In the United States, nearly one in four women reports being sexually or physically abused by a partner in her lifetime.
Worldwide, one in three women will be sexually or physically abused in her lifetime.
In 2005, actor Lisa Regina, who starred on “The Sopranos” and “All My Children,” was beaten by her then-fiancé and left on a Manhattan street.
The event served as a catalyst for the South Philly native, who will perform in a production of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” March 16-17 at Voyeur Nightclub, 1221 St. James St.
In 2011, over 5,800 events were held around the world in connection with Ensler’s V-Day movement to raise funds and awareness to end violence against women. This year, V-Day Philadelphia 2012 is hosting several events in the city, including a reading of Ensler’s award-winning “Vagina Monologues” featuring Regina and a local transgender activist with her own tale of surviving abuse.
Dawn Munro, a biologist born in the U.K., now works at the University of Pennsylvania. Munro, who has a history of social activism dating back to the civil-rights period, has been particularly active in the push for trans rights. As a transwoman, she regularly participates in panels teaching about trans and related issues and currently serves on the University of Pennsylvania’s LGBT Center Advisory Council. For the last three years, Munro has been involved in organizing the Philadelphia Transgender Day of Remembrance and memorials at the University of Pennsylvania’s LGBT Center and the William Way LGBT Community Center. She has also been involved in the founding of Philadelphia’s first Trans March.
After her attack, Regina suffered from physical injuries and post-traumatic stress. During her recovery, she discovered writing empowered her and helped her to heal — and led to her current role as a domestic-violence advocate and educator. Regina now travels across the country performing her one-woman show “A Write to Heal” and has founded a nonprofit by the same name.
Both performers agree that there are difficulties in getting the issue of violence against women the attention it deserves.
Regina said it’s difficult to get the mainstream media to address the issue, and when it does, like the situation involving Chris Brown and Rihanna, any positive message that might come out of coverage is often lost in the tabloid nature of the story.
“It makes me sick to my stomach most times because they want to sensationalize things,” Regina said. “That situation in particular twists my stomach: I feel that she could be such a stronger female role model and she’s not. As far as wanting to reward him for going through any kind of DV classes or anger management, it’s senseless that we feel that we have to reward him. He did something that was criminal. Violence is violence and that is the thing about the law that is really distorted. If someone assaults someone on the street, they are charged the same as someone who assaults an intimate partner. As far as Chris Brown, personally I don’t like the attitude of how he grabs the Grammy and says, ‘In your face, haters.’ He’s not really a role model. I never saw any remorse. It was sensationalized — they never talked about the issue. I don’t see him going out and educating young men on it. He’s surely in a position where he could.”
Munro also worries about how the issue is handled and perceived.
“I’m extremely concerned about the violence that is out there in society that affects women so frequently,” she said. “There was a time in my life when I was living as female, before I transitioned, when I got beaten to a pulp and ended up in a hospital. I’m very familiar with that experience and it is not just a physical experience. There’s all the verbal abuse that goes along with it. Since then, I have learned that people can be brutal without ever using physical violence in that way. They can do it just with how they speak to you and how they treat you.”
Munro added that oftentimes transwomen who are victims of domestic abuse or targeted as women don’t have the same resources available to them as other women.
“One of the things that come up is how people who have been assaulted on the street get treated when they get taken to the ER,” she said. “They can sometimes be treated abysmally. Even if they have some kind of documentation they can be rottenly treated. There have been cases of trans people having been injured and the ambulance will come to collect them, find out what the status is and say, ‘Let someone else pick it up’ and leave.”
V-Day Philadelphia presents “The Vagina Monologues” 8 p.m. March 16 at Voyeur Nightclub, 1221 St. James St. and 8 p.m. March 17 at Woody’s Nightclub, 202 S. 13th St. Tickets are $20 or $10 for students and benefit Women Against Abuse and A Write to Heal. For more information, visit www.vday.org or www.awritetoheal.com.