On February 17 and 18, the UMKC Women’s Center hosted performances of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. The cast was made up of twenty-two beautiful women who performed twenty-two of Ensler’s Monologues. On each night of the show nearly 200 tickets were sold, and a standing ovation was given. After the show some audience members who had never seen the show even commented on the wonderful acting done, in addition to how moving and thought provoking the monologues themselves were.
I myself had never seen the monologues performed before, and I was extremely touched by the stories. My eyes were opened to experiences I had no idea women had endured, such as the Bosnian woman’s repeated rapes in the monologue “My Vagina Was a Village”. I laughed through monologues like “The Vagina Workshop” as the woman learned how to become ‘one’ with herself. By the end of the show, after hearing Eve Ensler’s own monologue “I Was There In the Room”, I experienced a sense of pride in being a woman that I had never experienced before. To hear a vagina being compared to the loving, caring, and flexibility of a human heart was truly powerful.
The stories in the monologues were told to inspire, entertain, and raise awareness about the struggles of women everywhere. I can honestly say I experienced all of these and so much more during the show. In addition, many people stopped and talked about how they never knew situations that were discussed in the monologues existed. One comment that stood out the most was from a young male student who said, “I never knew women go through so much.” This statement shows that the movement is working; people are starting to become more aware of how violence affects women.
In the performances this year the monologue “Not-So-Happy Fact” was included. This monologue talks about the process and presence of female genital mutilation in countries around the world. I am happy to say that last Friday the Senegalese Government launched a National Action Plan for achieving a goal of total abandonment of female genital cutting by 2015. This is a huge step in the V-Day movement! More information can be found here.
I would like to thank all the cast for the wonderful performances and the audience members. Thank you for your support in this movement! Now that we are informed, the only thing left to do is spread awareness to others who are uninformed.