To the editors of The Chronicle,

On behalf of WAVE and the cast of The Vagina Monologues, we wish to express our concerns regarding the articles printed in Feb. 18th issue about our show. While we fully support the first amendment and the perspectives of the journalists who wrote the articles, we do feel that the overall purpose and message of the show were misinterpreted. We would like to take this opportunity as a student organization to clear up any confusion as to the true purpose of The Vagina Monologues.
We felt that the articles in Feb. 18th Art & Entertainment section treated The Vagina Monologues as a typical theater piece when really the origins of the show are rooted in a much bigger cause. The Vagina Monologues is performed in over 120 countries around the world in a global movement known as V-Day. The purpose of V-Day is to raise awareness and funding for non-profit organizations dedicated to stopping violence against women and children.
Out of the seventeen diverse monologues that were performed last weekend, only a few were discussed in The Chronicle’s coverage of the show. The few that were mentioned however do not represent the overall message of the play. While Eve Ensler, the playwright, does include some monologues which center around lighter women’s issues such as thongs, tampons and orgasms, these are specifically meant to break up the overall serious tone of the play. Subjects including sexual abuse, homophobia, hate crimes, gang rape, and torturing as a war tactic were unfortunately not mentioned in the articles.
The most important part of The Vagina Monologues is the Spotlight Monologue. Each year, V-Day highlights a different group of women who face deplorable acts of violence. V-Day then focuses on raising money for a non-profit organization dedicated to helping those women in need. This year, V-Day’s Spotlight Campaign centers around the women of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for whom a special monologue was written by Ensler and featured in the show. This monologue, “Baptized” is about a girl who develops a fistula after being raped repetitively for two weeks. In addition to this monologue, Ensler provides a detailed introduction explaining the situation in the Congo as well as what audience members can do to help. Despite the emphasis given to the DRC, we were disheartened to find no mention of it or the $738 WAVE raised for the cause in The Chronicle.
In the future, we hope that Quinnipiac students will be better informed about the issues that WAVE focuses on.

Sincerely,

Christina Giani & Bianca Ursillo