How would women answer questions about their vagina? Would they simply freeze and not know what to say, or go off ranting about their latest emotion or experience?
Eve Ensler took the opportunity to ask over 200 women what they thought about their vaginas in order to put together her Obie award-winning play "The Vagina Monologues" and to raise awareness and money to stop the abuse of women and girls around the world.
Last night the College hosted its second annual "Vagina Monologues" to celebrate Valentine's Day by honoring women and raising awareness to end violence. Dartmouth is one of 225 colleges and universities nationwide participating in this year's Valentine's Day celebration.
Katie Oliviero '01, the programming intern at the Women's Resource Center, directed, promoted, and cast actresses for the monologues. She and 22 other women -- mostly Dartmouth undergraduate and graduate students, as well as some faculty members -- gave a voice to their gender in their performances.
"The monologues give a voice to an anatomy commonly considered grotesque, but they also illustrate the emotions and experiences that surround it," Oliviero said.
Furthermore, Oliviero emphasized that the monologues are used to "halt the cycle" of violence against women.
Oliviero believes that violence against women is common because it is never spoken about. In the past it has "never been given a voice and so it is perpetuated through generations," Oliviero told The Dartmouth.
Over 200 students and other community members attended the monologues in Collis to see what it was all about. Other people had heard about the monologues from friends.
"I had friends who had seen it in New York City and I was intrigued," Kate Simon '04 said, explaining why she wanted to see the monologues.
Although the audience was overwhelmingly female, there were a few males in attendance.
"I thought it would be interesting and it's a chance to gain an interesting perspective," said John Reuter '03.
The monologues answered mysterious questions such as what women are really thinking when they moan. Senior Amanda Molk's monologue "The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy" seemed to be one of the crowd favorites. She outlined her character's kinky sex tricks and obsession with moaning out of pleasure.
Other seemingly silly questions such as "What would your vagina wear?" were given some amusing answers, anything from a tutu to combat boots and lace. "What would your vagina say?" as performed by Jamie Kennedy was another crowd favorite.
The first performance of "The Vagina Monologues" was held in New York City on Valentine's Day in 1998. The monologues were inspired by a vision of a world where women are not threatened by violence and are motivated by the need for action.
