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Vagina Monologues in review

Mills College Weekly

They used words like cunt, cooch, punani, split knish, and
gyngyn. They said it smelled like snowflakes, roses, earth, even
Treasure Island. But The Vagina Monologues revealed more about a
vagina than what it’s called or how it smells, it exposed the
reality behind what it’s like to have a vagina.

Mills students performed Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues last
week to intimate crowds in the student union to raise awareness
about violence against women, consciousness about how women feel
about their own vaginas, and money for a local rape crisis
center.

On Sunday, Feb 29, about 40 friends and family members of Mills
students attended the matinee in which the content fluctuated
between serious and solemn, provocative and lively.

Senior Mary Kay Chin delighted the responsive crowd during her
memorable performance of the various types of moans women make
during sex. In the monologue, The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas
Happy, Chin demonstrated “the diva moan,” “the tortured Zen moan,”
“the militant bisexual moan,” “the surprise triple orgasm moan,”
and the unique “Mills College moan” in which she releases the words
“Oh my God, I should be studying!”

While most of the crowd shouted cat calls, Chin’s supportive
parents sat attentively in the front row.

“We’re very proud,” her father said, “And it wasn’t
embarrassing.”

The monologues also focused on acts of violence committed
against women around the world. Women centered issues were
addressed such as female genital mutilation in Africa, the rape and
torture of women in Bosnia, the alarming number of women burned by
acid attacks from Pakistan to Islamabad, as well as the skeletal
remains of over 300 women in Mexico who had been brutally raped and
murdered.

During the monologue My Vagina Was My Village, performed by
Frances Sarcona and Caj Richards, the actors spoke in first person
of a woman who was terrorized by Bosnian soldiers. They graphically
depicted how the woman was repeatedly raped until pieces of her
vagina had become detached from her body.

Richards said that performing the piece was difficult and very
personal. “It was hard to keep from crying. Every time I did it, it
got more and more intense. For me personally, it was not hard to
put myself there having been a rape victim in the past.”

Over a four-day period, The Vagina Monologues raised about
$1,800. In honor of sexual assault survivors, all proceeds from
ticket and merchandise sales will go to Bay Area Women Against
Rape, an organization that offers free support and services to rape
victims.