The end of violence against women: A noble but unrealistic goal

By 2005, Eve Ensler is determined to eradicate violence against women. Ensler is the creator of "The Vagina Monologues," a collection of narratives about women's experiences with sex, their own sexuality and sexual abuse. As reported in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine story about the playwright and her three-year goal, within months of the "Monologues" debut three years ago, Ensler's brainchild has outgrown its categorization as just a play; it is the foundation of a socio-political feminist movement that has swept the globe. Through the "Monologues," Ensler built a campaign that has raised more funds for women's activism than many long-established advocacy groups.

Unfortunately, no matter how much money Ensler manages to raise, and no matter how widespread the "Monologues" movement becomes, Ensler's goal — while noble — is entirely unrealistic. And the magnitude of its illusiveness not only undermines Ensler's credibility but, in some ways, also minimizes the experiences of those touched by violence against women.

Ensler's goal is unrealistic for two significant reasons. First, violence against women is far too rampant in all corners of the world for any campaign to be able to stop each and every case within three years. According to a 2000 report by the UN Commission on the Status of Women, at least one in three of the world's women and girls has been beaten or sexually abused at some point in her life. Every minute in the United Kingdom, police receive a call reporting domestic violence. In South Africa, a woman is raped every 26 seconds. And in the United States, every 15 seconds a woman is battered, usually by an intimate partner. On top of these accounts of rape or domestic violence, millions of women are forced into prostitution or servitude, or live under oppressive regimes such as the only recently-deposed Taliban. I obtained these statistics at the website for the V-Day movement — Ensler's campaign to end violence against women — but there are many others containing similar figures, including the World Health Organization, the FBI and the Justice Department.

As the above statistics begin to indicate, violence against women reaches onto every continent, into every type of society, and spans relationships from the intimate to the economic. It knows no color, ethnicity, geography, socio-economic status, education level, or even sexual orientation (according to the NYC Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, 25-33% of same-sex relationships include domestic violence).

This leads us to the second reason why Ensler's goal is not feasible: the forces that produce violence against women are so ingrained in our society that they are not easily combatable. In her famous treatise, "Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape," Susan Brownmiller, a leading feminist author and thinker, argued that so long as the world contains a market for sex — prostitution, pornography, etc — sex is no different from another commodity and thus, like any other good, is subject to being stolen, that is, rape and sexual abuse will exist.

Furthermore, as Brownmiller writes, "The most perfect rape law in the land, strictly enforced . . . [will not eliminate] . . . the huge gray area of sexual exploitation, of women who are psychologically coerced into acts of intercourse they do not desire because they do not have the wherewithal to physically, or even psychologically, resist." The knowledge that a man has the power to hurt a woman in such a profound way as by rape breeds within women a particular fear and distrust of men that contributes to women's paralysis by sexual harassment, domestic violence, and psychological manipulation. Thus violence against women cannot be globally eradicated without first eliminating pornography, prostitution and lax rape and sexual harassment laws.

While the United States government might profess to be working on the latter two, current statistics remain bleak, and interpretations of the First Amendment have thus far ensured the prosperity of pornography. If the government that brought down the misogynistic Taliban and is aiding in building a new, gender-equal Afghanistan has not effectively eliminated the sources of violence against women in the several decades since Brownmiller's treatise, how can Ensler imagine that three years would be sufficient to eradicate the scourge worldwide? As well, Brownmiller's argument addresses only one of many factors contributing to rape in society; studies produced in the last several decades indicate a variety of biological, psychological, and political forces that are so diverse they cannot be adequately explained in a newspaper column, let alone eradicated by Ensler in three years.

That is not to say that her campaign is entirely useless. If nothing else, it succeeds in raising awareness of the reality. As well, her fund raising can and will be used to provide the safe spaces, support networks and financial security without which abused women cannot escape violent relationships.

Today is Valentine's Day. Instead of buying flowers or candy, donate whatever you would have spent on that impermanent gift to Ensler's V-Day Victory Fund to end violence against women. Go to www.vday.org, and click on "donate" to make an easy, on-line donation of $5 or more. There are few better ways to express your love and respect for a partner than to demonstrate your absolute intolerance for relationship-based violence. Julie Straus is a Wilson School major from Potomac, Md. She can be reached at straus@princeton.edu.