“V to Shining V” informs voters and protects, celebrates vaginas.
by Kaylen Ralph
There’s a new pope in town, and she’s not in New York (at least not this weekend). In celebration of the second ever Lady Parts Justice “V to Shining V” event this afternoon, Lizz Winstead (LPJ founder and co-creator of The Daily Show), is back in her hometown of Minneapolis. She’s ready to get shit done and have some good, old-fashioned, ball-busting fun.
Lady Parts Justice is a non-profit reproductive rights organization that was founded by Winstead in 2012 as “a cabal of comics and writers exposing creeps hellbent on destroying access to birth control and abortion.” Winstead has leveraged her success in the stand-up comedy world in order to bring together what is a truly impressive army of fellow comedians, musicians, performers, writers, etc.
Last year was the first “V to Shining V” day, a nationwide event that falls six weeks before an election and gives women (and men) a fun and festive reason to get together with friends and educate themselves about the politicians and laws in their states that could jeopardize reproductive rights in a very bad way come November. Participants who register their “V to Shining V” party with LPJ receive support and materials from the org, in addition to the resources and information already available on the website year round.
“It’s a national day of getting together with your friends (and) checking out all the bad, crappity crap laws in your state,” Winstead explains in a video on the LPJ website. LPJ offers resources and information year-round.
Take, for example, their recently released app, “Hinder,” a simultaneously informative, terrifying and hilarious political awareness raising app that is a near carbon copy of Tinder, both in form and functionality. Winstead’s hilarious, Steve Jobs inspired promo vid for the app is too good. When I met with Winstead earlier this week, she had just “taken down Apple,” after the company tried to tell her that she couldn’t sell Hinder in the App Store because it “violates Rule 14 of its app review guidelines, which bans ‘any App that is defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited, or likely to place the targeted individual or group in harm’s way,’” according to the Huffington Post.
But the kicker is that there’s a caveat to “Rule 14,” which says that professional satirists (ahem…did we mention that Winstead CREATED The Daily Show?) are exempt from the previously stated restrictions. By the time Apple reversed their decision, a petition with more than 30,000 signatures had been circulating the Internet as outrage built.
Needless to say, Winstead and LPJ are riding high as they head into the day’s festivities, which include at least 12 large-scale, facilitated events across the country. At Lizz’s own “V to Shining V” event in Minneapolis, she’ll be dressing up as the pope and absolving the sins of men, at a cost. The fundraising component of the “Grown Ass Carnival” (which is what the Minnesota satellite’s chosen event theme) is indicative of the inclusive and innovative approach Winstead has taken toward making LPJ grow. She started LPJ after doing a series of talks at Planned Parenthoods across the country and realizing that she, a middle-aged (and smokin’ hot) woman, brought the average age of each room down by about twenty years.
“Everything’s a fundraiser; nothing’s an awareness raiser,” she says. When you do a fundraiser, it’s a bunch of rich people at a table serving crappy food and it’s really boring. So what we try to do, to keep our organization going, is have everything be a fundraiser that’s affordable for everyone, and then you have options within your fundraiser so that if rich people want to do a thing they can, but it’s also about getting information and creating a lifestyle choice.”
The Grown Ass Carnival in Minneapolis will also feature such classic carnival games as Dunk a Troll, Bust Their Balls and the NuvaRing Toss!
Don’t miss the fun, whether you’re in Minneapolis or otherwise. Check out the LPJ website for details on the parties happening in your state. It’s not to late to start your own.
Kaylen is The Riveter’s co-founder, editorial development director and brand director. She moved to Minneapolis, MN after graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism in August 2013. In addition to her editorial duties at The Riveter, Kaylen also works as a freelance researcher for The Sager Group. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @kaylenralph.
