My name is Jessica and this week I’m having a Vulvapalooza.
 

Okay, it’s not just me. Women around this campus, around this country, and around this world are doing it. We’re having a Vulvapalooza and we’re inviting you.
 

What is a Vulvapalooza? It’s our name for the series of V-Day events SMU is hosting. V-Day is an international organization fighting to end violence against women. It was started by playwright Eve Ensler 12 years ago.
 

It started as benefit productions of Ensler’s play “The Vagina Monologues.” It still includes the monologues, but the V-Day organization now offers seven different V-Day events, each with a different focus. This year, SMU is hosting three. We’ll have a screening of a documentary called “Until The Violence Stops,” which showcases the work of V-Day organizers around the world.
 

We’ll also have a benefit performance of “The Vagina Monologues.” The show is a benefit for Brighter Tomorrows, an organization that “seeks to empower survivors of domestic and sexual violence” that this year had to close one of its shelters because of budgeting issues brought on by the recession.  
 

We’ll also have a workshop called V-Men in which men can talk about how to be a man– a man who helps protect and value women. A man who’s totally invited to the Vulvapalooza.
 

Now, when I start talking about ending violence against women, you automatically think this is heavy stuff. And it is. One in three women will be assaulted in her lifetime — one in four on college campuses. Women around the world and in your neighborhood bear violence and shame, often in silence. That’s where the Vulvapalooza comes in.
 

We refuse to be silent. We refuse to be ashamed. And by doing that we take steps towards a world in which violence against women is outrageous and eye-catching. We’re taking a step towards a world where the most ridiculous part of this article is not that I’ve said the world vulva five times so far, but the thought that we live in a world where someone thinks it’s alright to rape or hit a woman.
 

So this Vulvapalooza is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a palooza! It’s a celebration! It’s a celebration of the possibility of a new world without violence. It’s a celebration of women and women’s bodies. It’s about being able to love your body, male or female. It’s about accepting those parts of yourself that society tells you are wrong. I don’t care if that’s your stomach, your genitalia, your loud laugh, or your feelings and beliefs; all the things that make up who you are should be celebrated.
 

So come to our Vulvapalooza. Come learn. Come laugh. Come support the work of Brighter Tomorrows as they house, council, and heal women and children who have been abused.  Come love yourself and come make the world a better place.
 

See you at the Vulvapalooza!

Jessica Andrewartha is a junior theater major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].