Monologues tackle taboo conversations

You may have seen the big black "V's" pasted on the walls of O'Neill. Or you may have heard your roommates talk about it. Or maybe, just maybe, a professor mentioned it in class. It is taboo. It is controversial. It is Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, and it was performed this past weekend by a group of 27 female students at Boston College. The play, which is now performed annually at BC and centrally supported by the women's studies department, was put on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night in McGuinn 121. The script is based on interviews with over 200 females of different ages, races, sexual orientations, and backgrounds, on the topic of one subject: their vagina. "I thought the show was amazing," said audience member Jenna Schreier, A&S '11. "The topic is something that isn't openly talked about, and I thought it was great to get some of those thoughts out in the open. Sometimes it's forgotten that women are sexual too, and I think it's great that the school does this show every year." Not surprisingly, there has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding the showing of the play at a Jesuit university. But considering that all three performances sold out quickly, it seems that students here continue to value Ensler's play that aims at empowering women and raising awareness. There was a palpable energy among the audience of mostly female students, faculty, and parents as they waited for the actors to appear on the stage, a long narrow platform and a black curtain backdrop with a red "V" draped across. The Vagina Monologues started with one statement - that the women putting on the show were worried about not talking about their vaginas. So, they talked. For two hours, cast members emerged onto the platform to tell the stories of real women and their vaginas. The stories ranged from the hilarious, to the shocking, to the heart-breaking. Every possible topic was covered, including pubic hair, rape, orgasms, gynecological exams, clitorises, tampons, and genital mutilation. The show began with some of the more comedic pieces. In "The Flood," one of the best-received segments of the night, Allison Russel, CSOM '12, played a conservative 72-year-old recounting her first sexual experience. And in "The Vagina Workshop," Executive Director Jenna Bertanza played a prim British woman who happily discovers her clitoris after fearing she does not have one. "Happy Fact" proved to be one of the most popular parts of the show, as audience members called out at will to bring onstage a librarian-type character played by Alyssa Sinel, LSOE '09, to repeat one very happy fact. Sinel, who became more undone with each repeat performance, summed "the fact" up with one question: "Who needs a hand gun when you've got a semi-automatic?" Halfway through, the show shifted to more serious subject matter in "Say It," a segment based on interviews with former Japanese "comfort women," sex-slaves who were forced to serve Japanese soldiers during World War II. Performed by Kelly Dalton, CSON '10, Kerrie Pieloch, A&S '11, Krista Tietjen, A&S '12, and Victoria Farrell, A&S '11, the piece stunned the formerly responsive audience into complete silence. "Say It" was both moving and relevant, as the U.S. government issued a statement in July 2007 calling for the Japanese government to apologize to former comfort women. "My Vagina Was My Village" followed soon after, in the most heart-wrenching and intense performance of the night. Margaret Howe, A&S '10, played a Bosnian refugee who had been raped and tortured for days on end as part of a systematic tactic of war. Howe's tormented portrayal of the survivor was disturbing, but seemed to be the most effective in raising awareness of one of the most central issues of the show: sexual abuse. "I expected the show to be funny - and it was absolutely hysterical - but I didn't anticipate some of the more serious scenes portraying women who have experienced sexual violence in wartimes," Amanda Keele, A&S '10, said. "It was extremely powerful and sobering to hear about the atrocities against these women. It's nice to see events like this on campus, where the atmosphere can be too conservative and closed-minded." In "Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy," Thalia Goldstein, GA&S '10 gave a brave and outrageous monologue as a lawyer-turned-sex-worker whose only aim is to please other women. Goldstein brought down the house with a very vocal re-enactment of a triple orgasm, handling what could have been an uncomfortable scene with a shocking amount of confidence. Emma Knoth, A&S '09, played Eve Ensler in the last monologue, in which she recounted her experience of watching a birth in dramatic detail. In the closing of the show, cast members emerged to explain Ensler's true inspiration for the show - an interview with an eight-year-old girl who had been raped daily for two weeks and suffered permanent physical damage. There were virtually no props or costumes in The Vagina Monologues but the performance carried an unfailing energy that alternately shocked, entertained, and moved the audience to tears. More than anything, the show held a strong, clear statement, summed up in the closing as "If you can't say it, then you can't own it. And if you can't own it, then you can't protect it." Following the play, a panel discussion was held to discuss the relevance of The Vagina Monologues on the BC campus, and how students are often silent when it comes to female sexuality and sexual assault. The panel included doctoral candidate Shannon Snapp, and faculty members Pamela Lannutti and Bonnie Jefferson, both in the communications department. "I thought the audience was pretty responsive from what I expected," Lannutti said. "I think that there's a deeper impact when the audience is a little uncomfortable … there's a power in that." According to The Vagina Monologues press release, 90 percent of the show's proceeds are donated to The Home for Little Wanderers, a project that helps "adolescent girls in the Boston area at risk for sexual exploitation," and the other 10 percent goes to the cause of raising "awareness to the wide-scale violence committed against women and girls in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo."