Guns and Tampons: A History of Violence Against Women I Know

"There are subtle but obvious forces out there against women in this world."

by Juliet Fletcher

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Published: Feb 6, 2007

theater

"There are subtle but obvious forces out there against women in this world," says poet and performer Hanalei Ramos. She isn't projecting when she makes this statement; she's seen these forces firsthand. After leaving Philadelphia to escape an abusive relationship, Ramos, now 24, established support groups in Jersey City for other women going through the same thing. She tries to keep the names of these groups under wraps — but in her other guise as a performer, she's about to voice the distilled accounts and wisdom of the women she's helped.

Through the group, she's heard women discussing immediate physical or emotional abuse, but also how they notice other hostilities: "How, in wartime, the idea of defiling a woman ... becomes a weapon," she says, or "silent messages, especially in adolescent girls' lives, that it's disgusting when you're bleeding."

Ramos sees that these are all connected, and found a way to portray them as such. She began conducting one-on-one interviews with group members in late October, and now has almost 24 hours of 'em on tape. From them, she's developed a stage show of monologues that, together, consider what we mean by a "culture of violence." After one bad experience, she says, "many women spend years repeating it." She calls these echoes "second lives," but for the women Ramos channels, the show's vignettes could be seen as cathartic, redemptive second acts.

Fri., Feb. 9, 8:30 p.m., $5-$10, Asian Arts Initiative, 1315 Cherry St., second floor, 215-557-0455, www.asianartsinitiative.org.

 

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