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Benefit production to spotlight women's issues

Proceeds raised from The Vagina Monologues, put on by the Association of Women Students, will benefit the Butler County Rape Crisis Center.
Proceeds raised from The Vagina Monologues, put on by the Association of Women Students, will benefit the Butler County Rape Crisis Center.

Danielle Hacet

Proceeds raised from The Vagina Monologues, put on by the Association of Women Students, will benefit the Butler County Rape Crisis Center.

Vagina - the word typically makes people uncomfortable, but this month, 55 women in the Miami University community are standing up in an effort to break down the barriers associated with that word.

The Association of Women Students (AWS) is putting on a benefit production of The Vagina Monologues Feb. 8-10. The money raised from the shows will be donated to the Butler County Rape Crisis Center to purchase supplies and train staff.

According to center director Becky Perkins, the center is grateful to AWS for the donations.

"It's a nice cushion to fill in the gaps of funding (because) our program is entirely grant-funded," Perkins said.

The play has been around Miami's campus for more than seven years and each year, the house has been full. This year, the first two performances will be held at Leonard Theatre in Peabody Hall and the last show will be in Hall Auditorium. In the past, the performance has been held in Presser Hall, but because Presser is under renovation, the venue was changed.

"It's a nice excuse to have it in a bigger hall," said AWS co-president Nikki Etter. "This way, AWS has an opportunity to reach a broader audience since both facilities are larger than the accommodations at Presser."

There are many misconceptions about what the performance is about, according to Etter.

"It's not just about sex and vagina, there are a lot of issues that people don't talk about," Etter said. "It's nice to break down those stereotypes."

Amy Pomante, AWS co-president, expressed the same sentiments as Etter and sees the performance as stretching beyond a simple play or series of monologues.

"It's about raising awareness," Pomante said. "It's about reaching out to the community and it's about women standing on stage sharing their thoughts and feelings about real issues with an audience.

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Although this is an annual production, the monologues change yearly to keep both audiences and performers interested.

This year, monologues include issues about monthly periods, pubic hair, abuse as a child, orgasms, discovering your vagina, experiences of abuse and rape and experiences about giving birth.

"They do it every year, and every year this huge group of women get excited to be involved," said director and graduate theater student Amy Munoz Foster. "It's run by students, but we have (undergraduate) students, graduate students and staff members performing."

Actress Beth Stelling said the play changed her life. Stelling joined the cast her first year at Miami.

"It's my senior year and I'm still doing it," Stelling said. "It was the paramount experience of my first year of college."

Although Stelling is a theater major, she said the play has nothing to do with the department of theater. It's about a group of diverse women standing together and standing up for themselves, she explained.

Events like this that promote diversity and opportunity for different points of view are welcomed on campus, according to Michael Stevenson, assistant to the president and associate provost of institutional diversity.

"All of that together certainly provides the Miami community with all kinds of opportunities (to learn)," Stevenson said. "Whether it's about women talking about being in a patriarchal society or others talking about being part of the majority, it's an extraordinary opportunity.