Monologues to illustrate, inform about womens’ issues
It isn’t uncommon to see a variety of different groups tabling at the Schine Student Center on any given day. Often, these groups hand out fliers, buttons and sometimes even T-shirts to encourage students to come check them out. It happens frequently.
One thing that does not always happen is a group raffling off vibrators and massage oils or selling vagina lollipops.
This group tabled at Schine to promote ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ a play by Eve Ensler performed every year at Syracuse University. The show opens Feb. 9with a free show at Marshall Auditorium, and then runs Feb. 10-11 at Hendricks Chapel. Tickets are $7 with a valid SU/ESF student ID and $10 without one.
Erin Carhart, a sophomore women and gender studies and public policy dual major, addressed the reasoning behind the sex toy tabling.
‘It’s really to get people to realize that sex isn’t a bad thing,’ Carhart said. ‘We’re trying to frame it in a way that we educate our community on how sex can be wonderful and how sex can be safe, consensual and fun.’
Carhart is co-producing and performing in the show, which is in its 10th running at SU.
‘The Vagina Monologues’ is a series of monologues performed by different women that deal with a variety of socially taboo topics, ranging from domestic violence to menstrual cycles and sexuality. Carhart believes students should be aware of these topics, and the show allows for that exposure.
‘It’s good to have these conversations without feeling that it’s such a tense subject,’ Carhart said. ‘We should be more comfortable talking about these things and addressing these problems, and I think ‘The Vagina Monologues’ really offers the space to do that.’
While the content of the show is largely feminist, Carhart felt very strongly that it is a show that both female and male audiences could benefit from.
‘My parents come. I’ve had guy friends who have come and when they leave, they’re like, ‘Wow, I really never thought about how that woman experienced her body in that situation,” Carhart said. ‘I think they leave with a new perspective, or at least some new thoughts and answers that hopefully they go out and they share with their own community.’
Published on February 8, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Contact Chelsea: cedebais@syr.edu | @CDeBaise124
