Violence against women needs to end.
One in three women on this planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime, according to the One Billion Rising website.
This statistic is an atrocity. No woman deserves to be beaten. No woman deserves to be raped, no matter what she is wearing or how she is carrying herself.
One Billion Rising is a movement to raise awareness for the abuse that so many women will face in their lives.
On Valentine’s Day this year, the organization called for one billion men and women around the world to revolutionize the way we think about violence against women through a dance protest.
They danced to protest the rape culture in the world. They danced to protest the mentality that there is nothing society can do to prevent rape. They danced to show the women across the world that violence will not be tolerated anymore.
Demia is Butler University’s chapter of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, and their aim is to promote gender equality on Butler’s campus. They organized Butler’s own dance protest at Star Fountain on Valentine’s Day.
I am so proud that Butler was a part of this movement. Watching the men and women of our campus dance to show solidarity with every abused woman around the world made me happy to be a part of campus.
Our involvement in One Billion Rising should not stop now that Valentine’s Day has passed. Every student should ask themselves how they can help stop the rape culture that pervades our world today.
This could be as simple as not joking about rape, or as serious as supporting an abused woman to find her voice and stand up for herself.
I encourage students to visit the “Over It” page of One Billion Rising’s website. This definition of the rape culture can help us understand how to stop violence against women around the world.
Violence against women needs to end. The only way this can happen is for every person to take notice and make their voice of protest known.