Through crafts and inspiring reminders, students were able to learn about feminism and domestic violence Feb. 14 in the student center during the One Billion Rising event.
One Billion Rising is a movement that aims to end violence against all women. The campaign launched Feb. 14, 2012, due to the statistic that one in three women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime, which adds up to one billion women and girls out of the world population.
UCA is registered as an institution that participates in the campaign every year.
The event has been brought to campus for over a decade in a variety of ways.
“Cindy Lea and I have been bringing One Billion Rising to UCA for at least the last thirteen years, maybe fifteen,” said Taine Duncan, chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and director of gender studies at UCA. Cindy Lea is the coordinator of engagement and support in the Honors College.
Duncan said, “We’ve done everything from having just a rise up to a dance, to having something like this, where we’ve got stations with information and interactive activities to raise awareness.”
Tables were set up across the room that held different stations for attendees to interact with. The stations included temporary tattoos to promote body positivity, zine making, scrapbooking, a photo booth, cookie decorating, and flyers with local resources.
Each station was accompanied by students who assisted in providing and explaining the information passed out at their tables.
“What’s really interesting about this event as a whole is that it is student work that makes it possible,” Duncan said. “My students in a first-year seminar did service learning work to create some of the flyers. Students in Honors host the tables as well as bring in all of the other materials and plan activities, and so it’s really through that collaboration of student work that makes it possible.”
Freshman Dayne Coker was stationed at the bystander intervention table.
“We provide information about what bystanders can do and how to counter the bystander effect,” Coker said.
Coker said that his favorite activity offered at the event was the scrapbooking station.
At the scrapbooking station, visitors flipped through magazines and cut out words, phrases, pictures and stickers to create posters representing the causes they care about.
“Feminist Union, a student organization associated with the gender studies program, helped put together the zine table,” Duncan said.
The table with zine making included information about local organizations with topics ranging from details about consent to resources for those who have been impacted by sexual domestic violence. A basket full of facts about feminism, as well as flyers, stickers, fidget toys and pins were on display for anyone to keep.
“Part of the reason that we first started doing [this event] and collaborating together is because sexual violence and domestic violence occur at higher rates on college campuses,” Duncan said. “The mission of One Billion Rising to stop domestic and sexual violence globally really is something that’s also important to us here locally.”
