Vaginas steal the spotlight

Editor’s note: this story contains words that some readers may find offensive.

Vagina — a word usually spoken in a hushed voice or for strictly clinical purposes — is being pridefully reclaimed as University of Toledo students again perform “The Vagina Monologues.”

“The Vagina Monologues” is a compilation of interviews from dozens of women collected by Eve Ensler and first performed in 1996.

“The stories range from happy and humorous experiences to more somber experiences such as rape, assault and abuse,” said Alcy Barakat, co-director of the monologues this year and a second-year master’s student in public health.

Barakat said collecting the interviews inspired Ensler to put the monologues on stage, which are typically performed on college campuses.

Since the first performance of “The Vagina Monologues,” the V-Day Movement to end violence against women began.

Members of last year's "Vagina Monologues" pose for a picture. Photo courtesy of Alcy Barakat.

For the past three years, Barakat, with the help of the university community, has held a V-Day at UT where several monologues are dramatically performed in front of audiences. Every year, new monologues and spotlights are added to the list of performances.

“This show ‘brings to center stage’ topics such as women’s health, healthy relationships, survivorship of those who have experienced sexual violence or abuse and promotes empowerment of women when speaking about and addressing issues concerning their bodies,” Barakat said.

In addition to raising awareness about women’s health issues, the monologues also provide local women like Lauren Merrell a sense of empowerment.

“Vagina is seen as a bad word, but any TV show, music video or movie can say pussy, bitch, slut and degrade women without us second-guessing it,” said Merrell, co-director at UT this year. “The difference is that in the play, women are in charge, women are talking about their experiences and women are talking about pleasure. It is no longer about objectification of women as sexual objects, but empowerment of women as sexual beings.”

According to Merrell, the purpose of the event is to give women the opportunity to talk about topics that are normally considered taboo and to “discover things about themselves.”

For example, one of the monologues in Ensler’s collection captures the shame some women feel regarding the terminology of their own genitalia.

“I come from the ‘down there’ generation,” the monologue said. “That is, those were the words-spoken rarely and in a hushed voice that the women in my family used to refer to all female genitalia, internal or external. It wasn’t that they were ignorant of terms like vagina, labia, vulva or clitoris.”

Clearly these words aren’t taboo at the UT Vagina Monologues. Rather, women are encouraged to courageously speak up about their own femininity.

Last year, students were photographed with “I support Vagina Monologues because…” signs. Some of their responses included, “Who doesn’t love vaginas?” “because it’s tight,” and “some women are not ‘allowed’ to.”

Andrea Harris, director of photography at The Independent Collegian and a two-time participating performer at the monologues, said the event is an empowering way to talk about vaginas.

“I’m putting it out there. This is how I feel and they are going to have to deal with it,” she said.

Last year, Harris performed the monologue, “My Angry Vagina” because she personally relates to many of the issues the monologue raises.

“My vagina is angry — it’s pissed off,” she said. “You want to know why? Because people are trying to shove stuff up it, stick things up it and try to make it smell like flowers. My vagina is not a flower; it’s not supposed to smell like that.”

However, Harris said that the event as a whole is more than women ranting about their vaginas.

“Basically they are informing you about what happens to women that a lot of women don’t talk about,” Harris said. “You’re not hearing a lot of people ranting, but you’re hearing personal stories from women who are brave enough to share their views.”

Besides being an outlet for feminine expression, the event also works to benefit the Toledo Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), a local cause that deals with domestic violence.

“Our beneficiary for 2015 is an organization that is grassroots and works for the empowerment of women,” Barakat said.

The organization has helped fund the Steinem’s Sisters library and archive, a local non-profit library dedicated to housing women’s history.

Barakat said the event’s goal is to promote open and honest discussion about being a woman and working to reduce serious issues that women face.

“My continued hope is that audience members leave feeling moved to start conversations with their families, loved ones, partners, medical providers and others about their health and are not ashamed to speak about their intimate health and personal experiences with those that are around them and there to support them in different ways,” Barakat said.

The Vagina Monologues at UT are sponsored by the Counseling Center and the department of women’s and gender studies.

“A big focus of the monologues is reaching out to women who are survivors that have never been in a supportive or affirming environment and providing them with the campus and community resources that will allow healing and involvement for social change,” Merrell said.

The event will be held in Driscoll Alumni Center’s Auditorium on March 27 and 28 at 7 p.m. Tickets are sold at the door and cost $5 for students or $10 for the general public.

Both shows are also preceded with a community resource fair that begins at 6 p.m.

Harris said that despite the vagina conversations, men are encouraged to attend as well.

“Feminism is not just equality for women, but equality for everybody…if you believe in the equality for everybody, then you are a feminist,” Harris said.

This story was originally published in the Independent Collegian on March 17, 2015.