Peach, poochy, cooter, powderbox, punani, fanniboo, mushmallow. All words used in place of one that many people used to have much difficulty saying out loud: Vagina.
For the second year in a row, The Vagina Monologues opens in Cohen Auditorium this Thursday, marking the worldwide celebration of V-Day. The V-Day movement, according to its website, aims to "mount benefit productions of the Vagina Monologues...to raise money and awareness to stop violence against women." To date, Eve Ensler's work has been at the center of the V-Day movement, which Tufts belongs to as part of the College Campaign.
V-Day will sponsor nearly 800 benefit events around the world this year, each production donating money to either international or local charities that work to end rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, and sexual slavery.
Director Zoe Hastings, who put together this year's show with sponsorship from the Women's Center, hopes to tackle all sides of the issue of violence against women by targeting three diverse charities. Tufts' performance will donate proceeds to RAWA (Revolutionary Afghan Women's Association), EMERGE, a Boston men batterers counseling center, and Casa Myrna Vasquez, a local domestic violence shelter for women and children.
"When I got involved last year I realized what an important movement it was," she said. "[This year] I wanted to give back and give people the same experience I had."
Hastings hopes that the show will address problems she feels plague college campuses all over the country. "The Vagina Monologues is a lot about just getting dialogue started, because it needs to be," she said.
And that's just what the show does by putting one of the most taboo words in the mouths and minds of all who discuss the show, all who see it performed, and all who read its reviews.
The Vagina Monologues is based on 200 interviews that Ensler held with women from every walk of life - professional women, mothers, grandmothers, and children, ranging in age from 6 to 72. They discussed how they felt about being women, about menstruation, sex, birth, rape, and life. The interviews also crossed racial and geographic boundaries.
The result of these interviews is a series of monologues presented by a 16-member female cast. Sometimes the scenes include more than one actress, each telling a story that knits a common thread among all the interviewees. Some are a single woman's story, and others are conglomerations of common experiences and emotions.
There is no starring cast member or feature player, but rather a group of women. All the women in the cast play equal roles, and each cast member dons a black t-shirt with the slogan "Until the Violence Stops" printed in white across the front.
The show tackles the issues of secrecy around vaginas, at one moment likening them to the Bermuda Triangle. But overall it seeks to raise awareness about the female body and the female individual, repeatedly raising your discomfort level until it begins to melt away and a transformation takes place.
But before the show even hits the stage, Vulvapalooza kicks off the V-Day activities with a huge "Vaginal Extravaganza," invented last year by junior Erin Dwyer. At the free event, various tables will be set up by anti-violence charities, sex shops and women's organizations, and features vibrator auctions and a plethora of information offered by many important actors in the movement to end violence against women.
"You have to see it to believe it," Hastings said.
And everyone should go see it and believe it. The show as a whole reaches out to both sexes, regardless of sexual orientation or political slant. Artistic director Alissa Kempler said that the show is not about men-bashing but rather a chance for women to claim the vagina as part of their bodies. "Most women don't even realize they are supposed to enjoy sex, and The Vagina Monologues addresses that," she said.
Cast member Catherine Diggins said that the show made her feel empowered. "I felt it was very woman friendly," she said. "None of the guys were snickering or putting any of it down. The men seemed to be very supportive and into it."
The Vagina Monologues is not a show simply by feminists for feminists, but rather a chance for everyone to become more aware of the secret and often painful life of the woman, and also the triumphant empowerment of talking about what is never discussed - the vagina. Hastings was reluctant to read the script when she auditioned a year before, but she realized through her experience that "other people need to have that transformation, to talk about things that are not talked about."
"It's different than anything you've ever seen," she said. "And I think in some way everyone will relate to it because it's a piece that speaks to just about everyone. It's all levels, very multi-faceted, and it's especially worth $5 considering the money is going to charity."
So go see TheVagina Monologues and learn a little something about yourself, the women in your life, what you can do to end violence against women, and, of course, a little something about vaginas.
