Day Seven - Domestic Violence
Four years ago rageprufrock began the first 14 Valentines and she spoke of how women are praised in song, worshiped in poetry, and derided in culture. She spoke beautifully and elegantly of women, comparing our bodies to luminous flowers. She spoke of the state of women, and the need to remember what we go through, what women throughout the world suffer through.
We are daughters, sisters, mothers, and lovers. If we choose, we can bring life into world with our blood and nourish it with our bodies, but the world that we helped create, that women have bled for and fought for and cried for, doesn't recognize us. Our history is one of abuse. We are not safe.
Women suffer from domestic violence and rape. We are devalued. We are taught that we are lesser. There is still so much work to do, so much for us to accomplish.
Women are being killed the world over, suffering from infanticide, dying from lack of medical care, killing themselves in the fight to be what society tells them they must. One in three women will still experience sexual assault in her lifetime. So much has changed and so much has stayed the same.
Forty years ago we declared that Sisterhood is Powerful, and it still is. We must remember that, must continue moving forward.
It's 2010 and we've come so far, but there is still more work to be done. We deserve better, and we can do more. We're strong. The next fourteen days is meant to remind us of that. It's our time to take back our bodies.
V can stand for vagina, like Eve Ensler's groundbreaking monologues. V can stand for violence, under whose auspices all women continue to make a home.
V can also stand for victory.
Domestic violence
That statistics speak for themselves, and they say so much: in 2005, more than a quarter of a million women in the United States were abused by a partner, and an average of 3 women per day were killed. Each year, women receive more than 2 million injuries as a result of domestic violence.
Dishearteningly, the statistics for teenagers and pre-adolescent girls aren't any better. One in three adolescent girls are victims of partner abuse, making it the most prevalent type of violence perpetrated against adolescents, and one in five girls between 11 and 14 have a friend who is a victim of dating violence.
The Family Violence Prevention Fund helped develop the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, and does a lot of work with public policy to affect change. The FVP's focus on workplace education about domestic violence is noteworthy, as are its programs targeted to teens/girls.
The US Department of Justice's List of National Domestic Violence Organizations is a great resource, especially for finding organizations that specifically focus on at-risk racial groups.
And, remember: If you need assistance and you're afraid your internet and/or computer usage might be monitored, you should access the sites above at a public location such as a library or internet cafe, and/or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE(7233).