{"id":64150,"date":"2013-02-11T14:31:09","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T19:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=64150"},"modified":"2013-02-12T18:17:08","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T23:17:08","slug":"on-second-thought-on-one-billion-rising-and-the-v-day-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/on-second-thought-on-one-billion-rising-and-the-v-day-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"Second thoughts on One Billion Rising, The V-Day Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while something that seems to illustrate the current astrology perfectly gets written about on Planet Waves, and then a little more information about it comes to light or a better example surfaces, or both. Such is the case with the One Billion Rising example I used in today\u2019s Daily Astrology<\/a> post below. It has some problems.<\/p>\n

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The pro-sex Betty Dodson, one critic of Eve Ensler’s anti-male, anti-sex message. Photo by Eric Francis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The idea of one billion women (and men) dancing around the world all at once is still a fantastic image of collectively raising the vibration. But Eve Ensler and her V-Day foundation are problematic, and in a sense, what they\u2019ve come to be about runs counter to the astrology\u2019s message to \u2018stand out\u2019.<\/p>\n

For one, check out the Wiki page about feminist criticism of The Vagina Monologues<\/em><\/a>, which includes this passage:<\/p>\n

The Vagina Monologues<\/em> has been criticized by a number of people in the pro-sex feminist, gender egalitarian, and individualist feminist movements. Harriet Lerner, renowned in the field of women’s psychology, points out the “psychic genital mutilation” embedded in the play’s title, which ignores the clitoris and labia, and should more accurately be called “The Vulva Monologues.” Pro-sex feminist Betty Dodson, author of several books about female sexuality, saw the play as having a negative and restrictive view of sexuality and an anti-male bias. She called the play “a blast of hatred at men and heterosexuality.” Individualist feminist Wendy McElroy agreed, stating that the play “equates men with ‘the enemy’ and heterosexual love with violence.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, The Vagina Monologues<\/em> and the V-Day Foundation that was built on its success essentially perpetuate violence despite claiming to be against violence. They do so in part by putting forth a viewpoint that \u2018men are violent\u2019 while ignoring male victims of sexual violence (consider the abuses by the Catholic Church prompting Pope Benedict XVI\u2019s resignation announced today, or the circumcision of baby boys). And unfortunately, The V-Day Foundation is becoming a form of corporate exploitation of violence under the guise of an anti-violence message, according to some critics.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now, about the astrology: given how unassailable The Vagina Monologues<\/em> has become (critics of productions on college campuses often find themselves shunned at best, fired at worst; it is very difficult to critique Ensler and The V-Day Foundation without being labeled a misogynist), does joining One Billion Rising actually constitute \u2018standing out\u2019? Or is it actually an example of conformity by women?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not suggesting that people should not join in the event — I still think that millions of women dancing worldwide is a wonderful thing. But it\u2019s worth asking whether conforming to an essentially corporate endeavor built on an anti-male, anti-heterosexual-sex agenda is truly daring or creative.<\/p>\n

As one of our commenters noted under the Daily Astrology post, \u201ca Pope who has been very criticized for his \u2018old\u2019 views just did an extremely \u2018modern\u2019 action.\u201d In a bizarre twist, we\u2019re seeing a Catholic Pope \u2018stand out\u2019, apparently in relation to the rape of little boys by Catholic priests: sexual violence toward young men. I\u2019m not praising Benedict XVI per se since I don\u2019t have all the facts yet, and Eric will have more to say about the Pope\u2019s decision and the astrology in tonight\u2019s Daily Astrology and also in tomorrow\u2019s Planet Waves FM. But it is worth noting how striking the move is.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting where you truly stand on the issue of healing both halves of the perpetuated divide between genders when it comes to sexual violence. It\u2019s worth considering how you can truly stand out. Just how creative you can get with something as simple as a camera or a dance or a poem or set of paints right now? What do you have to say?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while something that seems to illustrate the current astrology perfectly gets written about on Planet Waves, and then a little more information about it comes to light or a better example surfaces, or both. Such is the case with the One Billion Rising example I used in today\u2019s Daily Astrology post … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1734],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}