In 2002, Flame — the former feminist organization on the University of Idaho campus — began performing “The Vagina Monologues” to sold out crowds.
Just more than a decade later, Lysa Salsbury, director of the UI Women’s Center, is not seeing the same results.
“People are not coming to see it the way they used to come four or five years ago,” Salsbury said.
Attendance wasn’t just low at the performances either. Salsbury said multiple events following the monologues saw low audience numbers as well, including the Talk-Back session.
The Talk-Back was an opportunity for members of the audience to discuss how the play influenced their thoughts. Salsbury said she was there, as well as a handful of cast members and
students involved in the global V-Day campaign, but there were only two other students from a women’s studies class — neither of whom had actually seen the play. Salsbury said although she was discouraged by the turnout, they still managed to have a good conversation.
The final V-Day event was hosted a week after the Talk-Back — a free screening of the film “What I Want My Words To Do To You.” The film documents women who are in jail, many of them serving life sentences, for murdering their abusers. This event also saw a low number of attendees, although Salsbury said she thinks the students who attended enjoyed learning their stories.
A portion of the money raised from “The Vagina Monologues” goes to Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse, as well as to the global V-Day campaign. The money also helps fund a variety of other events hosted by the Women’s Center, including the annual Take Back the Night event.
Salsbury said she isn’t sure why audience numbers are declining. Despite watching the play performed every year, she said it is always a new show for her.
“A different cast brings a different perspective … and a different portrayal of the play,” Salsbury said. “I’ve seen it a number of different times and it really is pretty different from year to year. But I guess people wouldn’t know that, unless they go and see it a couple times.”
Former student and lifelong Moscow resident, Lindsey Peterson-Pope, has a unique perspective on the situation. She was a cast member of “The Vagina Monologues” as a student 10 years ago and then again during this year’s production.
Pope noticed a difference in audience attendance and said it could be due to a variety of factors. The first year she performed in the play, it was held in the Administration Building Auditorium, compared to where it is performed now at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center.
Pope said it could also be the fact that “The Vagina Monologues” are slowly but surely becoming a dated piece. Or, if it isn’t seen as dated, some of the stories are too troubling to listen to. She gave an example of one monologue written about a 16-year-old girl, who in reality was actually 13 years old.
Pope was introduced to “The Vagina Monologues” during her second semester of college. At the time, Pope said she was experiencing low self-esteem. When her friend encouraged her to audition for the show, Pope was cast as a woman who was very comfortable with her sexuality.
“Stepping into the shoes of someone who is much more confident than myself was a really empowering experience,” Pope said. “To sort of pretend to be that person … I think I took a little bit of that away with me.”
Pope said being a part of “The Vagina Monologues” has made the issue of feminism less of an individual problem for her. Now she looks for ways to help everyone regarding feminism.
In the past 10 years, Pope said she has noticed multiple changes regarding feminist activism. One of these is the awareness of how all different kinds of oppression, not just those against women, connect together. Another is the huge leaps in including men in feminist movements, making it not only a women’s issue and more of a universal one, Salsbury said.
Including men in the topic is something Salsbury said was one of the successful things she saw in the V-Men Workshop. The workshop was meant to be a safe place for male students to discuss how they can be involved in prevention of violence against women, she said. Salsbury said it is something that will most likely occur next year.
When it comes to the other events, things are still, more or less, up in the air. Salsbury said they may eliminate the Talk-Back all together, or hold it immediately after the performance of “The Vagina Monologues,” instead of a week later. Salsbury said she is exploring other Eve Ensler plays and is leaning toward putting on a performance inspired by the previously mentioned documentary about incarcerated women.
Salsbury said she wants the event to evolve into something more similar to how it began.
“I would love to see this event go back to being an entirely student led and student organized production,” Salsbury said. “It was initially … the potential for student leadership and empowerment is phenomenal.”
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected]