A complete success!
On Mar. 23 to 29, University of Dallas held its first ever League Week. In previous years, Campus Ministry sponsored a “Virtus Week,” in which organizations like Fight the New Drug spoke and a panel of UD campus ministry and men’s Fight Club members answered students’ questions.
However, at the time of Virtus Week, there was no organized support group for female students who were struggling with pornography and masturbation addiction, sexual abuse or relationship purity struggles. The next semester, A League of Her Own started, through the efforts of Shelby Ponikiewski, myself and other UD women looking for change.
Slowly over Spring and Fall 2024, small groups began forming, and the benefits of such a group became evident. League Week has made UD history as he first series of events here to specifically speak to women’s struggles with pornography and the effects of sexual abuse.
The first event of the week was a discussion on “God’s Plan for Bodies and Healing When Boundaries are Crossed,” given by Amber Charles from the Culture Project and Karlas Avalos from the UD Title IX Office.
The second event of League Week was a panel with myself and another league leader, as well as Rachel Zayas, a former FOCUS missionary at UD and Debbie Kaluza, a counselor at the UD Counseling Center. Only a handful of students attended this event. However, the questions asked by the students led to a very fruitful discussion by the panelists.
We were able to discuss topics such as approaching relationships after having suffered from purity struggles, how to help friends with these struggles and the actions that can be taken to help fight against the purity struggles that many women deal with.
At this point in our society, pornography is available on 12% of websites, and while 90% of men are exposed or addicted to pornography, 83% percent of women struggle with the exact same sins and addictions.
On the panel, I was struck by a question that asked about the major differences between men’s and women’s struggles with pornography. All of the panelists agreed that the biggest difference is that women tend to struggle alone.
There are countless resources and support groups for men who deal with pornography addictions. However, for women, it is a subject that is really never talked about, which leads to an intense feeling of isolation in women’s struggles with pornography.
This is why it is important to have these discussions and support groups on campus. Many women struggle with the belief that they are the only ones to struggle with chastity.
The final event of League Week was a talk given at Blessed Is She by Emma Judge, a senior history major, and myself, a junior English major. Our talk was titled “Not Your Mother’s Sex Talk,” and through it, we sought to bust some of the myths that surround women’s pornography and masturbation addictions. In particular, we debunked the ideas that pornography is “only a man’s problem” and that struggling with pornography makes you a terrible person.
This talk drew the most attention and had the largest audience of the week. The discussion and questions asked were very fruitful.
A League of Her Own membership has already gone up 10% in the past week. As one of the leaders of A League of Her Own, it was amazing to see so many women coming to our events and to see the work of a whole year begin to bear fruit.
To join A League of Her Own, you can scan the QR codes on the fliers in all of the women’s restrooms. This allows you to have a one-on-one with Shelby and determine if you want to join a small group! Also, feel free to reach out to me individually as well for more information!
To all the women on campus who are struggling, you are not alone. Please know that there are people on campus who understand your struggles. We want to support you!