This week in Violence Against Women news:
- Minister Collins announces new funding for victims of trafficking
- Mary Crooks, Executive Director of the Victorian Women’s Trust says keeping quiet about violence against women is to condone it
- ARPA (Australian Review of Public Affairs) asks empowering victims of domestic violence: could anti-discrimination laws play a role?
- Women’s Health Victoria will be speaking at the Global Launch in London of a campaign dedicated to reducing domestic violence worldwide – read the media release here
- and Victoria announces a new taskforce aimed at reducing sexual violence
Internationally
- the UK’s Home Office releases it’s updated action plan to reduce violence against women and girls
- Special Rapporteur on VAW, Rashida Manjoo, says the Solomon Islands must act to end Violence Against Women
- In Afghanistan, girl scout groups are taking steps to prevent forced marriages
My Short Skirt
On March 21 it was World Poetry Day, and to celebrate this we thought we would share with you an excerpt from the Vagina Monologues, which we think is close enough to a poem to count 😉
My Short Skirt
(from The Vagina Monologues)My short skirt
is not an invitation
a provocation
an indication
that I want it
or give it
or that I hookMy short skirt
is not begging for it
it does not want you
to rip it off me
or pull it down.My short skirt
is not a legal reason
for raping me
although it has been before
it will not hold up
in the new court.My short skirt, believe it or not
has nothing to do with you.My short skirt
is about discovering
the power of my lower calves
about cool autumn air traveling
up my inner thighs
about allowing everything I see
or pass or feel to live inside.My short skirt is not proof
that I am stupid
or undecided
or a malleable little girl.My short skirt is my defiance
I will not let you make me afraid
My short skirt is not showing off
this is who I am
before you made me cover it
or tone it down.
Get used to it.My short skirt is happiness
I can feel myself on the ground.
I am here. I am hot.My short skirt is a liberation
flag in the women™s army
I declare these streets, any streets
my vagina™s country.My short skirt
is turquoise water
with swimming colored fish
a summery festival
in the starry dark
a bird calling
a train arriving in a foreign town
my short skirt is a wild spin
a full breath
a tango dip
my short skirt is
initiation
appreciation
excitation.But mainly my short skirt
and everything under it
is Mine.
Mine.
Mine.Eve Ensler, 2001