Hear Our Mournful Plea
Tonight Vagina Monologues was preformed on my campus by a group of students. There's a lot of things about it that I could think and write about. There's the emotions, the despair, the anger, the happiness, the hope. There's the controversy surrounding it, with "it" meaning the Vagina Monologues in general and preforming VM at a small, private, Catholic women's college specifically. There's how all of that ties in with The Cardinal Newman Society and other conservative forces in the church.
But what's really sticking with me is one of the questions asked after the panel after the performance. "What resources are there on campus for students who have been victims of violence?" It's not a surprising question. This performance is part of V-Day, which is all about raising awareness about violence against women and girls. Of course the question of what, specifically, is being done on our campus is an important one. But after that question was asked there was silence throughout the theater. If life was s sitcom, there would have been crickets chirping in the background. Eventually we all recovered, and there were protests that of course the school has resources for that, of course there are places students can go. There's the feeling of safety on campus, the feeling of being to find someone on campus to help you if something happens, there's the counseling center.
But there's also the fact that not all students feel that way. Not all students feel comfortable enough with their professors to go to them if something happened. And is security supposed to reassure us? Security, with its mostly male staff and reputation with always taking at least twenty minutes to get anywhere? And even if students feel perfectly safe on campus, what about off campus? Not everyone lives in the dorms. What resources are there for them?
Fine, so the school isn't perfect; there are places for improvement. I can accept that. What I have a harder time accepting is the reaction of the few people who responded to the woman's question. The of course we have resources, what are you talking about, you silly person? response. There was this shut down, this refusal to even consider that the school could and maybe should be doing more. That disturbed me.
I think the type of question that the women asked is also an important one for everyone who has ever felt outraged because of something to ask. Being aware and being outraged at injustice is important, but it isn't enough. We all always have to ask "But what am I, what are we doing about it?" Raising awareness is only the first step, and I think it's also the easiest one. I can be aware of, and I can sympathize with, and get angry on the behalf of the women in their 70s, 80s, 90s, who march everyday in front of the Japanese embassy in South Korea as they cry out for an apology from the Japanese government for turning them into Comfort Women. I can be aware of, and I can sympathize, and feel outrage on the behalf of women who have been raped, who have ben beaten. But that is easy, so much easier than finding the time and the means and the bravery to leave my comfort zone and do something to help.
We have to ask ourselves what we're doing to change things. Realizing that the world isn't perfect isn't enough. Awareness means nothing if it isn't acted upon.