By Jennifer Janiak, Daily Free Press Staff Writer
Every year, Boston University’s Athena’s Players perform The Vagina Monologues for the BU community. Planned well in advance, this year’s production happened to coincide with the recent charges against yet another member of the men’s hockey team, making the messages and ideas the play promotes more important than ever.
“I think it’s really important and I think it’s really frustrating,” said Same Hart, a College of Arts and Sciences senior. “I can’t imagine much of the male, athletic population of BU are here and it’s very frustrating, but I still think it is very important to have this type of presence on campus.”
Still, other students expressed how crucial it is to have the performance, regardless of recent events on campus.
“I think this is important no matter what’s going on with the hockey situation,” said Leslie Duran, a senior in the School of Hospitality Administration.
“We were just talking to one of the girls[at the Activism Expo] who pointed out that the Student Health Services here doesn’t have, the operator some how didn’t know how to refer anyone if they had rape questions or things like that, and I felt like that’s something that they should know. I mean, they sent out a formal apology, which I think is great of them. BU is trying to take steps toward it. So I think keep doing things like this is great,” Duran said.
Alia Gilbert, a senior in the College of Communications, directed this year’s Monologues and agreed, per tradition, that show should be performed regardless.
The V-Day movement, a charity founded in 1998 by the creators of Monologues, and the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) will receive the proceeds generated from the three performances, two of which sold out completely, a new accomplishment for the Players.
Gilbert commented on how important it was to support BARCC, as BU does not provide any similar services with a 24-hour hotline to students and how “BU obviously isn’t capable of handling” these types of crisis.
Written by playwright and activist Eve Ensler, The Vagina Monologues was first performed in 1994. According to the V-Day website, it has since been translated into 45 languages, performed in 120 countries, and continues to be produced about 5,800 annually.
The play consists of numerous monologues all based off of 200 interviews with women representing many different walks of life.
Gilbert also said that The Vagina Monologues is “more than just a play, it’s a social movement.” Members of the audience including Ana Aguilera, a CAS junior, agreed.
“I think that trying to spread this [movement] around world wide and increasing awareness and increasing the ability for us to even talk about it, I think it’s still stigmatized regardless of what people say,” Aguilera said. “I think there are obviously people who will admit to it, it’s still taboo and I think we really need to work on trying to not make it taboo and make it something we can talk about without feeling uncomfortable.”
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