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Community Corner

The Vagina Monologues: More Than a Show, It's About Empowerment

All proceeds from show benefit rape victims and help promote awareness about violence against women.

The Vagina Monologues are so much more than angst-ridden women moaning and whining about their periods – they are a celebration and all-inclusive look into what makes women well, women.

Since 2004, Eve Ensler’s show, The Vagina Monologues, has been bringing awareness to women’s issues in the performance, held at Sonoma State University. The Monologues are a series of interviews and recollections of memories done with women around the world – some are accepting and loving of their vaginas, others are too afraid to say its name. In others, stories of rape, mutilation and humility are told.

“It’s about embracing all that it is to be a women or to have a vagina,
 said Director Sara Kaufman. “It’s about bringing not only respect and dignity, but also freedom, not only to the word and the vagina itself but the woman herself. And once that freedom reaches the heart of the women performing or to someone seeing the show, it gives more accessibility to them.”

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While the material may at times seem shocking or crude, this is not the intent. The production is meant to educate – to teach women, men, old, young and from around the world that vaginas are not taboo.

“Women have such diverse experiences with their vaginas,” said Jake Bailey.  “We’re showing those experiences. Some are really personal, horrifying things.”

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The point is to teach acceptance and support for women’s issues.

Fighting Injustice  

In addition to the 15 standard monologues performed each year, Ensler assigns a spotlight piece that highlights a particular trouble facing women. This year, the focus will be the story of Miriam, a woman who had been victim to abuse in Haiti. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, it is believed that violence against women has increased. Before the disaster, it was estimated that 90 percent of women and children had suffered from some form of violence.

The monologues tackle this injustice head on.

“It’s important to talk about because it’s controversial,” said sophomore Carina Buzo. “We talk about experiences all women go through and it’s not necessarily comfortable. It needs to be done, it needs to be said.”

Along with other college campuses and production companies, the women are attempting to stop this violence. Part of the proceeds go to Ensler’s  V-Day foundation, whose mission is to "global movement to ending violence among women and girls." Proceeds also benefit Verity of Sonoma County, a rape crisis center. According to Kaufman, the show brings in about $8-12,000 every year.

“These are women whose voices were taken from them,” Buzo said. “So we say it for them.”

Gaining Male Support

Women can’t fight this on their own, we need male backing, because its hard to get the numbers to help us but also because men have such a strong voice,” Kaufman said.

To some men, the pretense of the Vagina Monologues is a bit frightening. Just sitting in an audience full of women discussing their reproductive organs can be isolating for many. The “V-Men” are there to combat this uneasiness.  

Their role is simply to support the women performing and help other men in the audience become more comfortable, and therefore more willing to accept and learn from the monologues.

A lot of men don’t understand why they’re being asked to come to the show, so its really helpful for them to see someone in the audience that they can relate to. They don’t feel as scared or worried or concerned,” Kaufman said.

Though they are not allowed on stage, the V-Men show their support by standing in front of the cast when the show starts and reciting words that represent the vagina, such as “love, hope, respect, beauty” with the women at the end. Each V-Man is chosen by a cast member, and is someone close to them. 

Transformations

On an individual level, the Vagina Monologues are about transformations. At the start of rehearsals some cast members cannot even say the word, but by the end have grown to love, accept and talk about their vagina.

In Kaufman’s eyes, the biggest transformation is that of Rachel Cattaneo, a returning performer who at the beginning of last year’s show couldn’t say vagina.

This time, she will perform “The Moaner,” a very intense look at all the sounds a vagina would make if it could talk.

“She’s great on stage, but couldn’t say the word vagina, and now she’s doing ‘The Moaner’, in a corset and high heels, stockings and garter belt and she owns it,” Kaufman said. “She’s incredible, seeing a transformation like that, seeing her last year and seeing her this year — that’s what this show is about.”

The next showings of the Vagina Monologues runs at Sonoma State University are Saturday, March 19 at 8 p.m. and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 20 in the Cooperage. Tickets can be purchased through the Sonoma State University Student Union or online at www.brownbagtickets.com Cost is $5 to Sonoma State students, $10 faculty and staff and $15 for general admission. 

For questions or additional information, email Sara Kaufman, at ssuvaginamonologues2011@gmail.com.

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