The Elizabethtown College student Baugher Center hosted “The Vagina Monologues,” a reenactment of an assemblage of interviews of women from all corners of the globe.
Led by students, this educational performance and event attracted the attention of many people Friday, Feb. 23.
Sponsored by Residence Life and the Stonewall LLC, the specialty housing of the campus LGBTQ community, the student-led performance was also a fundraiser in support of the Lancaster YWCA.
The circumstances that resulted in the birth of “The Vagina Monologues,” however, were not to fundraise and entertain.
Over 20 years ago, feminist Eve Ensler discovered a pattern when asking those who identified as the pronoun “she” what it was like to be a woman.
The answers would have a variety of results, resulting in topics ranging from humor and confusion to horror and trauma.
These responses were then transformed into vignettes to represent each experience shared. Since then, “The Vagina Monologues” have been a yearly occurrence at most college campuses, community theaters and on Broadway.
Ninety percent of the proceeds from all productions support local gender violence preventing organizations.
“My short skirt is not begging for it,” quoted an actress of one of the interview reenactment performances. “Believe it or not, it has nothing to do with you. And everything underneath it is mine.”
For the first time in 10 years, “The Vagina Monologues” returned to the Etown campus collecting an audience of all kinds.
Masked in an intense red lighting, gender oppression revealed itself in the form of laugher to stunned silence.
The intensity of the event started as a spark and ended as a blazing forest fire, showing the audience that women were excited to talk about their vaginas because no one had ever asked about them before.
While teaching the widespread definition of feminism, members of the audience were informed that “[vaginas] are warriors, survivors and just wished they could stop fighting.”
“There are still people who are misogynistic and commit assaults and rapes on men and women,” sophomore and stage director of “The Vagina Monologues” Darby Keller said. “There are still people who are racist and act in accordance. An example being the posters and stickers hung around campus in the beginning of the [academic] year.”
When the event concluded, Coordinator of Multicultural Programming and Residential Communities Stephanie Diaz, who was one of the few faculty members involved, awarded those who had shown great effort in making this event possible.
Sophomore Caitlin Olivas, adjunct faculty of women and gender studies Dori Hopkins, junior E. Rider Brandau and sophomore Pleasant Sprinkle-Williams were awarded the 2018 Vagina Warrior award.
Emphasizing that these few had stopped at nothing to make a difference, emotions were high when being bestowed such an honor.
After experiencing the act firsthand, viewers were impacted. The audience gained the feeling of empowerment, awareness of social issues facing women and knowledge on how to be an ally or advocate for women and girls everywhere.
Diaz herself saw an impact.
“This is my fifth time acting in a production of ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ she said. “While I was a student at Shippensburg University, I was actively involved in their productions, which have been occurring yearly for the last 14 years.”
“As an undergraduate social work student, I conducted research on the impact of being a cast member in ‘The Vagina Monologues,’” Diaz continued. “My research concluded that there was a measurable impact on self-esteem and self-efficacy, which are two integral pieces of empowerment.”
Programs like “The Vagina Monologues” strive to make a difference.
The interactive performance expressed that no one needs permission to be themselves and brought together many in search of a feeling of peace for all.
