The Vagina Monologues

by Olusade Oyalowo '14
FEATURES CONTRIBUTOR

It’s official: Hamilton College loves vaginas. On Monday night at 7 p.m., the events barn was overflowing with students waiting to see the anticipated event of the night: “The Vagina Monologues.” At one point the Womyn’s Center, which put on the production, ran out of tickets, forcing students to sit on the stairs.

“The Vagina Monologues,” written by Eve Ensler, consists of monologues meant to be read by different women discussing topics relating to the vagina such as sex, love, rape, menstruation, mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm and the variety of names for the vagina. Directed by Ilse Zoerb ’11 and Jennifer Hightower ’12, a cast of Hamilton women performed the monologues, dressed in black and donning pink feather boas.

“The Vagina Monologues” serves as a fundraising opportunity for the V-Day movement, which takes place every year worldwide between Feb. 1 and April 30. According to v-day.org, it is “a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls.” Participants of this movement stage benefit performances of the show and host other related events in their communities. The performances generally benefit rape crisis centers and similar resource centers for women who are victims of battery, incest and female genital mutilation.

Crowd and cast favorites inclu

de “My Angry Vagina,” in which two students ranted about the injustices wrought against the vagina, such as tampons; “The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy,” which started out as a woman discussing her love of giving women pleasure but later turned into a vocal demonstration of female orgasms; and “Reclaiming Cunt,” which involved a narrative stripping the word “cunt” of its derogatory status.

Although many students found some of the monologues hilarious, actors emphasized the seriousness of them as well “‘The Vagina Monologues’ is kind of an ode to women. It touched on a lot funny and not so funny topics... It’s an appreciation that women shouldn’t feel ashamed of having a vagina,” said Morolake Thompson ’14, a performer in the show.

Lauren Lanzotti ’14, another performer, agreed. “The Vagina Monologues has a unique message that discusses taboo topics that should be talked about more openly.”

The taboo topics featured in the show serve not to shock or alienate the audience, but instead to encourage audience members to feel comfortable a holding dialogue about the less-discussed issues of women’s health. Individual pieces in “The Vagina Monologues” encouraged women to understand, talk about and experience the anatomy of their vaginas in alternating serious and comical tones. Cynthia Batista ’14 gushed, “I loved it! It was funny, sad, and insightful.”

“The Vagina Monologues” were often graphic, but most uncomfortable students came around by the end of the show. Josh Yates ’14 said, “There were certain [monologues] that made me cringe but others made me laugh hysterically.”

At the end of the show, the cast awarded the coveted Vagina Warrior award to Megan Bolger ’11 for her work in promoting Safe Zone spots around campus. As the lights went up, both men and women alike in the audience had a little more reverence for that “dirty” little word, “vagina.”