2008 Woodie Awards
Men rally to address violence against women
Community gather to end negative treatment of women in the wake of Gardner-Quinn tradedy
Thomas Morse
Issue date: 10/30/06 Section: News
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"It's really exciting to see everyone out here freezing to death," said Amy Boyd, of the Center for Health and Wellbeing
While the crowd might not have appreciated the reminder that the weather was hovering in the low 40s, the subtext of Boyd's statement was clear enough: this many people care enough about preventing sexual violence that they were willing to brave the cold.
"We are being raped, we are being murdered, if that is not a hate crime, I don't know what is" Emily Franz, a local feminist said in regards to the recent murder of Michelle Gardner-Quinn.
Members of Men Advocating Change wore black to the event because of Gardner-Quinn's murder, while they, as well as the majority of the assembled crowd donned white ribbons to draw attention to the continual misogyny that exists worldwide, said M.A.C. president and UVM sophomore, Phillip Ortego.
The white ribbon campaign is a "personal commitment to not commit, advocate, or accept gender-based violence" Ortego said.
Scott Hampton, the director of the New Hampshire group "Ending the Violence" aimed at combating domestic abuse, said that the white ribbon campaign was started in response to a shooting in Montreal in which a man killed fourteen female students.
Men Advocating Change has been handing out ribbons in Cook Commons throughout the month of October to support the campaign, which started in Canada in 1991 and has since become a worldwide movement.
The group holds meetings every Wednesday night at 8:30 in Wright 103 and both men and women are welcome to attend, Ortego said.
Men Advocating Change has sponsored events at UVM such as the Vagina Monologues, freshmen barbecues, and several think-tank films, since its inception three years ago.
Hampton, the guest speaker of the event, said that America's sexist culture condones treating women as sexual objects, and that is a major contribution to the tolerance of abuse in this country.
Gail Shampnois, the director of student and community relations, said that ignorance and acceptance allow for the prevalence of abuse. "Some still consider rape an act of male sexuality gone awry, rather than an act of violence. But we know different, just as we know that if a person hits another person over the head with a frying pan, we don't call that cooking," Shampnois said, quoting Christopher Kilmartin, editor of The Society for the Psychological Study of Masculinity and Men Bulletin.
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