"v-day"

[starvingeyes]

V-Day ignores men-as-abusers stereotype
By: Steve Krakauer

02/13/03
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Feb. 14 means love, courtship, flowers and chocolates — but don't get used to it. Enter V-Day, and not the Hallmark holiday.

V-Day "is a global movement to end violence against women and girls," said V-Day Executive Director Jerri Lynn Fields. The "V" stands for vagina, victory and, somewhat overshadowed, valentine.

But the "V" ignores vindication of the men-as-abusers stereotype.

At Syracuse University and more than 600 universities in the United States, V-Day contaminates the February romance-holiday with a vengeance against males, fighting viciously with weapons of misconception and propaganda.

Cruelty toward women warrants attention on an international level, as women around the world face hardships not seen since the U.S. women's rights movement in the mid-1800s.

Today, women cannot vote in Kuwait. They cannot drive cars in Saudi Arabia. Our world may be assimilating to Americana but not without abandoning its chauvinistic culture.

The discrepancy comes when looking at the harm toward women within our national borders. Women, of course, fall victim to violent crimes at an alarming rate. But through female empowerment, which is the ultimate goal of V-Day, truth is compromised.

A favorite piece of V-Day artillery is the use of statistics — publicizing misleading data easily available through malleable reports.

For example, a popular V-Day figure is "every 15 seconds in America a woman is being battered, usually by an intimate partner." The statistic originates from a National Family Violence Survey conducted by Richard Gelles, Murray Straus and Susan Steinmetz.

Straus himself admits, "Family conflict studies, without exception, show about equal rates of assault by men and women." Thus, every 15 seconds in America a woman — and a man — is being battered.

Glenn Sacks, a former feminist who has appeared on CNN, Fox News and in major newspapers, often defends males, especially in instances of misleading statistics.

"College males have to deal with defamation and can't defend themselves," said Sacks. "They don't know it's false and have no outlet to speak out against it."

Some might say the "15-second" stat is truthful, although not entirely reflective of reality. But consider if an event were held to combat carjacking in America.

To demonstrate carjacking as an epidemic, organizers post facts like "58 percent of all carjackers are black."

This fact is true and backed by the U.S. Department of Justice. But it doesn't take into account where carjackings occur, such as in a predominantly black neighborhood. It disregards vehicle type and the criminal's age and ignores the societal fact that police target blacks.

Is the statistic saying a black man is more likely to hijack your car than a white man? Should we be more cautious of blacks eyeing our vehicle in the grocery store parking lot?

Obviously not, and the implication is ludicrous — just like the statistics furthering the stereotype of female victimization and male dominance.

Rape is an immensely serious issue. Victims should have every forum to express anger and violators should be prosecuted. But the fact remains: Most men are not abusers. V-Day's propaganda incriminates all men.

Kate Kennedy, campus projects director for the alternative-feminist Independent Women's Forum, agrees.

"We want to prevent the portrayal of a white male patriarchal society," Kennedy said. "What V-Day does is put on a pedestal women victimization."

Kennedy's organization runs SheThinks.org, which developed an advertisement exposing the other major problem with V-Day: its essential theft of the value of Valentine's Day.

The evolution from viewing Feb. 14 as a day of positivity in relationships to their destructive aspects furthers the fabrication of male-supremacy in America. Valentine's Day becomes soiled with negativity as if Cupid's arrow provides more harm than good.

Sacks does not see how holding V-Day on any other date solves the problem either. "Campus feminists lie about men 365 days a year, so the fact that it's on Valentine's Day doesn't bother me," he said.

Dan Lynch, a board administrator for the Men's Activism News Network, opposes V-Day as well.

"The fear mongering propaganda leaves women vulnerable and divided from men," he said. "It serves one purpose and that is to indoctrinate women for political purposes."

At SU, V-Day events do not alienate men as much as Lynch notes in the national arena. "Vagina decorating" and literature tables in Schine Student Center have no ill-meaning. The performance of "The Vagina Monologues," a staple of V-Day nationwide, is artistic expression.

Still, many other areas further the men-as-abusers stereotype. A flier put out by the SU R.A.P.E. Center lists criteria a man can conform to in order to combat dating violence.

The flier makes such asinine suggestions as "If you are emotionally ... or sexually abusive to women ... seek professional help NOW" and "Mentor and teach boys about how to be men in ways that don't involve degrading or abusing girls and women."

V-Day organizers also asked fraternities to sign "Rape-Free Zone Declarations," naming the greek houses as vagina-friendly and posting their avowal, as if signing a piece of paper somehow ended their previously untamed aggression towards women.

The biggest disappointment with V-Day is that, for now, it's the most popular outlet for revealing injustices needing exposure.

Globally, bias against women runs rampant and worthy of uproar. Nationally, education about rape and dating violence is necessary to solving the problem holistically.

But V-Day is an ultimately misguided attempt at remedying those issues. A sign in Schine reads, "When violence stops, women and girls will be ... running the world."

For V-Day ever to succeed, the sign should instead read, "When violence stops, women and girls will live in complete equality with men and boys."

Steve Krakauer is a freshman in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. E-mail him at sakrakau@syr.edu.

http://www.dailyorange.com/main.cfm?inc ... 68852.html

[superboots]

V-Day!!!!!!!

I got a "Michigan Vaginas" pin on V-Day.

[areusad831]

did you even read that bethany?

[starvingeyes]

uhm. v-day is a bad thing, bethany.

[Bandalero]

V-Day!!!!!!!

I got a "Michigan Vaginas" pin on V-Day.

that's funny, i want to see that.

oh and v-day's bad, m'kay.

[starvingeyes]

it is. the article, read the article.

[superboots]

damnit.

I need to read.

[starvingeyes]

we forgive you, because you're cute. don't wear that out, however.

[faninor]

Saudi Arabian women aren't oppressed.

[Ray 2]

Cruelty towards men by women also tends to be ignored... every day of the goddamn year. What a ridiculous "isn't this bad?" article. That's not reporting, that's propoganda.

Honestly, I swear... in ten years, middle class white male americans are going to be the most oppressed minority(Lest we forget that Hispanics will soon make up the majority of the country's population, followed by a couple others before "white" will appear).