'The Vagina Monologues' evokes emotion

By Maria Sullivan
Staff Writer

Winona State University presented the “The Vagina Monologues,” written by Eve Ensler, on Feb. 22 and 23.

“The Vagina Monologues” is a play featuring a number of monologues of women telling their views about the vagina through the lens of sex, love, rape, menstruation, mutilation, masturbation, or orgasm.
Read more... Other monologues focused on the variety of names for the vagina and the vagina simply as a physical aspect of the female body. The main theme of this play is that the vagina is a tool of female empowerment and that women need to learn to love it, and themselves.

The play was performed and directed by students from WSU as part of a local “V-day” campaign. According to the program from the play, “V-day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of playwright/founder Eve Ensler’s award winning play.”

The producers and performers did an excellent job sending the message about how the vagina is supposed to be something that women are proud of, not ashamed of. One monologue in particular, called “Because He Liked to Look at It,” told the story of a woman who was ashamed of the way her vagina looked, but her opinion changed when she met a man who absolutely loved looking at her pubic area. She soon came to realize that it’s a beautiful thing and became proud of it.

The monologues in this play are very graphic and can be shocking. It is, however, a play that everybody should see. One can expect to experience a bundle of emotions upon seeing this play, from laughter to anger.

This year is the tenth anniversary of “The Vagina Monologues.”