Dark chocolate raspberry mocha was the most exotic vagina lollipop available at Schine Student Center this week. Milk chocolate filled with caramel wasn’t too far behind. The less adventurous could indulge in plain old milk chocolate, shaped like a particular part of the female anatomy, of course.

And for the passersby not quite ready to eat a candied vagina, they could take a printed outline of a vagina instead and decorate it with an array of markers, feathers and glitters. When they finish, a representative would hang the masterpiece on the ‘Wall of Vaginas’ behind the table.

It’s like putting an A+ paper on the fridge at home – just a little more suggestive.

This was the advertising campaign to promote The Vagina Monologues, an episodic play featuring women sharing their views on their vaginas with the audience that opens at Hendricks Chapel at (BOLD) 8 tonight (BOLD). The show runs tomorrow night, (BOLD) also at 8 (BOLD), and (BOLD) Sunday afternoon at 3 (BOLD) in Marshall Auditorium on the campus of SUNY ESF.

The play will be sponsored and performed by SASSE: Students Advocating Sexual Safety and Empowerment.

It’s not a new marketing plan for the play, but it’s an effective one. During one day of sales, SASSE had sold $240 worth of vagina pops at a buck apiece.

‘I came into the group last year as a freshmen, and they handed me a vagina lollipop and said, ‘Welcome to the group,” Brianna Collins, a sophomore communications design major and the co-director of the show, said. ‘We get these vaginas shipped from (Boise, Idaho) for SU students to enjoy, and they’re always a huge hit.’

The Vagina Monologues was written by Eve Ensler and debuted in New York in 1996. Since then, the play has become a phenomenon, and Ensler updates it each year with new monologues. In conjunction with the show, Ensler also started the concept of V-Day – a movement for replacing Valentine’s Day with a day exclusively for creating awareness of sexual abuse against women.

The play is performed annually in thousands of cities all over the world around Valentine’s Day.

At Syracuse, all the proceeds from ticket and lollipop sales will go to four groups that help victims of sexual abuse: Planned Parenthood of Syracuse and Rochester, the Vera House, the Chadwick Residence and the SU Office of Prevention Services.

This year, SASSE has teamed with representatives from the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) to collect feminine hygiene products in boxes before every show. They will be donated to the Stop the Flow campaign, a group for helping abused and impoverished women in Syracuse.

But for the performers, The Vagina Monologues isn’t just about helping others. The play is about growing as a woman, and that’s really the ultimate goal.

‘The best part is watching the girls who are scared and don’t know what they got themselves into,’ said Melissa Bennett, a senior television, radio, film major and co-director of the show. ‘Some of them have never said the word, ‘Vagina,’ before. Now they get up there in front of their peers and are proud of themselves as a performer and a woman.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on February 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm