Name: Caitlin Ritch
Year: Sophomore
Major: Political Science and International Studies with a minor in Conflict Resolution
What made you decide to start pursuing this major?
I originally wanted to go into the arts and study stage management, but in high school I took this class called “Facing History” that talked about really serious issues like genocide and conflicts. I realized that I wanted to study conflicts and somehow be involved with human rights.
What are some of your campus involvements?
I’m very heavily involved with “The Vagina Monologues,” and I’m also involved with the Olive Tree Initiative, which is an on-campus organization that focuses on studying active conflicts and learning how to listen to different narratives. Last year I actually went on a trip to Turkey and Armenia with this group, and we learned about the conflict between Turkish and Armenian governments and the normalization process after the Armenian genocide; we met with government officials and locals. That year was really interesting because we also got to meet with refugees. We got to witness the Syrian Refugee Crisis that was happening in Turkey. We really got to see how they were living.
I’ve heard about your project, #LoveShouldntHurt. Can you tell me a little bit about this project and what some of your goals are?
Yes! So Day of Action is actually attached to “The Vagina Monologues.” They’re both operated under this umbrella called “Vday.” Day of Action is a project that I got the honor of spearheading for this year and I decided to name it “Love Shouldn’t Hurt.” There is actually a whole organization called Love Shouldn’t Hurt that focuses on ending domestic violence and I wanted to bring that to a more communal level because sexual assault is something that is really personal in my life and it’s something that I’ve always been very adamant about. I’ve always considered myself a feminist. I’ve always considered myself very active in trying to bring awareness about these issues. But at the same time, I’m one person in this world of about seven billion people, and if I try to approach it as a problem by myself, there’s not much that I can do. But I started thinking—what can I do for UCI? And I really started reflecting on things that I’ve heard from people not involved with my organization. Most people think, “Oh, that doesn’t happen at UCI” or “We don’t have those problems here.” People think this is the safest place in the world, and I wanted to figure out how we can raise awareness that it does happen here and that we’re not immune to it. The statistic is that one in four women will experience sexual assault in college, and that is still one in four women at UCI. I wanted to see what, specifically in sexual assault, it was that I wanted to combat, and I came up with the idea that people should quote any victim-blaming comments that have been said to them on posters. And so it’s victims of sexual assault or abuse [that are involved], whether that’s physical or mental, and I asked them to quote their assaulter, quote the criminal justice system if they went that route, and to quote anything that they heard on campus—from fellow students or faculty. The moment I realized that this was so important: I remember someone when I was sharing my story was like, “Why did you let him rape you?” And I just remember thinking, “This is how our students think.”
So the reason I wanted to make posters was because I thought, okay, nobody wants to have this discussion where someone is accused of anything. Nobody wants to admit that these things come out of their mouths, and most people after they’ve had time to reflect on it would realize, “Wow, that was a shitty thing to say.” But I thought, what would happen if you just don’t have that conversation on a private level, but instead with no names attached, you put it up all around campus and it’s no longer just that one person seeing that and having to deal with the words that came out of their mouth? It’s the entire campus having to look at the words that have been said by their fellow students. And I thought, that’s going to leave students wondering, “Okay, do I have a class with them? Oh wait, am I in [a] lab with them?” And so I got as many people from different aspects of the campus. We have a few alumni, a couple of grad students, and undergrads, and I really wanted to do something unique because every year “The Vagina Monologues’” Day of Action has a really bad problem of having their posters ripped down or vandalized with nasty comments or drawings. Last year we posted statistics up on campus and people wrote really degrading things on our posters. And so I figured that this was a way of students having to deal with their own actions and what’s been said around campus, because at the end of the day, we are a community. We can’t just blame the students either; we have to look at the media and the way degrading women has become so normalized in music. We are trying to blame the atmosphere and the culture of the university as a whole; that way, we can step up as a community to solve this problem. If anyone defaced these posters, at least we’d be proving a point.
Have you guys started this project or posted anything around campus yet?
Yeah, we just finished up all the photography. Now we’re getting all the posters printed and they will all go up on Feb. 12. We’ll be posting those posters all over campus outside, inside some buildings, and we’ll be doing a social media flood. And we actually have three hashtags that we’re using, which are #LoveShouldntHurt, #VdayUCI, and #LoveShouldntHurtUCI, so that if anyone wants to take a picture of the posters and post them on any media, they can join the social media flood. We’re also holding a silent protest because UCI has a very, very, very low reporting rate [of sexual assault], which is really interesting because, due to the fact that I am a survivor and I work very closely with the Care Office, hundreds of victims work with the Care Office every year. But last year, only six people reported their rape—only six people.
But at the same time, I understand why they wouldn’t want to report because the UCI Police Department reporting is so tricky. I actually asked for the Care Office to pass on my information [to the Police Department]. So I signed a sheet that they said they would pass on and that I should expect a phone call soon, but UCIPD never contacted me because I said I wanted to report it so that it would get put in our statistics. But that’s a whole other story.
So we’ll be doing a silent protest because we have such a low reporting rate and I think that a lot of people do not feel comfortable coming out and letting the community know about these things. I think that they feel silenced. And so we will not be speaking at our protest in respect to those that feel silenced.
Who have been people that you’ve asked to participate or that have asked you if they can join this project? Is anyone allowed to join the project like people who just want to support it, or is it more geared towards survivors?
The protests are open to anyone who wants to support, though the posters were made by people who experienced sexual assault. Anyone is welcome to support us through different resources that we’ll be posting around campus or social media. We will have support pages up, giant posters for others to write on [and] around campus for people to write anything encouraging.
We realize that this is not the entire campus that is saying these negative things, and that there are many supporters.
In relation to your project, “The Vagina Monologues” plays a very important role in raising awareness about gender-based violence and issues of sexual assault, but it does receive some criticism around campus. Initially, people hear the name and want to reject it right away. What do you think some of the misconceptions are about this play, and how can they be addressed?
I think at first, people think that it is a very sexualized thing and it is not at all like that. I think that [when] they hear the word “vagina,” they immediately sexualize it and they assume that the show is nothing but a bunch of giant sex monologues.
The name Vagina Monologues does have a shock factor to it, and I was really curious about whether that affect was intentional or whether it was made that way to show something about the way people reacted to it. What is the purpose to that name?
Eve Ensler [author of “The Vagina Monologues”] titled it, but that’s a really good point because she could have named it “Women’s Monologues” or she could have named it anything. When you hear the name “vagina,” you immediately sexualize it—but why? Why is it not just seen as a piece of anatomy or something beautiful? I think that by putting it in the title, she’s trying to normalize it. The whole point of the show is to take these really hard things that no one wants to talk about because they’re such heavy conversations to have. And it’s awkward, but it gives you an outlet to start those conversations. It normalizes the conversation about those issues.
On a less serious note, what are some of your favorite hobbies that are non-school related?
My whole life is school, but I love to go to improv shows and watch movies.
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“The Vagina Monologues” is a production written by Eve Ensler that will be hosted here at UCI this month. This production, Day of Action and Caitlin’s project, are all very connected to feminism, which is an important topic that students should keep talking about. The discussion about gender equality is something that has been talked about already, but there is still much left to be said and learned from this discussion. We have all heard about feminism, yet organizations like Vday, the Monologues, and even the term “feminism,” are sometimes misunderstood. However, we can be reminded of the definition as told by Caitlin when she explained, “Feminism is about learning that we are equals, that no one has to submit to another person.”
Caitlin is a student involved with this show, and she is personally dedicated to raising awareness about the issues of sexual assault and victim-blaming on campus. It seems, in addition to that, she has made it a priority to give survivors and all students on campus an outlet to discuss the issue of sexual assault as well as the concept of equality through her project, #LoveShouldntHurt, which will begin on Feb. 12. In the next few months, anyone on campus will most likely see posters involved with this project, and it is important that they do not go unnoticed. Considering the statistics that account for the women who report sexual assault, the popularity of “The Vagina Monologues” among our student body, and the recent project #LoveShouldntHurt, it is obvious that the topic of sexual assault is something that cannot be dismissed. Caitlin is one of many students who want to bring change to the atmosphere on campus and change what is said about and to survivors of sexual assault, or if anything, just make sure it is talked about. It is important that we put a spotlight on Caitlin because she is one of many survivors, and we need to hear their stories.
To join the discussion or participate in #LoveShouldntHurt, you can contribute to support pages, which are posters that will be posted around campus soon, or use this hashtag in a social media post.