What would your vagina say?

By Skyla Seamans
Columnist

Performed in over 75 countries since 1996 and by a variety of women, Eve Ensler’s “ The Vagina Monologues” will make any audience laugh, cry, fume, and certainly blush.

Students Taking Action for Gender Equality will present “The Vagina Monologues” tonight, Feb. 23 and tomorrow, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. in the Church Street Center. Tickets are $2 for students and $5 for general admission. All proceeds will be donated to the Women of Haiti and Girls Inc. in Pittsfield, Mass.

Ensler’s monologues are based on interviews with over 200 women regarding their experiences with violence, sexuality, and relationships.

“At  first women were reluctant to talk,” Ensler writes. “They were a little shy. But once they got going, you couldn’t stop them.”

What would your vagina say? What would it wear? What do you call your vagina?

These are the questions STAGE asked the cast members (and Ensler asked her interviewees) to acquaint them with what the play is all about: vaginas.

Ensler does a remarkable job empowering women by bringing their voices to the public’s attention and by making the word ‘vagina’ not so taboo. What would your vagina say? Mine would rather listen.

This will be my second time performing in this play and I know the audience will walk away with a better sense of the struggles women face every day, both nationally and globally, and what must still be done to reach gender equality.

Emily Follin, junior and STAGE treasurer, has also performed in this play before and knows the impact the monolouges have on audience members.

“Everyone should come see the Monologues because they manage to bring issues that a  affect women everywhere into the light with a good mixture of seriousness and  humor,” Follin said. “I think ‘The Vagina Monologues’ is a good way to open up discussion about the inequalities that still face women.”

The Monologues also go hand-in-hand with the V-DAY movement, which is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls everywhere, including rape, battery, incest, sex slavery, and female genital cutting. through V-Day campaigns, volunteering, movie screenings, and campus performances, gender based violence is brought to the forefront.

According to the National Organization for Women, one out of every three women will experience some form of  gendered violence in her lifetime.

Brianna Vear, junior and president of STAGE, said the reason why she is bringing  The Monologues back to campus is to reiterate the need for action and understanding of who women are, the challenges and violence they face, and the  meaning of gender equality.

“I want every single person to take away something from the show,” Vear said, “whether it be a new love of moans, a reclaiming of the word ‘cunt,’ an angry vagina that is ready to be ‘over it,’ or a sense of empowerment through the tales of women and their vaginas overcoming and surviving.”

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