East Carolinian

Issue date: 2/10/09 Section: Features

Media Credit: Nicholas Thigpen

The annual production of "The Vagina Monologues" was presented this weekend with a final evening showing last night in Hendrix Theater. Students, faculty, staff and members of the community attended the show, with a mixed cast of students and community members.

Tickets were $10 for students and all proceeds went to benefit the Pitt County Family Violence Program, which assists victims of domestic violence and provides educational and other programs to the community.

"The Vagina Monologues," the award-winning play written by Eve Ensler, stars an all-female cast and addresses issues of women, including rape, sexual orientation and menstruation through a series of - sometimes entertaining - monologues.

"I think this play is important because it sheds light on some very important issues that not many people are aware of. It also attempts to break the taboo of talking about women and their sexuality," said Leia Cain, the narrator in the university's production who helped put on the show. "There are so many things in the world that represent men's anatomy, and discussing penises has always been more socially acceptable than discussing vaginas. Women need to be comfortable with themselves."

The show emphasizes that women should be comfortable with their vaginas (the word is in the script 138 times) - and women should celebrate their sexuality. The cast members even encouraged audience members to say the word "vagina" repeatedly to become accustomed to the word.

"This play is empowering because it attempts to tell women that it is OK to love yourself, and that we should all celebrate being women," Cain said, who is president of V.O.I.C.E. (Visionaries for the Ongoing Involvement in the Cultivation of Equality), ECU's feminist organization. "'The Vagina Monologues' teaches us that it's OK to be powerful, to be independent, to be loved, to be sexual and to stand up for ourselves. Men get these sort of lessons from society as they grow up and women are taught to be complacent and not discuss such things. It's about time that this changed!"

Although the play is geared towards women, Cain says that men and women alike should experience "The Vagina Monologues."

"Many people assume that it is negative toward men, but my fiancé has never felt that way. There is even a monologue completely about a man who helped a woman begin to love her vagina," Cain, a senior sociology major, said. "I think that men would learn a lot about women, just as women will learn a lot about themselves. It's about celebrating women, but that doesn't mean that we don't appreciate men."

The showing of "The Vagina Monologues" was sponsored by V.O.I.C.E. and other organizations, and took place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., with a night showing yesterday at 7 p.m.

For more information about V.O.I.C.E e-mail ecuvoice@gmail.com.



For more information about the Pitt County Family Violence Program, visit pittfvp.org, or call 758-4440. The center is located on Evans Street in Greenville.



This writer can be contacted at editor@theeastcarolinian.com.

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