"The National Young Women's Day of Action tends to be centered on accessibility and legal aspects of keeping rights available for women," said AFA chair Kathryne Fedele '02.
Three women representing the AFA for Amherst, Leah Lotto '02, Nicole Heig '04 and MaryKate Zukiewicz '04, helped coordinate the Five College event at Smith by attending weekly meetings last month at Hampshire College.
The event consisted of workshops on transgender issues in feminism, media image and transforming rape culture. Performers, music, food, and art were also included.
At Amherst, the AFA displayed their information on metal hangers to remind students of the abortions women used to perform on themselves with metal hangers, often causing permanent damage and death.
"We did the chalkings and the hangers to let people know that today was a special day and to advertise for the event," said Lotto. "We kept it low-key."
Fedele said that she believed the hangers made their point. "Plastic wouldn't give quite the same effect," Fedele said. "We know these issues are hard to face, but we're trying to educate everyone."
"We talked a lot about whether we were going to use the hangers or not because they're really shocking and provocative," Lotto said. "But they weren't really shocking. I expected more of a reaction." Lotto speculates that students might not have stopped to read the facts on the hangers, some of which indicated what the metal hangers represented.
Josh Machao '03 said that he was still puzzled about the reason for the hangers after stopping to read some of the messages and ended up asking people what the hangers meant before he understood. "I think the potency of the message was lost because it seemed like I shouldn't have had to work so hard to find somebody who knew exactly what the hanger symbolized," said Machao. "It was such a powerful message that needed to be presented in an easier way."
"It's kind of frightening that people didn't know what they were," Lotto said. "That's so in-your-face," she said, adding that when Smith made a similar display last year, there were more negative responses.
Heig said that she did not notice any significant reaction to the hangers, either, suggesting that "an on-campus event with more interaction among students, such as a movie screening and discussion," might have better increased Amherst students' awareness levels.
"However, if some people read the information on the hangers and became more aware of the issue at hand, then we accomplished some of our goal," she said.
Amherst's Peer Advocates of Sexual Respect provided some materials at the Smith event regarding issues of sexual assault and violence, according to Gretchen Krull, assistant director of health education and sexual assault counseling.
"The focus [of the National Young Women's Day of Action at Amherst] is primarily on reproductive rights and not issues of sexual violence," Krull said, explaining the smaller role that she and the Peer Advocates played in the National Young Women's Day of Action this year.
Krull said that she believed the information on the hangers reminded women of the choices they have today. "It is useful for us to remember that the options women currently have for their reproductive, economic, and personal freedom are relatively new and continuously fragile ones," she said. "The coat hanger symbolically reminds us not only of the past, but of the current struggle women have with sexual violence, equal opportunities, and reproductive rights." Krull said the chalkings and hangers were "emotionally powerful" for her as someone who came of age without the options available today.
"I often feel that younger women take for granted that which I did not have and am encouraged by the women who respect the struggle that gave them these choices and know we need to continue to fight to keep them," she said.
Among the performers at Smith last Wednesday were Amherst folk singer Emily Greene '01 and a new all-female band called Koozy, made up of Eleanor Mahoney '02, Sanwaree Sethi '02, Tammy Jezek '01 and Sun Lee '01, playing for the first time last Wednesday.
Jezek appreciated the friendly atmosphere. "I think the success of this first performance of ours was greatly due to the supportive, encouraging, non-judgmental audience, which was largely young females," said Jezek. "If we had played anywhere else for our first show, we would not have felt as at ease."
Sethi said that she was impressed with the organization of the event. "It was cool and inspiring to see so many people interested in making a change and getting together to have fun at the same time," she said.
Sethi and Heig, however, were disappointed in the low turnout.