Last Tuesday, in association with V-Day, Eve Ensler, award-winning playwright of The Vagina Monologues, hosted a panel discussion regarding sexual violence, in the light of the Steubenville rape case. The event sold out in eight minutes. Though it was exciting to know that every seat would filled with engaged listeners, there was something so annoyingly typical about the scene that greeted me: the audience was composed almost entirely of women, with a couple of guys sprinkled here and there. This is one of the problems Ensler had come forth to discuss: Why aren’t there more men involved in the fight against rape? “Violence against women should not be a women’s problem; we’re not raping ourselves!” she voices. She then turns her attention to the panel, the five distinguished men that she has invited to give their perspectives on the matter.
From left to right: Peter Buffett. Jimmie Briggs, Joe Ehrmann, Tony Porter, Dave Zirin, and Eve Ensler at the Paley Center for Media
At one point, Ensler stops to read a page of results from a poll in the U.K. eerily titled, “When Is It Okay to Rape A Woman?” The first answer is “when a man has spent a lot of money on her.” She then reveals the percentage of men who agree… and the percentage of women who agree. The two numbers are not very far apart. More answers include “when she is drunk”, “when she wears provocative clothing”, and “when she says ‘yes’ but changes her mind”, which all carry astounding percentages of men and women who concur. These statistics echo the very definition of rape culture. Rape culture is culture, the one that we’ve built that values men more than women and is oblivious to this hierarchy.
Here’s the complete event on livestream.
images via V-Day.org, ABC News, UltimateSoccerCoaching.com, ArtOfManliness.com