tonight we went to see "the vagina monologues," a play of monologues and dialogue based on interviews done with thousands of women around the world, talking about their vaginas and womanhood, sexuality, relationships with others, and abuse. the women's center at my school organized it with women from campus as the actresses. it was very well done, poignant, funny, uncomfortable, interesting, sad, beautiful.
it was cool seeing my fellow seminarians come out of their shells, change into actresses instead of formal, straight-laced-seeming, rather hard and quiet women making their way in the man's world of religious studies and pastoring. cool to see all the passion bursting forth and being loved and respected by themselves and the rest of the seminary community.
"the vagina monologues" are presented all over the world each year on (or around) valentine's day to bring awareness to women's experience, especially to work to stop abuse of women and girls. their website is www.vday.org. A portion of the proceeds from seeing the show goes to vday, which supports "grassroots, national, and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls." the beneficiary for this year's v-day money is a group of women who were "comfort women" during world war II, coopted by the japanese military. it's a really sad story, and you can read it on their website.
then each place that puts on the production chooses another local group to give the rest of the funds to that aims at the same goals, our production is supporting woman space, inc.
if you hear about one of these productions being put on in your area i would recommend you attend. it's important to think about issues of physical abuse against so many women (as many as 1 in 3 worldwide!), as well as the general abuse that has occurred from the repression of women's sexuality in our culture for so long.
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