Spring 2012 - Clarion University

I n
2001, I discovered the script for Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues at
the annual PASSHE Women’s Consortium Conference. The show was so radical at the time that
Louann Williams, director of PASSAGES, Inc., our first beneficiary, feared the agency would
lose their faithful donors. On the other hand, Mel Michel remained unruffled. She had complete
confidence in Clarion’s readiness for Ensler’s message.
Many of my students and I couldn’t even say “vagina” without blushing. We’d say “vah” and
stop. We’d whisper “vagina” and then cover our faces with our hands. We could not say the
V-word with a straight face.
However, we took our role to promote the show seriously. Recognizing we dare not
utter, “Come to ‘The Vah… Monologues’, or start giggling in the middle of explaining what the
VDay cause stood for, the students and I made a pact. We promised to say “vagina” 50 times
a day until we could say it with confidence. We also named our vaginas to feel close to this
emerging source of empowerment.
Twelve years later, the sounds I most associate with the WGS Center are the voices of
Vagina Warriors practicing their parts. All manner of moans in high and low pitches, ranting at
the top of lungs, muted, sensual tones and gut-deep laughter penetrated my office door.
I wonder at the variety of activities the casts enjoyed “to bond,” they said. I purchased
a pink carpet for a slumber party in the Center. There were sex toy parties, selling Sheetz
coupons, vagina cookies and vagina lollipops to raise funds. Student organizations got involved by
draping banners from the Chapel’s balcony railings, decorating tees for the Clothesline Project.
Once we simulated a vagina with all manner of pink, red and purple fabric at the auditorium
entrance.
The next three writers share their standpoint on the power of Ensler’s work. They show
what speaking the word “vagina” without hesitation, fanfare or judgment means. They break
through the silence that surrounds gender violence.
Gifted poet Maya Angelou warns, “words get on the walls and into the wall paper. They
get in the rugs and they get into us.” I hope she is right. After 20 years of women-centered
community, I like thinking that silly ideas and giggles, the “aha” moments of insight, and turning
“pain into power” vagina stories, are still there ready to “get into” others.
{ }
33
{ }