A Secret Society of Women Is Throwing A Party Against Rape Culture and You’re Invited

In late 2014, Holwick moved from LA to New York and brought with her a national feminist secret society called Grlcvlt, which now has 3,000 members in NYC and champions Holwick as their leader.

“Grlcvlt is a national secret society driven by intersectional feminist values applied within a culture of support and respect,” Remy explains. “We talk about everything from our families to our jobs to our manicures to our bowling league and books, and learning to trust each other across interactions in this broad range of topics means that we can trust each other and listen to one another when our discussions turn serious — we regularly handle issues pertaining to race, culture, and feminism.”

Grlcvlt isn’t just about discussing female empowerment and bowling though; it’s also about making real change. When Judge Aaron Persky sentenced rapist Brock Turner to a mere six months in jail for his horrific crime, Holwick and Grlcvlt decided to do something about it.

In an effort to combat rape culture, Grlcvlt will be partnering with Holyrad Studio to encourage New Yorkers to sign complaint letters to unseat Judge Aaron Persky.

By definition, rape culture is the perpetuation of sexual assault victims being blamed for their assaults as well as the leniency shown to perpetrators. Rape culture can also be defines as a woman being brutally raped behind a dumpster and a judge only sentencing the assaulter to six months in jail because the judge doesn’t want it to ruin the assaulter’s promising future.

So far, over a thousand people have said they would be attending the June 15th event (and another two thousand have RSVP’ed “interested”). The night will surely go down in feminist history as the day New York decided to take rape culture seriously.

In a show of support for Grlcvlt’s event,  Youtuber and feminist icon Laci Green has vocalized support. In addition, it is being sponsored by Phhhoto and Industry City Distillery.

For more details on Grlcvlt’s NYC event visit here. You can read the letter written by Turner’s victim here. For more details on Grlcvlt’s LA event, RSVP here.

 

Images courtesy of Remy Holwick and Grlcvlt.

By Hannah Rimm on June 14, 2016
Hannah Rimm is a writer, educator, and filmmaker living in New York City. When she isn't writing, she is the marketing coordinator at an Academy Award-nominated arthouse animation company.