By Melaina Bergin

What do I want?
Well I certainly didn't want that.
Not that you asked
before
during
or after.

What I needed was for you to care
about how I felt,
beyond how I felt
pressed underneath your fingertips.

How do I want it?
My way or the high way.
But since you clearly don't comprehend
my way,
the highway
would be down the street,
a few blocks down,
and to the right.

Who do I want?
Well I couldn't possibly want someone
that treats women like
an object
toy
or nuisance.

So when you laugh at my rights
without recognizing women died for them,
When you treat me like respect is merely a suggestion,
and when you look into my eyes
but never bother to look into my soul,
there isn't a doubt in my mind
that I don't want,
won't have,
and can't take
an animal like you.

V-Day Interview with Sita Goetschius!

What does V-day stand for?

V-Day is an organization started by Eve Ensler, author of "The Vagina Monologues", and strives to stop violence against women. They do this through having sets of monologues that have either been written or edited by Eve Ensler available for anyone to organize an event around for free. The only thing that they ask for in exchange for copyrights are to follow a set of rules, including donating at least 10% of the profits to their "spotlight" cause and the rest to non- profits that benefit women.

Have any problems with admin?
The only problem we encountered was trying to find a faculty member to open up the NMU for us and supervise the event. By time we found somebody, someone else took the original date and we had to change the performance day. Otherwise, the Casa Grande administration was very supportive of the event.

What did this production bring attention to and why?
This production brings attention to violence, stereotypes, and double standards that women face. My group members and I feel that these are very pressing and important issues that should be addressed.

What was your motivation to do an event of this magnitude?
The motivation to do this large of an event came from a variety of things, including Emily and mine's passion for theatre, Eve Ensler's writing, V-Day Petaluma productions, and understanding the magnitude of the violence that occurs against women. Incidents like the ones in Lynch Creek and in Richmond also bring more awareness and attention to this issue.

How did you get other students involved?

The group thought of people who we thought would be or are interested in performing and women's rights, and from there contacted them about doing the event. It was really people who we could think of who were interested.

What did the event consist of?

The event consisted of monologues and poetry from "A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer" (MMRP) and public domain sources. After about an hour of performances we had six different groups tabling with information that the audience was free to explore. The groups tabling were V-Day Petaluma, GirlTalk, The Zero Campaign, BRAVE People, and IMPACT!. Heather Hatch, Sonja Frayne, and Camille Copland also sold baked goods and split the profits between our beneficiaries and their RRR Spring Project.

Where did you guys get the idea?

As part of the assignment, we had to do something that combated or raised awareness about intolerance. All four of us felt strongly about the intolerance around the world against women and wanted to do a project that dealt with that. From there, we had a bunch of different ideas and finally decided to put on a V-Day event because we felt that it would be very effective.

How long have you been planning it?

We started working on this in March.

Was it a success and why?

I think that overall it was a success. We raised about $300 for United Against Sexual Assault of Sonoma County (UASA), BRAVE People, and the women and girls of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After the show, I had many different audience members telling me how much they really enjoyed the performances, including members of the V-Day Petaluma cast. We are the first high school V-Day Campaign in the North Bay, and I think we started something that will hopefully continue.

What parts of the community were involved?

Five of our performers were either adults or students from different high schools. Trisha Almond, the organizer for V-Day Petaluma, helped us immensely with planning this project, and almost all of the organizations tabling the event were community- based organizations.

International Women's Day! Webinar!

Today I was one of the four Casa students to attend the Webinar about Maternal Mortality and whatnot, so I thought I’d share my take on it for the rest of the people who might have been interested.

The powerpoint brought up some really interesting statistics, and the women were stressing that these were only approximations, and that in reality numbers of deaths were probably much higher.

But what was truly mind-boggling to me was that, we, as America, pledged to donate a certain amount of money each year to help women worldwide with education, contraceptives, medical care, etc; but we have barely paid any of what we promised we would. Of course, most of the payment was supposed to have happened during Bush’s Administration. There was no economic crisis until 2008, so we had no real monetary excuse. The Bush Administration’s excuse? That all the money was funding abortions, a practice which is typically disliked by conservatives. But the women clarified that the money would help lower the abortion rate in the first place, and they said that every investigation into this claim showed that little, if any money, was for abortions.

Obviously in our financial crisis at the moment, we don’t exactly have excess money to make up for the seven years of funding we failed to produce. However, Obama is trying to steadily increase the amount of money to organizations like these. But that money isn’t going to magically appear, and there are always other causes people will see as more important. And health care in our own country isn’t so fabulous that we can focus on international health issues (not that I don’t think they are EXTREMELY important.)

African American women are 4 times more likely due to complications in childbirth. 4 times. Some parts of cities in the United States are nearing 3rd world country status. And yet health care debates are about whether or not women have the right to abortion. How about we all, Americans, Nigerians, Indians, Nicaraguans, Bangladeshi, we all just have the right to survive a pregnancy, accidental or not?

Tiger Woods

I would like to address, briefly, the Tiger Woods scandal.

His business is his business; any reasoning he has for his actions are his own and not to open for anyone else to judge. Most people don't care.

However, the conversations in classrooms and over social networking sites paint a different picture: Woods is a 'pimp' and a 'stud' for having multiple sexual partners who were not his wife. Again, this is a minor point. People do what they want to do, usually without regard to the people it will affect. In this case, Woods obviously had no respect for his wife or their relationship, much less his image.

The important thing to note, here, is that Woods is being idolized for his actions by being seen as a player, a womanizer, a pimp, or a stud. Not only is this boosting his fame and therefore power, but his income as well. Young men see men in a position of power, adored for his fame and rich to boot, and his behavior is justified, thus making the action excusable for anyone. For young girls, it reinforces the idea of a male dominated society in which, if a man cheats on his wife, he becomes more famous; whereas if a women in the media's eye cheats on her husband, she is scorned as a slut and destroyer of the nuclear family. A man in this position profits from the publicity, whereas a woman's career could end.

I cannot find the Words-Cordelia Kritz

The beating, the crying, the silence

I cry from that room

That box of things

Mascara

Skirts

And cleavage

You expect me to fit into

Squeeze into

Cut off my arms and legs

And my short circuit

Annoying inconsequential non-human

Brain

I don’t need it

My arms and legs

I don’t need them

The only thing I would use

My arms for is to fight

Back

As you suppress

Drug and caress me

Tie down

And undress me

My brain I don’t need

I don’t need to think

While you shove me into

The murky waters

I lay unconscious

While I sink

And fall into a beautiful

Stunning

Sexy

Bloody

Beaten

Cut down and

Screechin’

Bleedin’

And beatin’

Body

Or carnage

A ravaged

Vagina, no wait..

Sorry I mean, Opening

You can insert

Your power

Into

Women

Wo-men

Just a portion of

Man

But without

The masculinity

Blissfully ignorant self inserted

Pride

Without the man we

Are nothing

Without a penis

We are nothing

So ravage me

Undress me and

Spitefully caress me

Spit on my temple

And I will stand here

Bloody and beaten

And I still cannot find the words

Cordelia Kritz

Why I am a Bitch

Bitch: Its original use as a vulgarism, documented to the fourteenth century, suggested high sexual desire in a woman, comparable to a bitch in heat. The range of meanings has expanded in modern usage. In a feminist context, it can indicate a strong or assertive woman, one who might make men feel threatened. When applied to a man, "bitch" is a derogatory term for a subordinate.

What is a bitch? Some would jokingly define the word as a female dog, if so when I am a bitch I am reduced to the intelligence and animalistic behaviors of a dog. I am a dog. A flee biting, ear scratching, fire hydrant pissing, disease infested dog. I am the lame dog with a lazy eye that limps to your doorstep. I am vulnerable, but you do not stop to take one look at me before I am sent to the pound to be “taken care of”. You see me as in need of help, but are too scared to come near me for fear that when you reach to pet me, I will bite back. So I ask again, what is a bitch? And you say, that it is a girl or woman that challenges the stereotype; who bites your fingers when you try to pet her face, who pisses on fire hydrants and scratches her flee infested fur, who eats scraps off the ground instead of on a silver plate, who wears no clothes not to offend but to be free from the weight of womanhood. I am a bitch; a bitch with free will and no limitations, a bitch who speaks her mind. So what are you?

You will not know what it means to be called a bitch until you imagine yourself in that girl’s shoes. You will not know what it feels like to be bitch until you have walked by girls whispering words of hatred in disguise. Yelling and screaming at a boy, this girl feels helpless and likes she is going against everything she’s been told. The boy says that she is over-reacting and that she should just calm down. The girl doesn’t calm down because she feels like yelling is all she can do right now. Yelling is all she can muster up when she opens her mouth to speak. The next day she has to be calm and nice as if she is approaching a small animal, she has to be sensitive. Because if she is not. If she goes against every social norm she’s ever been taught she will become what is most feared by every girl. She will become that bitch. And who would want to date a girl that is a bitch? If the boy continues to date this girl he is “whipped” and then he might as well be a girl himself. If he continues to be the “girl” he is weak and incapable of being “a man”. So the girl walks into the room, breath hitting her chest in hot spurts, sleeves rolled up from anger. She sits down, takes a deep inhale, and smiles at the boy breathless and unable to yell any longer.

“You are a son-of-a-bitch.” If you are a guy you probably are insulted right now. You’re thinking wow! I cannot believe she just said that. If that were the male equivalent insult to “bitch”, then it is important to realize that it really isn’t an insult to the male at all. If you are a son of a bitch then it is simply that your mother, “the bitch”, is to blame for anything you have done wrong. If you are acting inappropriately then, your mom must have brought you up poorly because why else would you be to blame? Nothing a man does can ever be blamed, because if he yells or screams he is just indicting his power. He is just being a guy. This is not an attack on males but merely what society has dictated to be “the norm”.

Misogyny is hatred towards women. Therefore, the word bitch is misogynistic and a word that although does not cross your mind when you speak it, defines intolerance. Animals in labor were, during the 1400’s, labeled with the term “bitch in heat”. So think about that. Think about what that means. That means that women are easily compared to an animal in labor. A pig veiled in soil rolling on the ground; an animal in extreme discomfort, crying and screaming from the pain. This is a bitch in heat; a bitch that is now a human being, rather a woman who promotes promiscuity or rather a woman who yells or shows ANGER. This woman you’ve all seen and you have all called a bitch. I know this because I have too. It is ok in everyday life. It is a word that is used so commonly that no one even frets when it is spoken, much like the word “rape” which is now used as a verb to describe doing well on a test (for example: “Man, I just raped my test!”). Since when did words that used to depict ideas of horror and censure become casual jokes that are thrown around on a daily basis? Why is it that we can use the word bitch against our peers and friends as a joke, when behind it there is so much more anguish than we dare to conceal? The word is not a joke and behind it all no one is really laughing.

My body...

My body fights. Itself, mostly. Sometimes other people. Sometimes against what it wants or what it needs. My body is a stronger fighter; it is only limited by my mental state. My body and my brain are one, coexisting to create a capable woman who can. She can do what she wants. She can elevate herself. She can nourish her mind, body, and soul. My body fights for what my mind believes, against the rainstorm of hate and violence and abuse of power. My body fights at all times, without fail or pause.