Life > February 28, 2008

By Caitlin Brooks | Staff writer

Vagina. Say it. You can’t; not without laughing or at least cracking a smile. No one takes it seriously. Vagina. There are a thousand euphemisms for it and even more jokes about it. Vagina. It is degraded, belittled and objectified. But on March 5 and 6, “vagina” will be center stage. A cast of diverse and driven women will come together to glorify and celebrate the word and all its manifold connotations. Vagina. They can say it.

More than 10 years ago, playwright Eve Ensler interviewed 200 women in New York City in what would become known as the “Vagina Interviews.” Women were asked to talk about their vaginas and in doing so, their sexuality, history and lives.

The interviews revealed uncertainty, insecurity and pain, but also triumph and joy. The resulting play, The Vagina Monologues, is a series of monologues – some grave, some funny – based on selections from these interviews.

The show is designed to reach out to all women and to help them to understand themselves and connect to other women.

From its off-Broadway premiere in 1998, The Vagina Monologues blossomed into an international phenomenon. V-Day, as it has come to be known, is now a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. One hundred twenty nations and thousands of college campuses will perform the monologues and donate 90 percent of their proceeds to organizations that support women suffering from violence in the Gulf South of the United States, especially those affected by Hurricane Katrina. The other 10 percent of proceeds go to a local charity selected by individual event organizers. Second year graduate student Shelley Grabes is directing the university’s production this year.

The discretionary 10 percent of proceeds will go to Winston-Salem Family Services for this year’s performances.

“I think it’s a really important show to have at Wake because the conception is that it’s (Wake’s) an incredibly conservative campus. In some ways that’s an oversimplification,” Grabes said.

“Even if it’s true, that Wake is conservative, it’s an oversimplification even of that. Even people who lean conservative politically are interested in social causes.

“We want the greatest amount of women to be able to identify with the women in the monologues and feminist issues they address. We have many women from diverse backgrounds and age groups in the cast; white, black, freshmen, seniors, experienced actors and novices,” Grabes said.

Senior Emily White performs “The Vulva Club” in the upcoming show. It is a highly comedic monologue that explores the perspective of a woman who “names things.” The audience accompanies her as she comes into her own sexuality and discovers what is really in a name.

White spoke to her motivation in joining the cast. “As women, your sexuality has been constructed by men a lot, and that’s wrong,” she said.

“This play is about women’s sexuality. Why not embrace something that is so great, you know?”

Senior Samantha Spath, a women’s and gender studies minor, performs “Outrageous Vagina Fact” in the show: one of three fascinating and informative mini-monologues interspersed in the play. “I never would have become a women’s and gender studies minor if I’d never come to Wake,” she said.

“It’s a unique situation here. Girls are supposed to be ambitious and intelligent, but at the same time, they are dumbing themselves down for guys.

“They are supposed to be promiscuous and sexually giving but not talk about sex. Just shut up and do it. These monologues are supposed to get people talking,” Spath said.

White and Spath summed up what they hoped people would take away from the show: “We just want women to be comfortable with their bodies and their sexuality. Not just to be sexual, but to be comfortable. It should not just be for guys, it should be for themselves,” they said. The Vagina Monologues will take place at 8 p.m. March 5-6 in Brendle Recital Hall.