'Vagina Monologues' Vs. Violence

By Betsy Curry
   Under the direction of Barbara Harris and producer Carson Soelberg, an all female cast presented three shows of the Vagina Monologues Thursday through Saturday in the College Theatre. The Monologues are a collection of real interviews conducted by Eve Ensler, author of the Vagina Monologues.
   This was my first encounter with the Monologues and I was quite unaware of what might go on. The name of the play was the extent of my knowledge. As I entered the theatre I was rather shocked and impressed as I viewed the audience. The audience included an array of both sexes, college-age students and older. I was equally impressed to see the presence of the male gender. Maybe they were forced to go by girlfriends or wives, but hopefully out of pure curiosity of learning more about the female body. I will have to add that throughout the evening I often heard male laughter, so they at least enjoyed the performance.
   The evening began with the cast of nine females sitting on stage discussing their anatomy. They each took turns giving us a variety of words used to describe the vagina, by women around the world. They were also asked if your vagina could talk what would it wear and say. With the combination of humor, great acting and life encounters the Vagina Monologues was a great success.
   My favorite monologue included Katie Deem’s rendition of an older woman and her experiences with her “down there” as well as Jane Eyburg’s portrayal of a woman who was raped during war by numerous soldiers. Eyburg was magnificent. I witnessed many tears being brushed away as well as my own.
   The Vagina Monologues was first performed in 1997 at the Cornelia Café in downtown New York, in hopes to end domestic violence against women around the world, according to www.v-day.org. The website also includes that over 300 million dollars has been raised for organizations whose sole purpose is fighting for women’s rights in Afghanistan, stop genital mutilation in Kenya and rape crisis centers through out the world. The Monologues are now being performed in over 20 countries.
   I found through my research that the original purpose of the Vagina Monologues, was to help end domestic violence and protect the rights of women all over the world. I feel in recent years the Monologues are venturing down a different path and are now putting forth the efforts of normalizing the exploration into sex. Being a college-aged student, I was more apt to withstand the uncensored nature of the Monologues. I feel that is why almost all of the performances of the Vagina Monologues are presented by college-aged women on college campuses. WVUP is a different type of college with students ranging from 17 to 65. Though the Monologues may have been too much for others, I felt the language and content was appropriate for the age group it was intended for.