The week of Valentine’s Day might invoke images of red hearts and star-crossed lovers, but it is also the time of year for another V-word event — the annual showing of The Vagina Monologues.
Created by Eve Ensler in 1996, The Vagina Monologues is composed of monologues that use the vagina as a tool of female empowerment.
Anecia Johnson, a fifth-year studying sociology, has been a part of the show since her freshman year, but admits that the topics were overwhelming at first.
“(I) was horrified my first couple of rehearsals like ‘everyone is saying the v-word, I’m not sure if I’m going to make it,’” she said.
Perhaps understandable with monologues such as “My Angry Vagina” or “Because He Liked to Look At It.”
Despite the shock-value, the show is known for its powerful messages and the performance can be a moving experience.
This was certainly the case for Bethany Francis, an OU graduate and assistant director of this year’s Monologues.
Francis was assaulted her sophomore year, and struggled to deal with the pro that arose after the attack. She said her participation in The Vagina Monologues was the event that began her healing process.
“Doing the show healed me so much, in so many ways,” Francis said. “It completely changed my life.”
Director Hannah Stanton-Gockel, a junior studying Spanish and women’s and gender studies, has been involved with The Vagina Monologues since her freshman year at OU.
The Vagina Monologues openly address issues that are too-often ignored in our society, she said.
“The Vagina Monologues is trying to bring an awareness,” she said. “It’s trying to help people engage these ideas of sexism. It simply breaks the silence. It gives people the chance to speak and it gives them an arena to be heard and to be listened to.”
The performance is one of many Vagina Monologues performed around the world as a part of V-Day, an international event hosted Feb. 14 that raises awareness of violence toward women.
Representatives from the Survivor Advocacy Program at the Women’s Center will be present at all the performances, and proceeds will go to the V-Day Movement as well as My Sister’s Place, a domestic violence shelter, in Athens.
“I’m anticipating a really great turnout,” Stanton-Gockel said.
gm220908@ohiou.edu
