On Feb. 25 California Lutheran University’s feminism club, Feminism Is, held their annual performance of “The Vagina Monologues,” written by Eve Ensler.

Sophomore and co-president of the Feminism Is club Emily Witt said they have done “The Vagina Monologues” for the last several years, and it has become a tradition.

“I think it’s important to do just because it shows women’s experiences and stuff like that, and what it means to have those experiences in this society,” Witt said.

Karina DaSilva and Witt both performed for the show in addition to planning, setting up and executing the event.

“I was the event coordinator, along with my co-president. I contacted Children of the Night, set up the event pages, set up rehearsals, tabling times, co-directed the monologues, made the Jell-o titties…,” DaSilva said.

Joey Luau, a sophomore and member of Feminism Is, said she specifically chose to perform “My Angry Vagina” as her monologue, as all performers were given the opportunity to choose the pieces they wished to perform.

“They had the option of choosing which particular monologue they wanted, but almost all of us were open to any monologue, especially those that weren’t taken already. I chose ‘My Angry Vagina’ because I thought it would match my personality, and I liked the message of it,” Luau said.

According to Witt, all of the performers involved are either active or inactive members of the feminism club on campus.

According to DaSilva, the role of the feminism club on campus is “to get people more aware of gender issues and inequalities in our society and to challenge students to examine the micro-aggressions within our culture which work against marginalized groups.”

 Luau said she thought it was very important for “The Vagina Monologues” to be put on at Cal Lutheran.

“It was beneficial to the students because there seems to be an absence of talk of female experiences, and from personal experience there is a lot of misogyny among our peers, which we hoped to counter with The Vagina Monologues,” Luau said. “Whether it be stereotypes or jokes, I feel as though misogyny is still pretty dominant in our present society.”

Witt said it will bring awareness to topics that might not be as prominent at Cal Lutheran but that other larger schools have issues with.

“This campus is a pretty safe campus so campus rape and sexual assault and stuff isn’t as big of an issue as it is on campuses like UCLA and USC and all of these other campuses,” Witt said. “Those are bigger but these things still happen here and a lot of kids just don’t know about these things and I think it’s important, especially in this community, to inform the people about what we stand for.”

In addition to bringing awareness to several issues, “The Vagina Monologues” performers and Cal Lutheran’s Feminism Is club strive to do more. In the lobby of the Preus-Brandt Forum, a representative from the nonprofit organization Children of the Night was accepting donations in benefit of the organization and their work.

 “Children of the Night is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending child trafficking, which is a horrifying reality that most of us don’t think of too often. [The Vagina Monologues] were meant to raise more awareness for both the problem and the organization,” DaSilva said. “We also raised money that will be donated to their cause. We hope to work with them more. What good is feminism that does not take into account the plights of people who are often underneath our radar?”

For those interested in becoming involved with Feminism is, the club meets Mondays every other week in the Trinity Lounge from 7-8 p.m.

Amber Rocha
Staff Writer
Published March 4th, 2015