Ribbons

So we have started planning for Sexual Assault Awareness week in April and one of the programs we brought up was the white ribbon campaign. This made me think of how we use alternative media during this week to raise awareness about issues of sexual assault and violence. The white ribbon campaign (http://www.whiteribbon.ca/) is part of a national movement for men to end violence against women. The idea is to get guys wearing white ribbons in order to raise awareness about the issue of sexual violence. Though the campaign relies on the idea of heterosexual relationships and defines sexual assault as something that only happens to women, it is still interesting to think of white ribbons as a way of raising awareness about the issue. Something we also do during the week is have one in four people at Vassar wear yellow “1 in 4” shirts to symbolize the 1 in 4 women who get sexually assaulted by the time they graduate college. Again, shirts are being used as a powerful tool to raise awareness about sexual assault.

On a completely different note, this weekend I went to PS1 to see the WACK! exhibition and I really liked it. I think one of my favorite “pieces” was this installation of mattresses. I think the idea of the work was to “re-claim” mattresses, a place were women are violated and where sex workers work. It was very interesting…

Juliana