Take Back the Date: Student Stories

Looking for inspiration to get ready for IWF's annual Valentine's Day campaign, Take Back the Date?  Look no further than the following student stories from years past.  If you want to get involved in this year's campaign, email Allison Kasic at campus@iwf.org.

Smith College-Northampton, Massachusetts

"Doesn't the issue of violence against women deserve better than this?" asked one of the many signs posted across Smith College's campus in response to the College's production of Eve Ensler's controversial play, The Vagina Monologues. For the first time in almost six years of Ensler's play appearing on campus a group of bold Smithies decided to finally question it.

"Although the cause these women are raising money for makes sense, the play doesn't. If a campus full of some of America's smartest women has to be shocked into donating money to women's violence prevention organizations I have to ask: where did we go wrong?" questioned Sara Gordon, chief-of-staff for the Smith College Republicans.

Members of the Smith College Republicans came together to oppose the play via posters and a debate, as well as talking to Smithies on campus about why this play is offensive and vulgar. "[The play] is advocating that women not use their minds, but their bodies," said Kirsten Steinke, a member of the Republicans who stepped up to the challenge of debating members of the Smith Feminists. But Kirsten and her fellow Republican comrade, Alexandra Ferrara, not only faced the feminists, but the College's administration as well. "Some questions posed by the administration made me wonder if the administration was actually being neutral in this debate, it seemed as if they had already chosen the side of the feminists," said Alexandra. Post-debate these two women faced a crowd of angry Smithies, a few of whom decided they would spit on the Republicans who spoke. "It was awful-but at the same time, if we don't question it, who will?" Alexandra concluded.

The ladies of the club received much publicity for their activism and were featured in the Smith College Sophian, the Maine College Republican's Pachyderm Press, and the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.

Bucknell University-Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

Each February at Bucknell University, unsuspecting students are caught off guard by the antics of the campus' radical feminists.  These young women, who claim their goal is to prevent violence, litter the campus with feminist propaganda, including posters that read, "What does your vagina smell like?"  They also print t-shirts with the slogan: "I ♥ Vagina," and loudly chant vulgar profanities about their intimate anatomy.  Of course, the centerpiece of V-Day is Eve Ensler's play, The Vagina Monologues. 

Last year, the Bucknell University Conservatives Club decided to take an active stance on this issue.  During the V-Day festivities, members of the Conservatives Club purchased carnations from a local florist and sold them in the student center.  Students, faculty, and staff bought the flowers and filled out a card with the recipient's name, residence, and a sweet message.  Within a few hours, 150 carnations had been sold!  To help bring back some of the romance the feminists tried to take away from Valentine's Day, the Conservatives Club hand delivered (in formal attire) the carnations to their recipients.  All proceeds were donated to the Susquehanna Valley Women in Transition, a shelter for battered women.   

The Bucknell Conservatives showed that there are nicer ways than a vulgar play to raise money to end violence against women.

Framingham State College-Framingham, Massachusetts

At Framingham State College a group of conservative students protested The Vagina Monologues.  The school administration told the group that no more than five students could participate in the protest; otherwise they would have to pay for their own security.  The students were provoked, yelled at, and threatened by Leftists throughout the protest.  A group of liberal students even started a vagina chant: "I don't know what I've been told, vaginas are good as gold. I don't know what I've been told, I love vaginas young and old."  When the protestors attempted to give Vagina Monologues cast members pink and red balloons to commemorate Valentine's Day, they were told to "go to hell."

Drake University-Des Moines, Iowa

The newly formed Network of enlightened Women (N.e.W.) chapter at Drake University decided something had to be done to counteract the three-day marathon of The Vagina Monologues on campus in the spring of 2006.

N.e.W. hosted a series of anti-V-Day activities, spanning three days.  The festivities kicked off on Thursday night with a panel featuring Marlys Popma. Friday was a casual conservative girls' night out-dinner and a movie. Saturday afternoon the Iowa National Guard came and sponsored a self-defense workshop. The event was a big hit. The neon pink flyers printed for this event-the silhouette of a curvaceous woman next to the words "self defense: that's hott"-caused a lot of debate on campus, especially in women's studies classes. Though an open initiation was extended to every woman on campus, no "Vagina Warriors" attended.

The response to these alternative V-Day activities was not pretty. An exceptionally imperious Vagina Warrior/Womyn's Awareness Coalition (WAC) member crashed the N.e.W. meeting at which members were planning their activities and demanded to see all their materials. Many posters advertising the weekend's events were vandalized or town down.

"There is a reason we put ourselves on the line instead of standing idly," outgoing N.e.W. president Danielle Sturgis said. "Students-and women particularly-must see that these women so obsessed with male patriarchy and female genitalia do not have a monopoly on thought at Drake." 

Michigan State University-East Lansing, Michigan

When Michigan State senior Katie Wilcox sent a letter to the editor to the school paper, she could hardly predict the controversy she would spark.  Katie's letter sparked a weeklong firestorm in the State News. 

"The only thing that bothered me about all of this is that I am totally against censorship and I never called for [the play] to end.  I just felt that it shouldn't be funded and promoted by the university," said Wilcox.  "The attacks got very personal.  I even had professors mentioning how much people hate me in the paper."

But Katie didn't let the critics get to her.  "I'm really glad I got my letter in the paper though, because that was the only public dissent with the Monologues. Unfortunately, it has become pretty accepted on campus," she said.

University of Delaware-Newark, Delaware

At the University of Delaware, radical feminists aren't content to merely poison Valentine's Day with The Vagina Monologues.  In addition to the vulgar play, they also sponsor an annual "Sex Toy Bingo" event.