Farley Hall is hosting its signature event, Farley Hall Be Fine Day, on Friday to encourage conversations about femininity and raise money for the YWCA Women’s Shelter in North Central Indiana.
The event began Thursday with an open mic night in the Farley basement. Throughout Friday, Farley residents will be handing out buttons and bananas outside DeBartolo Hall to encourage healthy eating, hosting yoga on North Quad at 1 p.m. and hosting a “Walk in Her Shoes” walk in high heels across South Quad at 5 p.m.
Senior Yomara Acevedo, one of the event’s coordinators, said when the event was started during her sophomore year, it received a lot of backlash.
“I thought it was a fun and interesting event, but it just sparked a lot of controversy that may or may not have been a good thing for an inaugural year,” she said. “So then last year … I remember it just being really watered down.
“ … It wasn’t sparking any conversations. Part of this is we want to spark conversations on what it means to be feminine. So this year we’re trying to find a balance between it.”
Junior Carly Gray, Farley Hall vice president, said they wanted to incorporate the word “fine” — Farley’s mascot — into their signature event's slogan, eventually settling on the phrase “Today, I’m at my finest.”
“Even if it does change year to year, we think we’ll still have a stronger message for the day than we have in the past and a concrete set of events that people can point to, and say, ‘That’s what Be Fine Day is about,’” Gray said.
According to junior Micaela Mitchell, one of the Be Fine Day coordinators, the “Walk in Her Shoes” event will raise funds for the YWCA women’s shelter in North Central Indiana. The Be Fine Day Facebook page features stories from some of the women at the shelter, Mitchell said.
“ … A lot of them were domestic violence victims,” she said. “One of them was a meth addict after her domestic abuse. They all were really positive and really emphasized that they have a place and a purpose and YWCA has really helped them find that, and find friends and find housing.
“I think the most shocking about that was most of them were from different states — faraway states like Alabama, Florida — one of them is from Chicago — and they were escaping people.”
Gray said she hoped the walk would also ignite conversations between men and women about femininity.
“One of the goals of our event is sparking conversation and dialogue about different expressions of femininity and certain things that apply to women that wouldn’t apply to men — or at least men that don’t conform to feminine stereotypes, or something like that,” she said. “So we hope the walk will do that while also raising awareness about the Women’s Shelter, and also raising money for them as well.”
Mitchell said Be Fine Day’s organizers wanted Be Fine Day to be an inclusive event, while still focusing on discussions about femininity.
“ … We really tried to find a way to highlight the differences between men and women, but still create a dialogue so that we were still focusing on our goals and ideas, but we weren’t excluding people from engaging in that,” she said.
Junior Lauren Saunee, Farley Hall president, said she hopes the event works to draw the community’s attention to the issues Be Fine Day addresses.
“I think that at the end of the day, if people are talking, that’s what we want,” she said. “And also — bringing awareness, too. We talked about the women’s shelter. There [are] so many different charities in South Bend, but this is something we obviously have invested an interest in so just bringing that to the surface.”
Acevedo said the ultimate goal of Be Fine Day is to recognize all types of femininity.
“We want to emphasize, ‘If you’re athletic, you’re still a queen, and if you’re really, really feminine and you like dressing up, you’re also a queen,’” she said. “We want to highlight and celebrate all forms of femininity, whether you really like makeup and you really like dressing up, or you don’t.”
