Carleton Vaginas Against Violence presented The Vagina Monologues on March 7-8 in the Minto Centre, with all proceeds going to the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre and V-Day.
The monologues are based on a series of interviews conducted by American playwright Eve Ensler and, in the format of short sketches, openly discuss topics often considered taboo. As they portray many of the issues women face around the world, the monologues are meant to be saddening, amusing, and empowering all at once.
Although the monologues were first written and performed in the mid-90s, their content is “intersectional and still relevant,” said Letycia Henriques, a director. There’s a spotlight piece each year in which a current issue is highlighted, she said.
The sketches deal with heavy topics such as war rape, sexual harassment, bullying of transgender women, genital mutilation, domestic violence in Aboriginal communities, and sex slavery.
In the wake of the National Roundtable for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), actress and Carleton student Holly Jones said she found the sketch about Indigenous women particularly relevant.
“The issue of MMIW is one that really speaks to me,” Jones said.
While touching on themes of patriarchy and colonialism, the monologues also present the reality of the female experience in all aspects of life. The topics such as love, menstruation, masturbation, orgasms, sex, and childbirth are ones many women can relate to and laugh about.
One of the skits, “Angry Vagina,” derides tampons and visits to the gynecologist, namely how uncomfortable they both are, while another called “Hair” deals with a marital dispute over shaving.
“I thought it was very bold, to the point of exaggeration, [but] it was good, it was interesting and I had fun,” audience member and Carleton student Val Topolskaia said.
In another skit titled “The Vagina Workshop,” women expressed mixed emotions about the appearance and nature of their vaginas, ranging from disgust to confusion to indifference.
“There’s still a lot of stigma around the word ‘vagina’ . . . and women don’t really talk about it,” Henriques said.
Topolskaia said a lot of the information was about loving yourself as a woman, while also touching on international topics such as war rape and genital mutilation.
“Feminism happened here, but has yet to take hold of the whole world,” Topolskaia said.
