The Vagina Monologues will be coming to campus this year on Feb. 3 and 4.
With its 9th show coming up, “The Vagina Monologues” is an important tradition on the McDaniel Campus. Every year around Valentine’s Day, a group of McDaniel women get together and put on a show to raise money and awareness for violence and rape against women. This year, led by Dr. Becky Carpenter, the show will take place on Feb. 3 and 4.
As the women prepare for this touching and empowering show, they must bond as a group in order to create an atmosphere for the show that really promotes its purpose: stopping violence against women.
“This show is about women’s empowerment and takes a real activist point of view that we do not have to sit in silence and feel powerless in the face of these horrible crimes committed against women,” said Carpenter about the show.
The bond that these women have is the means that conveys this important message to the campus.
“The Vagina Monologues” have been very successful here at McDaniel. With the first show nine years ago, there was doubt among the women about how the campus would accept the touching and somewhat racy monologues.
“I was pleasantly surprised over the years at how supportive the McDaniel campus was of the show,” said Carpenter. When their first show was so full it was standing room only, it was apparent that this was going to be a tradition that would touch the hearts of the women involved and anyone in the audience who has been affected by violence against women.
Even though it has been a production here at McDaniel for nine years in a row, “The Vagina Monologues” are never repetitive or boring.
“It’s like the feminist ‘Nutcracker,’ you see [the show] around Christmas, it’s a tradition,” said Carpenter.
Sarah Miller, a senior performing in the show, says the tradition is important to raise awareness in the community.
Miller says the show is “people coming together to say enough is enough, but we can say it in a way that’s funny. I guess that’s why I do it.”
“The Vagina Monologues” is an important tradition on campus, for the women who are involved and the staff and students on campus. Many people have been affected by violence against women in some way, and this tradition is an outlet for those people. It is a place for everyone to celebrate the empowerment of women and to acknowledge the existence of a problem that needs to be solved.
Be sure to come out next semester on Friday, Feb. 3 and Saturday Feb. 4 to enjoy the show and fight the crime of violence against women.
