The Chronicle

Sarah Bigler
Staff Writer


      Looking around the audience of a performance of “The Vagina Monologue” is almost as fascinating as the play itself. Early in the performance there’s a moment where uncomfortable squirming turns to genuine laughter and emotion. Men and women often have difficulty talking about areas “south of the border,” but that disappears into entertainment and reflection.


      On March 11 the CLC Women’s Center put on their first student performance of “The Vagina Monologues.” CLC professors Lynn Harper and Mick Cullen directed the controversial play by Eve Ensler.


      Ensler is an American activist and survivor of sexual abuse. Her best known work, the Vagina Monologues, has been translated into 45 languages and has been performed all over the world.


      The play is a series of monologues originally performed solely by Ensler. The topic of the monologues, now performed by several actresses, is the vagina. The monologues explore topics of sexuality, rape, childbirth, sensuality, menstruation, prostitution, mutilation, several different names for the vagina, and the experience of an orgasm.


      Along with directors Cullen and Harper, the play was organized by the Women’s Center Director, Teresa Aguinaldo, Stephanie Santos Gray, an actor in the production, and other members of the faculty.


      Donations at the door of the show, along with sales of raffle tickets and half the proceeds from a bake sale helped benefit the CLC Women’s Center. The other half of the bake sale proceeds benefits women and children refugees of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The CLC Pride Alliance organized and created the bake sale outside the auditorium.


      “It’s an empowering show,” Aguinaldo said. “Probably just 15 years ago, you couldn’t say ‘vagina’ without getting embarrassed or looking around to see who was listening. But Eve Ensler changed all that.”


      The play has inspired a movement. V-Day, an international day of women’s empowerment and issues, has now been celebrated in 130 countries around the world including Asia, Europe, Africa and certain Middle Eastern countries liberal enough to welcome the play. V-Day is celebrated between Feb. 1 and Apr. 30 every year, and always includes a performance of the “Vagina Monologues.”


      The play includes the monologues, “My Angry Vagina,” a diatribe against tampons, pelvic exams and other uncomfortable things done to the vagina, delivered ferociously by Sheila White. “My Vagina Was My Village,” a two person performance by Emilee McGinn and Michelle Golden, recalls the devastating memories of a Bosnian refugee girl subjected to rape camps.


      Rachel Kelly delivered two monologues, one of which was “Hair,” about the obsession Americans have with pubic hair.


      Anna Chesman delivered “The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could,” a now-homeless woman’s story of the love-hate relationship she experienced with her vagina as a child. After surviving rape and injury, she discovers her sexuality with a 24 year old female neighbor.


      Ruthe Dembinski’s speeches talked about the experiences of a uptight English woman taking a “Vagina Workshop,” and Ensler’s own experiences of witnessing the birth of her first grandchild.


      Gray performed the role of an elderly lady coming to terms with her sexuality in “The Flood.”


      The play includes some disturbing facts about the status of women around the world. Some facts are sensual, like the fact that the clitoris contains 8,000 nerve endings, making it the only human body part meant exclusively for pleasure. The play explains how the clitoris is more sensitive than fingertips, tongue and twice as sensitive as the penis.


      Other vagina facts are not as happy. According to the play, 200,000 American women are raped every year. A staggering number of women, 130 million each year, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, are subjected to the horrifying dangerous practice of female genital mutilation where much of the clitoris or labia is cut or removed, usually without anesthetic, with an unclean scalpel, knife or shard of glass.


      CLC’s ensemble cast was made up of women from all walks of life, different backgrounds and opinions. Each woman had her own story that brought her to the performance. Each woman talked about her enthusiasm for the play, and her own feelings of empowerment.


      “We’re a diverse cast,” Dembinski said of her and her cast mates. “We’re different ages, backgrounds, and educational levels. We have a little bit of everything, and no lack of emotion.”


      Dembinski is an aspiring stand-up comedian. She sees this opportunity as a precursor to doing an “open-mic night” at a comedy club, and hopes completing the challenge will boost her confidence in front of an audience.


      Many of the cast members expressed excitement about the opportunity to help out a good cause and increase awareness of women’s issues.


      “I wanted to help the Women’s Center,” actor White said. “I’m really involved in social service.”


      Dazalle Yvette’s monologue talked about a woman’s journey from a heterosexual tax lawyer to lesbian sex worker. It also included a series of demonstrations of orgasms.


      “The hardest part was having to do 19 different types of moans on stage,” she said. “I did the play because I wanted to take a leap. If this isn’t jumping in, I don’t know what is.”


      Michelle Golden talked about the play helped her heal from abuses in her childhood.


      “My experience in this play has changed me,” she said. “I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder last year. This was a way to challenge myself and speak out.”


      Golden, who has Cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair, was told by her parents she would never find someone to appreciate her talents.


      “They told me no one would ever love me, that I wasn’t beautiful,” she said. “Now I know never to sacrifice how you feel. And now I’m engaged to a great guy that lets me just relax.”


      Aguinaldo estimates that 20 to 25 percent of CLC students have been victims of some kind of sexual abuse, domestic violence or sexual harassment.


      “That’s so frightening,” she said. “Sometimes women have lived with abuse for so long that they don’t realize that it’s happening to them or that it’s wrong.”


      “First and foremost, we want survivors to know they’re not alone, and know their rights and options,” she said. “The greater community also needs to know so that they can help other people.”


      The whole day came down to helping the Women’s Center help women. Their emergency fund provides women in difficult situations who find themselves financially hurt as well.


      “When it helps the Women’s Center, it makes all the difference,” Dembinski said. “If one girl doesn’t have to pay for her own rape kit because of the money we raised, it’s all worth it.”