“The Vagina Monologues”
By Eve Ensler
Directed by Babs De Lay
I love my vagina. Every woman should. It’s an exceptionally important part of the female body, but for some reason, people just never talk about it. Why is this indispensable, quintessentially feminine, life-giving body part never discussed or praised? Perhaps discussing the vagina is still considered a social taboo, something inappropriate, impolite or even vulgar.
Thank God, then, for Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues.”
The feminine-centric performance attempts to drop the embargo that has somehow been placed on talking about the vagina. Often hilarious and sometimes saddening, the “Monologues” serve to throw open the drapes and let some light into a usually shrouded and desolate room.
Through monologues compiled from the witty anecdotes and tragic accounts of hundreds of interviewed women, the cast’s flavorful stories demonstrate that this body part is amazing and should be treated as such.
“Vagina Monologues” was performed as a benefit at Kingsbury Hall (right here on our cooter-friendly campus) on Feb. 18 and 19. All proceeds went to Salt Lake City’s YWCA, the U’s Women’s Resource Center and counseling center and the V-Day fund.
V-Day is a global movement to raise awareness for and stop violence against women and girls. The V-Day organization works to educate and change social attitudes, fighting to stop rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sexual slavery-all topics broached by the “Monolgues.”
Students and local volunteers produce an annual benefit performance of “The Vagina Monologues” to further V-Day campaigns and bring awareness. Thousands of these benefits are held across the country and around the world each year, working to create a global atmosphere of safety, understanding and respect for women.
From the smell of “down there” and women’s moaning noises to pelvic exams, stories of rape and eventual triumph, “Monologues” covers all the bases. Through humor, honesty, passion and poignancy, this ensemble performance provides a candidly comical and eye-opening exploration of the final feminine frontier, that clandestine region at the core of every woman. A veritable chorus of women comes together to provide openness, understanding and respect for this often closed, misunderstood and neglected subject.
It is a wild and touching ride, entertaining and educational for men and women alike. Barriers are broken and a new viewpoint emerges about that remarkable and complex thing: The honey pot, the nappy dugout, the coochie-snorcher (as it was referred to in the performance), the holiest of holies-the vagina.
Except for those of us whose mothers had Caesarian sections, we all passed through a vagina on our way into this world. If only for that reason, the vagina deserves to celebrated.