The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, January 30, 2001, Image 4

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OPEN FORUM
You are invited to comment on the proposed
Memorial Student Center Interior Design Mas
ter Plan from noon until 3 o’clock Wednesday
afternoon, January 31, in the MSC Flag Room
It’s “come and go” and it’s your opportunity to see preliminary proposals for
refurbishing the MSC’s public areas. There will not be a formal presentation.
Representatives from Ford, Powell & Carson Architects and Planners, Inc., will
be there to answer your questions and to listen to your comments. Be there.
MSC L. T. Jordan Institute for International Awareness and MSC Current Issues Awareness
present
A discussion of the predominant world religions
including their history, beliefs, movements
toward peace and tolerance of each other.
Presented by Dr. Richard Stadelmann, professor of Philosophy
o
MSC
Current
Issues
Awareness
http://cia.msc.tamu.edu
January 30, 2001
Forsyth Center Galleries
Persons with disabilities needing assistance may call 845-
AGGIELIFE =
THE BATTALION
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Vagina Monologues brings feminism to ski ^'
By Kendra Kingsley
The Battalion
Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda and
Queen Latifah have one thing in
common this season — and it’s not
their Hollywood bragging rights. On
Feb. 10, they will take the stage at
Madison Square Garden in New
York City to discuss — vaginas.
Though this may sound like a racy
topic to present to the public, play
wright Eve Ensler aims to do more
than simply shock her audience in
The Vagina Monologues.
“A lot of people have a problem
with the word ‘vagina,’ ” Ensler said.
“Part of [writing the play] is creating
ideas and dialogue where people
aren’t afraid.’’
The text, which includes chapters
such as “1 Was Twelve. My Mother
Slapped Me” and “My Vagina Was
My Village,” includes the personal
accounts of women Ensler inter
viewed about their private parts. In
spite of the brash dialogue, the true
focus of the text lies not in its shock
value, but in its brutally honest view
of the violence committed against
women every day.
“[A] woman in Nigeria this week
was raped by her father’s three best
friends, got pregnant, and then was
flogged 180 times for being pregnant
out of marriage and reporting three
people had raped her,” Ensler said.
“Now if I, as a woman in the world,
was not outraged by that, where
would I be? To me it’s not a cultural,
but a human [problem].”
The testimonies of abuse Ensler re
ceived in response to her novel The
Vagina Monologues prompted her to
take action for the world’s voiceless
women facing rape, battery, incest and
genital mutilation. A self-proclaimed
feminist, Ensler adapted her book into
an Obie Award-winning play. She cur
rently shows the nonprofit production
(even actresses do not receive pay
ment) around the world to raise
awareness of violence against women.
She has also renamed Feb. 14 “V-
Day,” which stands not only for
“Valentine’s Day,” but also for “Vic
tory Over Violence” and “vagina.”
“We picked V-Day because the
theme was to take the romance out of
Valentine’s Day and put the vagina
back in,” Ensler said. “I say that kind
of ironically, but the truth is, a lot of
violence gets committed against
women ... in the name of romance.”
The Vagina Monologues, which
has come to roughly 250 colleges.
I H t V our ( D I I I 0 N
VAGINA
MONOLOGUES
has not yet hit College Station. Bar
bara Finlay, a professor in the
women’s studies department at
A&M, said lack of funding and plan
ning and possible lack of interest are
the main reasons the play has not
been performed at A&M.
“We don’t have a huge budget, and
we’re really not sure how it would be
received here,” she said. “A little con
troversy isn’t necessarily bad, though.
We try to raise public awareness about
women’s safety issues, and I think this
would be a really interesting^
[production] to perfonn here.”
Though the Monologues
motivated many universitieste
the production on their campus
play remains non-partisan ai:
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Day without being on stage.
“I think men, even outsider
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ing around that men are
more able to function in the
are safer in the world. Midi
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Dr. Paul Parrish, an Engli
lessor at A&M, recently sr
Vagina Monologues in Aust:
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“Does the production h,
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Parrish said he was deep!
by the production despite his’:
“All of the actresses are s
live. You get caught upineac
formance,” he said.“The stone
so compelling, and you realize
brutality that goes on in othero
tries. The toughest partoftltepla;
me was a monologue describing
extreme abuse [women were sen
rape camps] inflicted upowto
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