"Recently, I participated in a student organized benefit production of The Vagina Monologues at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Written by Eve Ensler, an American playwright, performer, feminist and activist, The Vagina Monologues recounts tender, funny, compelling and horrifying stories based on interviews she conducted with 200 women about their views on their bodies, their sexual experiences and of course, their vaginas.

All proceeds of The Vagina Monologues go to Eve Ensler’s V-Day foundation, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, which has so far solicited over $85 million to prevent violence and protect abused women as well as a local organization of the organizers’ choice. In this case, it was Tewa Women United, a non-profit whose mission calls for the ending of “all forms of violence against Native women and girls, Mother Earth and to promote peace in New Mexico.”

The monologue I recounted was about a woman who thought her vagina was “incredibly ugly” and had been embarrassed to even think about it, but changed her mind because of a sexual experience with an attentive man. Learning and performing this monologue was a challenging and empowering experience for me, as well as the entire cast, mostly 20 something Native women. Sadly, many of our students, staff and local Native community were not present and many seats were in fact, empty."

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Christina M. Castro : Vaginal Void Amongst Indian Women (Learning to Love the Indigenous ‘V’)