On Tues. April 16, students and staff presented a reading of “The Vagina Monologues,” a groundbreaking piece by playwright and activist Eve Ensler, also known as V. According to Director of the Student Center for Inclusion and Belonging Sam Vega, this is the first time in 5 years that the social justice piece was presented here at Rollins College.
The play is unique because it’s presented by countless groups across the nation, not as a mode of entertainment, but as a means of education. The playwright, V, conducted interviews with dozens of women to write the dramatic work in 1994 to highlight real experiences of female-presenting people. Ensler’s piece deals with topics typically hidden from public view like sexuality, female anatomy, rape, abuse, and mutilation. On Valentine’s Day in 1998, V and a group of activists in New York created V-Day, an organization that seeks to end all violence committed globally against women.
As explained on their website, “Each year, thousands of V-Day benefit events take place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls.”
According to The Guardian, the first activism-centered benefit performance was at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York where celebrities like Glenn Close, Whoopi Goldberg, and Susan Sarandon performed to an “an audience of thousands” in hopes of reducing stigma and getting people talking without shame.
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