Joy Hallare / The Collegian
Slow down. Oh yeah. Don’t stop. More please. Too hard. Whoa, mama!
These phrases are a few of the two-worded answers to the question of “What would your vagina say if it could talk?”
And so the vagina lives — some say. Because it speaks and make its own decisions — to flood, or not to flood!
As one womans testimony titled “The Flood,” said, “It gets wet and sometimes people have to plug up the leaks. But otherwise, the door stays closed!”
Eve Ensler, the author of “The Vagina Monologues,” interviewed more than 200 women of diverse backgrounds on topics involving vaginas, such as sex, love, pain, cruelty and pleasure. Ensler said she intended to make audiences “envision a planet in which women and girls will be free to thrive, rather than merely survive.”
Cast members of Saturday and Sunday nights’ performance of “The Vagina Monologues,” at the Satellite Student Union on the Fresno State campus, helped stand up for V-Day (Victory, Valentine and Vagina), to educate people about the reality of violence against women and girls, and raise funds for local groups in the community.
People Organized for Women’s Empowerment and Representation (P.O.W.E.R) of Fresno State and the Women’s Alliance club hosted this year’s production, with all proceeds benefiting the Marjaree Mason Center, The Fresno State Violence Prevention Project and the Women of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“I felt so empowered,” said Stephanie Leal, of her sister Johanna’s performance titled “I Was There in the Room.”
“I feel in control of my sexuality. All my insecurities about anything just all lifted away. It gives a whole new name to women.”
“The Vagina Monologues” in association with V-Day is a movement that will continue on to respond to violence toward women. The controversial production values women’s worth, female sexuality and strength in the fight against rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery.
Despite the all-women cast, both men and women attended the performance.
Each testimonial inspired cast member Jazmine Yepez to perform again next year.
“These are touching issues that all girls and women go through,” Yepez said. “This will educate the men in the audience and open their eyes to what we [women] go through.”
Criminology major Alex Reynoso said women are complicated emotionally, and it is good for men to know what women want, think and how women feel about themselves.
“I thought I was going to be one of few men here,” Reynoso said. “But I see other men here, so I feel a little better.”
Kinesiology major Christa Macdonald agreed with Reynoso.
“If males are coming out and viewing it, I think they’ll get a different insight as far as women are concerned about their bodies,” MacDonald said.
But Ensler’s production is not a rage toward the male species as a whole. She is raging against violence and oppression, and educating those unaware of problems that women are facing.
Life for a vagina is indescribable””it has it’s own mind.