The Vagina Monologues are a triumph of abrasive femininity, bluntly delivering those thoughts and experiences that are otherwise expressed with wincing embarrassment and diluted with euphemisms. What is most striking about this delivery is that it is accomplished exclusively by Hoya women. This production of The Vagina Monologues is produced, directed, and performed completely by Georgetown’s own. You might recognize these women from around campus or from your classes, and witnessing their passion and ferocity on stage will both shock and inspire you.
This year’s production was directed jointly by Jordanna Hernandez (COL ‘15) and Lindsay Horikoshi (NHS ‘16). Kat Kelley (NHS ‘14), who produced the show with Deanna Arthur (SFS ‘14), said she saw the show in high school and fell in love.
“Every story is brave and powerful,” Kelley said. “The Vagina Monologues break the silence on women’s bodies and sexuality. They are raw, they are honest, and they are empowering.”
Sponsored by Take Back the Night, The Vagina Monologues is a performance in conjunction with V-Day 2013, an effort aimed at ending violence against women and girls worldwide. Halfway through the performance, a short film is shown of women across the world being beaten, mutilated, and forced into unwanted sexual activity. The film is incredibly affecting, indeed horrifying, until it concludes with a message of strength and solidarity showing women across the globe defiantly raising their fists against their experiences of gender-based violence.
The video spotlights this years V-Day campaign to globally combat violence against women. The campaign is called “One Billion Rising” and 10 percent of the net profits from the show will be donated to the V-Day 2013 Spotlight Fund. The remainder of the net profits will be donated to D.C. SAFE Inc., a local D.C. charity. This is reason enough to pay the $10 student admission price, however The Vagina Monologues are sure to give you a whole lot of bang for your buck.
The show consists of individually and jointly delivered monologues. Each monologue touches upon some aspect of the female experience from sex, love, masturbation, rape, female genital mutilation, birth, and orgasm. Throughout all of these monologues, the vagina is a common symbol of female empowerment and individuality. The color pink, also, is a common motif throughout the play. Each actor wears at least one article of bright pink clothing and are otherwise dressed in the everyday look of jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers.
Though the tone of Monologues is essentially serious, as gender violence and painful memories take center stage, the performance is tempered by a generous amount of comic relief. The vagina, typically an object of embarrassment or abuse, becomes the subject and agent here; in the process, an undeniably comedic voice emerges. Actresses discuss everything from the emotional state of their vaginas to what they would wear—“lots of leather” and “Harry Winston diamonds” range among the responses.
While the entire production is spellbinding, there are several performances that command the audience’s particular attention. One skit recounts the story of an old woman, for whom an embarrassing sexual encounter during her teenage years had caused her to give up her sexuality and describe her vagina now as a “locked cellar.” Not until her ‘70s did she even attempt to masturbate and explore that area of her body upon which she had focused a lifetime of shame and embarrassment. When she had her first orgasm, she cried. At the end of her monologue she expresses a sentiment that I believe every woman in attendance of The Vagina Monologues will feel upon leaving the theater: “I never told anyone about this before and I do feel a little better.”
