V-Day 2012 The Vagina Monologues
From the directors… Vagina Monologues is a play written by Eve Ensler and has been performed everywhere for about 12 years. It’s a significant piece of theatre because it encourages female empowerment and individuality through the love of vaginas. Fredonia has been performing this show for quite a few years. This production’s cast is full of wonderful, loving ladies and they’re really doing a stellar job. Their dedication extends leaps and bounds and the directors/organizers could not ask for more. Why We V-Love SUNY Fredonia is putting on the play by Eve Ensler, “The Vagina Monologues,” not for the first time this year, but though many have heard of the show (probably because of it’s shocking name), not nearly as many understand how it came about or its purpose. In 1998, the first performance of “The Vagina Monologues” was played out in New York City with big names such as Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Gloria Steinem, Glenn Close and Wynona Rider, just to name a few. The play itself, which can also be bought in book form at the local bookstore, is based off of 100s of interviews with women around the world. The interviews being about women’s very own vaginas. A strange thing to interview about? Not really, when there’s so much to be told about them. Women shared their stories of pain and sadness from violence and abuse, joy in finding a way to love their vaginas, shame, awe, love, suffering, and more. The interviews became monologues, and soon, Eve realized that the stories and the women needed to be represented in some way, and in a way that could not only share what was going on and take the blanket from our eyes, but also give back to the women. The V-Day Campaign was begun with the play, and now, all over the world, high schools, colleges and communities put on the play, with just a script and a few simple rules. Ten percent of all funds, of every play that is put on, must go to the “Spotlight Campaign,” which is normally a region of the world that Eve focuses a “Spotlight Monologue” on, to expose atrocities against women around the world. The remaining 90% of the funds from each play must go to a local domestic violence or sexual assault shelter in the area in which the play is being put on. Note that no money goes to the production of the play, allowing for maximum help to the women who need it. The V-Day Campaign has literally raised millions already and made huge steps in multiple countries to stop the ongoing violence and terror against women. So next time we hear the word “vagina” or see a poster or flyer about the “Vagina Monologues,” before rolling our eyes and thinking it’s some crazy feminist thing, maybe now we can stop and think about the women around the world who are being raped in the name of their country’s honor, or who must stand by and watch as their husbands are killed in front of them and their daughters raped and mutilated, or those who cannot simply eat ice cream without fear of death, and we can take a small step in the long road of helping women across borders. We can help by spreading the V-love. |
