I'm not going to lie, when I realized it was time to get off my couch and run to watch the Spectrum Theatre's fifth annual production of The Vagina Monologues Friday, I was not happy. My friend and I complained the entire way to the Chemistry Building about how awkward it would be - and at first it seemed our fears were warranted as our discomfort continued through the opening minutes of the production.
The Vagina Monologues, created by Eve Ensler, is a series of sketches compiled from more than 200 interviews with women across the globe about the most taboo feature of female anatomy. I'm not sure how many times the all-female cast said the word "vagina" in the first 10 minutes, but I know it was a lot. Needless to say, I was horribly uncomfortable.
What I should have realized before seeing the show is that the actresses are brash on purpose. The nature and purpose of the production is to break down the barriers society has built up around the topic of female sexuality, a goal which is hard to accomplish without making the audience want to crawl out of its seats first. After the uncomfortable first few monologues, J. Park's hilarious rendition of "The Flood" broke the ice in the theater. All of a sudden I found myself hysterically laughing and enjoying my second-row seat. I might have blushed as I teared up from laughing so hard.
But after the first laugh of the night, darkened lights and a somber mood replaced the production's jovial atmosphere. The next few monologues were about female circumcision, genital mutilation and rape. These are not subjects anyone wants to hear about, but ones which had to be covered as a sign of respect for the women who have experienced such tragedies. The darker sketches also raised awareness for the show's cause - a charity called One Billion Rising, an organization dedicated to ending violence toward women.
But amid these painful stories, the sketch which really caught my attention and lightened the show's mood while still getting its point across was "My Angry Vagina," acted by A. Ogendi. Her hysterical recitation of why thongs are constricting and how the consumer market has a vendetta against women and their comfort in the nether regions was without a doubt the highlight of the show.
After the next monologue, a horrible account of a woman who went through unspeakable trauma, the friendly, light-hearted monologues returned and I was happy to end the evening on a positive note. The crowd roared as R. Rao portrayed "The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy," and I could not help giving the cast of brave women a standing ovation at the end of the show. The courage it takes to stand on stage, say "vagina" a million times and make weird sexual noises in front of an audience of strangers is daunting to say the least, but these women did it with courage.
After the show, my friend and I were astounded by how the show affected us. We felt empowered, and it was refreshing to finally be able to converse freely about gender issues. It's incredible what talking about a forbidden topic can accomplish.
Take part in The Vagina Monologues' cause by logging onto OneBillionRising.org.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
