Sami Schwanke/Winonan
The vaginas are speaking up.
Winona State University students are coming together in the Harriet Johnson Auditorium to speak for, well, vaginas, in Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues.”
Ensler aimed to celebrate women’s sexuality by providing diverse stories of women’s sexual fantasies and fears. Ensler’s creation has inspired what is known as “V-Day,” a national campaign to raise money for women’s issues that takes place on Valentine’s Day.
Susan Jacobsen, a junior criminal justice and English literature double major, is a first-time actor in “The Vagina Monologues.”
“I’ve seen it [the Monologues] the past two years,” Jacobsen said. “It was funny because my freshman year I had never seen this, and I thought it was so scandalous. I saw the posters this year, and I decided I wanted to be a part of it.”
Jacobsen doesn’t have a background in theater, but she said that so far she has enjoyed acting.
“It’s going well,” Jacobsen said. “I mean, it’s a little more challenging than I thought it would be, but if you think about it, we all act in our daily lives, so it’s just translating that into the script.”
Jax Pugh, a co-director of the show along with Courtney McCaw and Kate Newsome, is a senior communication leadership and advocacy major with a women’s and gender studies minor. She has been involved with the Monologues for four years now, acting for the first two years and now directing.
“The inspirational women I get to work with every year keep me coming back,” Pugh said. “Every year my goal is the same: to help one person see the world a little differently. As long as I do that, the whole crazy process is worth it.”
Jacobsen said the process had its ups and downs, but that she was enjoying herself because of the group of women she gets to work with.
“In one part, I portray a transgender woman, and it’s been a challenge,” Jacobsen said. “It’s all a lot of fun. There’s no part in the script that I don’t like.”
The proceeds for the show will be going to benefit the Women’s Resource Center of Winona. Another incentive to attend is the unique concessions, a Vagina Monologues tradition at Winona State. Items for purchase include chocolate vaginas and cupcakes decorated to resemble vaginas.
For those less inclined to eat vagina-shaped food, there will also be t-shirts, crafts and buttons will also available.
“We are really going all-out this year,” Pugh said. “I want my final year here to go out with a bang.”
