By incorporating The Vagina Monologues into her feminist activism class, Associate Professor Nancy Matthews thought it would be a fun and educational way to plunge into activism addressing the feminist issues of violence and sexuality at the same time.
The students of Women’s Studies Class (WSP 202) under the guidance of Matthews and student director Gail Wittenstein, performed The Vagina Monologues at NEIU’S Stage Center Theatre on February 28.
“Although many of the students of WSP 202 were hesitant about performing in general, and about the intimate topic of The Vagina Monologues in the end, even the most hesitant and nervous decided they wanted to be in the show. Upon completion of the project many of the students of the class felt a sense of pride, excited, and empowered,” said Matthews.
According to Amnesty International at least one in three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
“Young girls are genitally mutilated, sex trafficked, raped, acid burned, beaten, throughout the world and no one is held accountable,” said Eve Ensler, the creator of The Vagina Monologues.
A youth-led community organization, The Rodgers Park Young Women’s Action Team (YWAT), was chosen by the students of WSP 202 as the beneficiary of proceeds from ticket sales and the concession booth that sold water, snacks, and chocolate covered vagina lollipops.
YWAT is an organization that is led by high school students that educates youth on issues that affect the daily lives of young women including street harassment and relationship abuse.
“I want people to realize that women’s issues are not separate, but part of everyday life and the questions of war and peace that we face as a society. I want women and men to think about how a women’s vagina, bodies, and lives are the site of so much pleasure and fun, but also violence and terror,” stated Matthews.
Performance is just the beginning of the V-day campaign; it is a chance to educate, raise awareness, advocate change, and stop violence against women worldwide. “The play breaks down barriers so powerfully giving women permission to talk openly about a lot of things that are usually giggled about or not spoken of at all,” said Matthews.
What began as casual conversation about menopause and vaginas with a friend, Ensler began a series of over 200 worldwide interviews eventually leading to creation of the Vagina Monologues and the V-day campaign.
The V-day college campaign, “is an organized response against violence toward women inviting college and university communities around the world to present benefit productions of The Vagina monologues to raise money and awareness to stop violence against women and girls in their own communities.”
Ensler: “the word vagina causes enormous controversy, because vagina is, in fact, the most isolated, reviled word in any language and as long as we cannot say ‘vagina’, vaginas do not exist.”
Planning things such as reading through the script, soliciting volunteers, and researching local community centers were initiated during the beginning of the semester, lasting about five weeks.
“The best thing about the performance it is that it is not a professional endeavor, it is a community project bringing women of all classes and sexes to perform a play that raises awareness to women’s issues. ” said director Wittenstein.