V-Day WSU wrapped up its annual production of “The Vagina Monologues” as students and faculty gathered in Jones Theatre at Daggy Hall on Saturday to help end gender violence.
Each year V-Day sponsors a number of events to help end violence against women and girls. The organization holds these events, like “The Vagina Monologues,” to educate the community.
Coordinator of V-Day WSU Joan Osa Oviawe said the campus'branch of the organization aims to not only stick to the global campaign but also bring help to the community.
Oviawe said she read "The Vagina Monologues" in 200 and the message of the moment resonated with her.
“With my international background I was particularly drawn to the global nature of V-Day,"Oviawe said."V-Day to me symbolizes the global activist campaign to end violence against women and girls and the good thing about V-Day is that it’s not just a global thing, but that it’s actually quite local. For example, with V-Day WSU about 85 percent of our fundraising actually stays in Pullman."
Kylene Daschofsky, director of the Vagina Monologues, said although she initially did not know what"The Vagina Monologues"was about when she first got involved, she now thinks that V-Day is a way for women to experience coming together to help a cause.
“It is just an experience that we women can have together,” Daschofsky said. “We can share our thoughts; we can share our feelings about certain things. We can really open up with each other which is really one of the main goals we have here at WSU for women to feel comfortable about their experiences.”
Fourth year doctor of medicine student Naysa Poshusta has been involved with the campaign on campus since her freshman year of her undergraduate studies. She said she thinks"The Vagina Monologues"have become a great force in people’s lives.
“People come and see our performances and are then comfortable to speak about experiences that they have had in the past or speak about conflicts that they in their lives because they understand that it is a systemic problem,” Poshusta said. “They hear other women’s stories and relate to them. I think that once you have a friend, once you have a community, once you can put violence outside of yourself and your own relationship, you realize that there is something more than you can survive.”
For more information about V-Day WSU, visit their Facebook page or contact vdaywsu@wsu.edu.
