much a woman’s responsibility to not be in that situation in the first place” must have universality if it is to be a reasonable statement. In comparison let us look at another situation, I read last week that a young couple were struck by a drunk driver while walking down a residential street in the middle of the day. Using the logic provided in the premise of responsibility of victims, then the young couple were not acting responsibly and therefore they are as much at fault for their situation of injury as the drunk driver is for violating the law. In the previous example most reasonable people would say that to blame the young couple would be utterly ridiculous.
Rape is one of the only crimes in which the victim is held entirely accountable. Where the multiple dimensions of violence against women lie is in the aspects of gender, race, ethnicity, place, sexuality, patriarchy, and other intersecting influences, none of which are the fault of the targets of such violence. It is violence against women, not violence with women.