Hearing women's stories

Happy International Women’s Day!

March 8 is International Women’s Day and if it weren’t for one of my roommates who is very aware of women’s issues, I, like many people, would have missed it. Our house had the chance to celebrate last weekend with a mini road trip to Elkhart to see a performance of the Michiana Monologues.

Based on the idea of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues, the Michiana Monologues compiles anonymously submitted stories from women in the South Bend area. The stories cover a range of topics related to being a women — body image, purity, motherhood, relationships, sexual assault and the women’s rights movement. Local actresses then present the stories as monologues. Donations collected at the door are donated to local agencies working to help women in crisis. Previous performances also inspired a nearby community to perform their own monologues as well.

While other productions of the Vagina Monologues I have seen were moving, the Michiana Monologues were particularly powerful because the stories came from the community. It is hard to dismiss issues such as domestic abuse when someone from your community had the courage to write about her struggle.

The Vagina Monologues have been the root of controversy, especially on some college campuses where performances have been called into question or banned. However, the monologues serve as a channel to breaking the silence that often surrounds issues of violence against women.