| ‘Vagina Monologues:’ a must-see for everyone |
|
|
| Written by Anne-Marije Rook - Argonaut | ||||||
| Thursday, 05 February 2009 | ||||||
|
If you’ve never seen Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” I strongly
encourage you to see it this weekend. Even if you have seen it before,
I promise you this year’s production, directed by Kim Stout and
Seraphina Richardson, will be different than the one you’ve seen before.
It’s funny. It’s sexy. It’s powerful. “The Vagina Monologues” sends many important empowering messages in a highly entertaining and touching fashion. Sex, love, rape, birth, menstruation, mutilation, masturbation and orgasms — the monologues undertake every issue related to the big V-word. Some organizations, such as the Independent Women’s Forum, the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute and plenty of religious organizations, go out of their way to send out don’t-support-it messages claiming “The Vagina Monologues” are demeaning to men and destructive for women because they glorify promiscuity, objectify women and promote bad sexual behaviors. Betty Dodson allegedly went as far as to say “The Vagina Monologues” are “a blast of hatred at men and heterosexuality.” I strongly disagree and think every man and woman ought to see a production. The award-winning play is the cornerstone of the global V-Day movement dedicated to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and generate broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sexual slavery. With events on campuses and in cities all around the world, V-Day raises funds and awareness on a local and global level. The proceeds of the UI Women’s Center production will be donated locally to Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse and University of Idaho Violence Prevention Programs. Each year, V-Day focuses on a specific group of struggling, couragous women in the world. This year, V-Day’s Spotlight Campaign highlights the atrocities being committed against the women and girls of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “I have just returned from hell. I am trying for the life of me to figure out how to communicate what I have seen and heard in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Ensler penned in a Glamour article. “How do I convey these stories of atrocities? … How do I tell you of girls as young as 9 raped by gangs of soldiers, of women whose insides were blown apart by rifle blasts and whose bodies now leak uncontrollable streams of urine and feces?” In the Congo, rape is used as a weapon of war to torture and humiliate women and girls. This systemic sexual violence and femicide destroys individual women, young girls, families and communities as a whole. In addition to the severe psychological impact, many survivors are left with severe genital lesions, traumatic fistulae and other physical wounds as well as unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Local response to support survivors is hindered by a lack of resources. “I’d traveled to the rape mines of the world — places like Bosnia, Afghanistan and Haiti, where rape has been used as a tool of war. But nothing I ever experienced felt as ghastly, terrifying and complete as the sexual torture and attempted destruction of the female species here,” Ensler wrote. “It is not too strong to call this a femicide, to say that the future of the Congo’s women is in serious jeopardy.” This year’s production of “The Vagina Monologues” will highlight these atrocities to raise awareness and generate support for V-Day, UNICEF and non-governmental organizations working to end femicide in the Congo and help survivors. Violence against women is a serious problem not just in a country thousands of miles away but also here in Moscow. Following national averages brought forth by organizations such as RAINN and the Bureau of Justice, it would appear on the UI campus alone, 1,220 women have been victims of sexual violence. That’s one in every four women. “The Vagina Monologues” will make you laugh, blush and cry. It has a jaw-dropping quality in the bluntness of the monologues and in the shocking facts of violence against women. It will be the most entertaining session you’ve ever been to.  Add as favorites (57) | Views: 1029
Write Comment
|
||||||
Moscow, ID | |||
| |||
| More... |
