When TeRaye Walker told members of her church that she was acting in “The Vagina Monologues,” someone joked “Your vagina can talk?” The recent School of Social Work graduate laughed it off, but doesn’t deny the sense of fear, and shame, that surrounds the scary V-word. LSA sophomore Irene Suh — who is a member of Students for Choice and proudly wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the reproductive rights slogan “My kitty, my choice” — has yet to tell her parents about her role in the show because she worries about their reaction.
“Until I got to college, I was brought up in the household where it was not OK to talk about sex, or vaginas or reproductive health, so being able to talk about this is really liberating for me,” Suh said.
Fear, shame, ignorance: symptoms of a culture focused on sex rather than sexuality, objectification rather than understanding. “The Vagina Monologues” is an effort to recreate what we think about the female reproductive organ — and about women themselves.
“This is kind of stuff that’s still so taboo to talk about,” said LSA senior Suzanne Maclaren, cast member, “Sex in general is kind of taboo to talk about, but sex in women and the ‘power of the vagina’ — it’s still something that people are afraid to talk about.”
Performance with a purpose
“The Vagina Monologues” was first written in 1996 by Eve Ensler, who conducted over 200 interviews with women of all ages and backgrounds to write a series of monologues ostensibly about one thing: the vagina. Now the show is performed by groups around the country, with the proceeds going to support a non-profit of their choice along with V-Day, the organization started by Ensler that strives to end violence against women. The show was brought back to the University last year by Students for Choice, an organization that promotes reproductive rights on campus.
“(Students for Choice) brought ‘Vagina Monologues’ because we are a feminist organization and women’s empowerment is very closely tied with reproductive rights,” said LSA junior Sophia Kotov, co-president of the organization. “When female bodies are mentioned in the media, this is almost always deeply problematic, offensive and oppressive. The ‘Vagina Monologues,’ on the other hand, provides an experience for people of all genders to hear frank talk and true stories about women and women’s bodies coming from these same people.”
This year the show is going to be performed in the Rackham Auditorium on Thursday, March 20. In the Rackham lobby during the half hour leading up to the performance, Students for Choice will host representatives from different activist groups on campus, many promoting sexual health and providing resources to students.
Unlike many other performance groups on campus, “The Vagina Monologues” is not affiliated with the theater program, nor does it have a plot or staging like other scripts. The show is essentially a series of snapshots into women’s lives rather than a cohesive tale.
“An absolute, overwhelming majority of the cast is not pursuing theater as a career or major,” said LSA sophomore Madeline Parkinson, the show’s producer. “It’s a lot of women who have a passion for this subject, who were interested, and who rocked it out in try-outs.”
This passion is well-placed, as 90 percent of the proceeds of the show go to support the SafeHouse Center, a domestic violence shelter in Washtenaw County. This shelter serves as a transitional housing center for those fleeing domestic violence, and it offers a host of programs to assist mothers and children while they are living there and in the years and months after they have left.
“They have a 40 bed shelter open to men, women and children, anyone who needs a safe space to be,” Parkinson, who is a volunteer in one of the center’s teen outreach programs, said. “They also have a first responders unit, so if there is a call to the police about a domestic situation then SafeHouse is also contacted and they send representatives over to help the survivor.”
The services of the center link directly to the more sobering themes of “The Vagina Monologues,” which may surprise those who think of the show as just “that play about vaginas.” While the show does use humor and brutal honesty to bring attention to the vagina itself — with monologues about pubic hair, horseback-riding induced orgasms and hand mirror self-discoveries, Ensler sought to dispel stigmas surrounding the organ with humor and relatability; the script tackles more debilitating issues as well.
Women can relate to the whole range of these issues, whether it be the confusion of self-discovery or the vulnerability in remembering past pain. One monologue follows the bittersweet thoughts of an older woman who felt too much shame to ever fully examine her sexuality. Another, titled “My Vagina Was My Village,” discusses the survivors of rape during the war in Bosnia. Irene Suh, a survivor of sexual assault herself and now an advocate for other survivors, connects strongly with “My Vagina Was My Village.”
“Seeing (sexual assault) in a theater practice — it’s vulnerable and powerful, taking that voice back from the oppressors who have very much tried to erase it from history,” Suh said.
Not just feminist, but “humanist”
While “The Vagina Monologues” has proven to appeal to any audience with an open mind, its value at the University is all the more significant considering rising concerns about sexual assault and gendered violence on campus.
“On college campuses, violence against women is so prevalent that it’s so important to have the show, especially for the college community,” said School of Social Work student Kylee Smith. “The show demands an end to gendered violence and violence against women, and in that way, it does demand equality.”
There is a growing movement toward highlighting violence against women not as a woman’s issue, but as a human issue. “The Vagina Monologues” takes this idea one step forward, asserting that women’s health, sexuality and experiences can be celebrated and understood by all, as long as people are open to listening.
“This is a show that will ring true for a lot of people no matter your gender or your sexuality,” said LSA senior Suzanne Maclaren. “It’s something that is framed as ‘The Vagina Monologues’ but it really does just speak about essential parts of humanity, like sexuality or just trying to find your own identity.”
The show is often judged as a negative product of modern feminism, reduced to nothing more than a gaggle of women getting together to hate men and burn bras.
“People that have never seen this show think, ‘Oh that’s just a bunch of women saying ‘Power to the pussy!’ but to be in it, or to hear it, or to see it — it is deeper than that,” Walker said. “So even if you are not a feminist you can relate to this show.”
These women reject the myth that feminism is all about anger and hate; rather, the show focuses on reclaiming womanhood instead of “emasculating” manhood. Though women make up a majority of the audience, Parkinson said last year men comprised approximately 30-40 percent of the audience. She contributes this high representation to the universal themes of the show.
“I know a lot of men who came up to me after the show last year, who had gone with their mothers or sisters or girlfriends,” Parkinson said. “They had things they related to as well, like coming of age and finding yourself.”
Expanding the reach of the show not only promotes education about parts usually ignored — as Smith says, “No one ever asks you about your vagina”— but it deconstructs centuries-old stigmas about female genitalia.
“It’s all about starting conversations,” Smith said. “Hopefully it gets people more comfortable talking about their vagina, talking about their stories.”
Vulnerability and Empowerment
Think about the last television commercials you watched. How many included women? Probably most. How many featured “sexy” women — those dressed scantily, those wearing excessive makeup, those in unnatural and hyper-sexualized poses? Now, how many of these women had names? How many had stories? How many spoke?
Women often have two options: to be silent and overlooked, or to speak and be labeled “radical.” “The Vagina Monologues” attempts to give women a voice while still valuing every woman’s spectrum of sexuality; it focuses on collective representation over blind definition. Many cast members repeatedly brought up the show’s emphasis on vulnerability.
“It’s realizing that sexuality and expressions of sexuality don’t have to be a source of anxiety,” Maclaren said. “You can find comfort whether through other people or by yourself. To trust yourself isn’t a foolish thing to do.”
This vein of empowerment is central to the program, for both cast members and audiences. However, unlike many representations of the word, this empowerment comes from self-awareness and acceptance, rather than an outside force. “The Vagina Monologues” only hopes to be a catalyst in helping people discover themselves.
“It’s women empowering women and supporting each other. Even for me it seems like it’s duplicitous,” said Sam Wellman, a recent graduate of the School of Social Work. “Like how can you be both angry and vulnerable? How can you be both sexual and innocent? But you can be and nobody can take that from you, and that’s not you being complicated or crazy, that’s you being a human being.”
Though each part has been reimagined and individualized as the actresses shape their characters, it’s valuable to recall that these monologues are based on interviews with real women — these are not scenes in a fictional play, but representations of real people’s deepest pains and struggles. The hundreds of women interviewed had to bare much of who they were to contribute to the monologues, revealing their many human strengths and human weaknesses.
“My biggest concern, worry, struggle is making sure that I am doing justice to this story,” Wellman said. “Knowing that this not only was from an interview with a real woman with this actual experience, but knowing that it struck a chord with me so it’s going to strike a chord with other people … I want to present it in a way that honors that.”