Dressed in gorilla masks, the women perform comical sketches to raise awareness about the invisibility of women in modern society. They are the Guerilla Girls on Tour.
"We want to show everyone that the world is still full of sexism, but we are going to have fun with it for an hour," said Aphra Behn, a performer and creative director of the Guerilla Girls on Tour.
The Guerilla Girls' performance at Ohio University at 7 tonight in Baker University Center Theater is the culminating event of this year's fourth annual Empowered Women's Week hosted by Empowering Women of Ohio, said Lacey Rogers, EWO president.
The week featured events such as a poetry slam and a male feminist panel, with each event presented by a different women's or diversity group on campus, all in an effort to empower women, Rogers said.
"I'm just trying to uphold our organization's mission statement and make people aware of issues of social justices that face women and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender community," she said.
The Guerilla Girls on Tour are a feminist performance group with the tagline, "Changing the world, one sexist city at a time," according to their website, guerillagirlsontour.com. They perform in masks to raise awareness about the invisibility of women artists, said Susanne Dietzel, director of the Women's Center.
"There is a stereotype that feminists are serious and hate men, but we try to dispel that image and just have fun," Behn said. "We use humor to get our message across."
The current touring show is Feminists Are Funny, where two to four performers act in a series of vignettes about the works of prominent females of the 20th century, with local information included, Behn said.
EWO, Student Activities Commission and various other groups paid $4,600 to bring the Guerilla Girls and their feminist tradition to campus.
"They have been around for over 20 years, and they really deliver a message, humor and political activism with an artsy twist," said Dietzel, who recalled seeing the Guerilla Girls perform at OU 10 years ago. "It's a performance for seasoned feminists and young women."
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