Helping Women, Stopping Violence Is Best Valentine

News flash! Valentine’s Day has been hijacked by radical feminists! Quick, hide the flowers and chocolates before the man-hating brigade steals all the warmth and love from your life!

This is what I learned from Tuesday’s Daily Cal. An op-ed (“Whatever Happened to Flowers and Chocolates?” Feb. 13) told us that V-Day, the non-profit organization that puts on benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues each

year, was sucking the romance out of Valentine's Day. The op-ed urged us to “take back the date.” Funny thing is, I never noticed it was gone.

Feminism has a pretty bad reputation. I consider myself a feminist, and I’ve been on the wrong end of a few too many insults and jokes because of it. I never thought that wanting to end oppression and believing in equality would be so controversial, but apparently it is.

Just to clarify a few things: Feminists don’t hate men (a lot of us are men), we aren’t always angry and you can’t tell who we are just by looking at us.

So you're probably wondering, if feminists aren’t angry and anti-male, then why would we want to ruin Valentine's Day?

Well, let’s talk about what The Vagina Monologues actually is. At UC Berkeley, students perform the show three times every February to sold-out audiences. 100 percent of the proceeds of the shows go to organizations working to end violence against women and girls.

During the show itself, monologues and skits explore different themes relating to possibly the most taboo body part a human can possess, the vagina. The pieces explore sexuality, rape, violence, relationships, puberty, gender, birth, language and more.

If you think about it, you’d be surprised how much of our culture, from our most vulgar insults to our most celebrated pleasures, are related to a part of the body that we hardly ever talk about. The Vagina Monologues explores these ideas with humor, knowledge and sadness, all while raising funds for a good cause.

The Vagina Monologues doesn’t erase Valentine’s Day; it adds to it. Violence against women and girls is very real and very common. On average, one out of four undergraduate women will experience actual or attempted sexual assault during her college career.

Through education and fundraising, The Vagina Monologues hopes to encourage relationships of love and respect, the kind we celebrate on Valentine’s Day.

So next time you're looking to “take back the date,” take your partner to a benefit production of The Vagina Monologues. It’s a great way to celebrate every kind of V-Day.

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