V-Day (movement)

V-Day is also used to designate "Victory Day" (in military parlance, the day an operation successfully concludes), and a mass protest against politicians in many italian cities, organized by Beppe Grillo only by using his weblog in 2007, or even informally as short-hand for "Valentine's Day"; see Military designation of days and hours.

V-Day is a movement built around replacing Valentine's Day with "V-Day," changing it from a day of celebrating romantic love to a day of awareness of sexual abuse and violence perpetuated against women and girls, with the "V" alternately standing for "vagina," or "victory." The movement was started in the late 1990s by author, playwright and activist, Eve Ensler in conjunction with her play The Vagina Monologues. While Ensler originally intended the play to be a celebration of female sexuality, she re-wrote portions of it and added new segments to shift the focus to sexual violence against women. She later used the play as a launching ground for the "V-Day Movement," which Ensler outlined as a series of performances of the play on Valentine's Day, accompanied by the distribution of literature to educate attendees on violence perpetuated against women and girls. Since its inception, the movement has grown to include film festivals centered around screening films about rape and sexual violence, protests, charity benefits, and demonstrations.

In 1998, a non-profit charity, "V-Day," was incorporated with the intent of using performances of the Vagina Monologues to raise money to benefit female victims of violence and sexual abuse. Beginning in the early 2000s, V-Day activities expanded to international summits, with V-Day proponents travelling to the Middle East and North Africa to spread their message.

In 2006, over 2,700 V-Day benefit events were coordinated by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls..

See also

• The Vagina Monologues
• Eve Ensler
• Domestic violence
• Network of enlightened Women

External links

• The official V-Day site