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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Feminist Student Association puts on performance of "The Vagina Monologues"

Campus Filler

A black tarp hung low to cover the blackboard. Two black lamps illuminated six performers as they stood in front of a dark lecture hall. Classes had ended, but people filled Woodburn 003 Friday evening, and they were talking. They were talking about vaginas.

“My vagina is angry,” said performer Hayley Kwasniewski, throwing her hands in the air as she performed a monologue. “It’s pissed off. My vagina is furious, and it needs to talk.”

The Feminist Student Association organized the performance of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” on Friday and Saturday night. Proceeds from ticket sales were donated to the Middle Way House. Around 50 
people attended the Friday night performance.

Six women performed pieces from “The Vagina Monologues,” an Obie Award-winning play based on interviews Ensler had with more than 200 women. The monologues tell women’s stories of sex, love, 
assault, birth and more.

The six actresses were former IU student Georgia Boonshoft and IU students Hayley Kwasniewski, Thea Bransby, Patricia O’Brian, Stephanie Whitlock and Caroline Hewitt. Hewitt is a copy editor at the IDS. Tessa Huber, a student, directed the performance.

Kwasniewski performed “My Angry Vagina,” which spoke out against the routine things women must go through including using tampons, going to the 
gynecologist and wearing thongs.

“Let’s just begin with tampons,” Kwasniewski said. “What the hell is that? A dry wad of fucking cotton stuffed up there.”

Kwasniewski, pacing the front and gesturing rapdily as she described how women hate going to the 
gynecologist, continued.

“Why the flashlight all up there like Nancy Drew working against gravity?” she said. “Why the mean, cold duck lips they shove inside you? What is that?”

“Reclaiming Cunt,” a different monologue, detailed one woman’s goal to transform people’s perception of the slur into something more positive.

Event organizer Margaret Hoffman said FSA puts this show on every year to get people talking openly about vaginas. She had been busy all last week preparing and Friday carrying the lamps across campus to set up for the show.

“We never talk about what it’s like to actually have a vagina,” Hoffman said. “Vaginas are normal. It’s odd we’re not talking about them more.”

In general, Hoffman said people don’t talk about their genitals, and high school sexual education classes don’t do enough to teach women about the anatomy of vaginas. Through these performances, Hoffman said the goal was to normalize the discussion.

A change to this year’s performance included the decision not to perform a monologue about a transgender person because they could not find a trans performer and did not want to cast a cisgendered person in the role, Hoffman said.

Throughout the show, the audience laughed at the pieces, especially those that spoke to everyday troubles of being a woman, but not all the monologues were humorous. One — “The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could” — detailed a teenage girl’s experience with being assaulted by her father’s best friend.

The show ended with a monologue about the birth of Ensler’s granddaughter. Ensler, the show’s creator, was in the room as the baby was born. It highlighted Ensler’s awe and reverence she felt witnessing the birth.

Freshman Alexia Barraza attended the show with her friends Madelaine Withers and Moira Kehoe as a part of their Friday night outing.

Barraza said she cried, especially during the childbirth monologue. She said she felt every emotion of the show.

All said they agreed the performance was powerful.

“It reminded us that we’re not alone,” Withers said.

After Saturday’s performance, FSA had personal monologues at the Bishop Bar. FSA members and others who were interested performed their own 
monologues detailing their stories.

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