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V-Day’s Stop Rape Awards

On V-Day (February 10, 2001) 18,000 people gathered at New York City’s Madison Square Garden to protest violence against women and to celebrate the vagina. The yearly event, launched in 1998, features performances of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. While on tour, Ensler had heard hundreds of abuse stories and decided that something needed to be done: V-Day was born. The gala netted $2.3 million for antiviolence groups. In the evening, stars such as Queen Latifah and Jane Fonda performed. Earlier, activists were honored, including the semifinalists of the Stop-Rape Contest. Fifty-five out of 60 semifinalists from 46 countries presented their ideas for stopping rape. That night, three winners were awarded grants to implement their plans. Here are the winning entries:

Jennifer Jadwero, age 13, Kenya
Promote Youth Against Rape clubs

Clubs can be started in primary and secondary schools, universities, computer, secretarial, and technical colleges, and other educational institutions. Youth Against Rape clubs will be able to reach everybody with their message of STOP RAPE! In the primary schools, the boy students can be taught that to be a macho man you don’t have to be a bully and use force to get what you want and be disrespectful to women; that all people are equal and that the boys must have respect for girls because they are their sisters, mothers, and their sweethearts. The girls can be taught self-defense and what to do in case they are raped. These ideas can be continued in secondary schools and in universities and colleges on a more serious and deeper level. Youth Against Rape clubs will work with other school clubs, like the drama and debating clubs; organize public campaigns to raise awareness of rape; show films and videos on the topic of rape; and invite professionals to address students on topics concerning rape, teach self-defense tactics, and offer counseling services and advice to victims.

Silke Pillinger, age 28, and Karin Heisecke, age 28, Germany
Print anti-rape slogans and information on bread and pastry wrappings

This is an awareness-raising campaign that may appear ordinary and trivial, for it uses an everyday object that everyone buys regularly, with the goal of making the sensitive, even taboo subject of rape visible in the daily lives of women and men. There is a parallel between the “ordinariness” of the object we use and violence against women, specifically rape. We want to emphasize that most rapes occur in a familiar context. We are talking about the small paper bags in which bread, rolls, cakes, and pastries are sold in every bakery, and on which we will print surprising and provocative phrases concerning rape. The slogan of our campaign is based on a play on words in German that we might translate as “Rape—it’s out of the question.” On these bags, we could print slogans such as:

  • One German woman in two suffers from headaches, one in three has problems backing into a parking space/varnishes her fingernails/wears makeup, and one in five is raped by her partner; o 5% of rapes take place in parks, 95% at home;
  • In Nuremberg, X (exact number) rolls are sold and X (exact number) women are raped each day; or
  • The customer in front of you is raped regularly by a close relative.
  • RŽgine Bandler, age 49, and Ana Bosch, age 48, Brazil
    Use speeches on sexism and sexual violence to change public opinion in the community through theatrical workshops and other forums

    The speeches and other texts chosen will be used to make videos, TV clips, and advertisements to contribute to efforts to change the culture of violence against women. One example is: The weapon is art/art is to hear/art is to debate and to beat up. The municipality of Camaragibe in northeast Brazil is planning to offer special services for women in violent situations, in partnership with [our] feminist theater group Lunatics of Pe

    Sources:

    MsMagazine

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