Vagina Monologues performers at Dartmouth prepare for the big performance backstage. Much practice goes into preparing for each showing of the Monologues. Photograph by Amy Gu.

We don’t like talking about it, and the more we avoid the word, the more power it has over us, to the point where it has become almost taboo: VAGINA.

My vagina, your vagina, everyone’s vagina. You can’t escape vaginas. They’re everywhere—and guess what? There are more vaginas on campus then there are penises (male/female student ratio: 49%/51%). Yes, it’s a reproductive sexual organ, but it’s more than that; it’s powerful, it’s a force, it’s womanhood, it’s sexuality, it’s the source of mind-blowing pleasure.

And yet, the fact remains that most people think it’s gross to talk about vaginas. Discussion of the organ has been relegated to 9th grade sex ed classes taught by some queasy gym teacher who isn’t any more comfortable talking about vaginas than he is about nuclear physics. Maybe this sense of unease comes from the word itself. “Vagina” sounds so severe, like an infectious disease, even an STD, one that can only be handled with thick, clinically sterilized rubber gloves. Or maybe the issue isn’t necessarily vagina anxiety. Maybe we are so dumbfounded by our overly sensationalized interactions where we freely talk about Snooki’s trampages on the Jersey Shore, that we shy away from talking about the power of female sexuality that vaginas embody.

But a revolution is stirring, reclaiming vaginas on campus. Yeah, you guessed it:
The Vagina Monologues.

Behind the Scenes of The Vagina Monologues

As a performer in The Monologues, I was apprehensive before our first meeting, not knowing what to expect from rehearsals or from the performance itself. I discovered that the personal development of self-awareness within each performer is as important as the impact The Monologues will have on the audience during the performance. When we gathered for the first time, the cast broke the ice by sitting in a big circle that consisted of 60 women while each of us answered the question, “If your vagina could talk, what would it say?”

After having considered this question deeply, our rehearsals have become more involved explorations of our own sexuality; we question ourselves and each other, wondering who we are and what our vaginas mean to us. We challenge the patriarchal constructions that say we must shave the hair “down there,” that we must submit to the male definitions of our sexuality, that we must accept the sexual and psychological deprecation of ourselves and our sisters. We deconstruct the notion of violence and violence against women. During rehearsals, we not only practice our lines, but we also begin a dialogue, a dialogue that cannot be silenced because our world cannot afford to ignore it.

Why Guys Should Watch The Vagina Monologues

Naturally, women go to The Vagina Monologues and are inspired because the conversation directly pertains to them, but the male demographic, not surprisingly, has always been more reluctant. Truthfully, if our powerful enactment of a new femininity is to make any changes in reality, it is essential that just as many men are present at the performance as women. As the Director of The Vagina Monologues, Aviva Johnson ‘10, said in our interview, “Guys need to get more comfortable with girls talking about their private parts.” Though The Monologues support and are supported by sexuality from multiple perspectives, including the relationships between gay, lesbian, transgendered individuals, men are integral in encouraging women in their exploration of sexuality in heterosexual relationships.

Aviva continues, “If girls are trying to take more ownership over their sexuality, they need to feel like their new version of treating their sexuality is not threatening or offensive. So it’s really important for guys to understand and even encourage women to be vocal.”

One awesome side effect of this process of reclaiming female sexuality is that more lines of communication will open, and sex will just be better for both men and women. Aviva reiterates this point, “It’s important for men to understand that they shouldn’t take their sexual cues from porn. Porn is often made without a realistic interpretation of a woman’s self-awareness. I think that sexual culture will be healthier if guys are encouraging and appreciative and expect women to be communicative about their sexuality.”

However, communicating about sex is not the only important issue. The mission of The Vagina Monologues is to raise consciousness and money in an effort to end violence against women. Since both men and women are perpetrators and victims of violence, both men and women are equally important in ending it. As Aviva said, “Guys are instrumental in this fight. We need them on our side. This can’t be a man-hating war. That will not work!”

The Value of the Experience of The Vagina Monologues

The Vagina Monologues are not just monologues that constitute a play. It is an experience in which you, as a cast member or as an audience member, are engaged. It is a conversation between the cast and audience about female sexuality, but it is also a conversation between the cast, audience, and victims of sexual abuse about violence against women.

Aviva calls The Monologues an “awakening.” She envisions this awakening as a truly interactive experience in which the audience experiences “enlightenment as the actresses themselves experience powerful feelings by being able to transmit the messages [of the victims of violence]. Hopefully both the audience and the cast leave the show feeling like they’re breaking new ground, like they’re pioneering, like they’re breaking down taboos about violence against women and female sexuality.”

Cast members have also referred to The Monologues as an experience, one that is both educational and liberating. Cast member Bernadette Reyes ’10 recounts her experience, “I did it last year… The experience overall was just really liberating. I can definitely see the change from when I did it then to when I did it now. I’d never talked about my vagina before. I never really desired to talk about it. I hated the word vagina; I thought it was a little gross. It’s a genuine, liberating experience. And so now I’m doing “Cunt” [a Vagina Monologue], and I can’t even describe how excited I am. There’s something incredibly empowering about that, and being able to do that, and being around other women who are doing that.”

Another cast member, Ana Bowens ‘12, stresses the impact The Monologues will have on our campus, saying, “I think that The Vagina Monologues are going to be a force on campus that is unprecedented because it such a group of strong powerful women who are all determined to make people listen, and so everyone on campus should come see The Vagina Monologues not because you have a vagina, but because everyone should learn… about the power of the vagina and what a powerful force it can be.”

THE MASTHEAD
Editor-in-Chief: James H. Wang
Publisher: Amy Gu
Executive Editor: Paul Lintilhac
Managing Editor: Amanda R. McNally

Terry Tempest Williams speaks at Dartmouth on January 25. Photograph courtesy of the Dartmouth ENVS Department.

She had the impact of a car wreck, charging the moment with reality and stillness, grabbing us from the forward-moving current of life and turning us back on ourselves. She spoke with raw poetic beauty. And her words changed the outlook of at least one busy Dartmouth college student.

I almost didn’t go to Terry Tempest Williams’ January 25th lecture because I had work to do. Because it was raining and cold, and I was without an umbrella. Because it was in Cook Auditorium, which is far off my beaten path—the usual dorm-class-Collis-library route. Nevertheless, for the always compelling sake of procrastination and the hope that I would gain something—anything—from the lecture, I made my way through the pouring rain for Terry Tempest Williams.

With the recent budget crisis, along with the resulting movement of faculty and students to support staff in the face of lay-offs, there has lately been an adamant questioning of the “Dartmouth Experience” and its values. Williams did not speak about the budget crisis, but she did address values—ones we hold that become evident in our daily lives, our writing, and our voices.

Though crammed into an audience of 300 plus people, I felt like I was in an intimate conversation with Williams throughout her lecture. A semi-challenged, awkward writer myself who is still in her formative stages, I connected with Williams’ thoughts on the process of writing and what writing means to her, an author, environmentalist, and current Montgomery Fellow and professor at Dartmouth.

Williams dealt at length with the relationship between her work and sense of self, telling her audience that “there is no separation from the writing life and the life engaged, and it has everything to do with love.” An engaged life, according to Williams, is one that is aware—“awake, alert, and alive wherever we are.” Williams commented on the importance of finding one’s voice, an inherent, unique truth that each possesses, and how this voice is essential in delivering justice to those who are voiceless. Drawing on the phraseology of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she argued that “maladjusted men and women” are necessary in today’s world to be aware, to use their voices in both speech and writing, and to fight against the social and environmental injustices that envelop today’s world. Her points echoed the well-known aphorism of John Sloan Dickey: “The world’s troubles are your troubles.”

Terry Tempest William’s words have particular resonance at Dartmouth, where it’s easy to get caught up in a hyper-competitive environment in which each perpetually fights the other for that elusive citation, for that sought-after FSP, or for those scarce jobs offered during corporate recruiting. We are achievement-driven students. After all, we go to Dartmouth, where achievement is expected and institutionalized. We play hard on Webster Avenue, study hard in the 1902 room, and work hard in the endless stream of meetings, practices, lunch dates, and face time. Yet as Williams might have asked: Are we aware? Are we living our lives with purpose? Did we lose ourselves somewhere along the way?

Williams spoke, here, to the importance of mentally and emotionally “checking-in.” We come to a point in our day-to-day lives at which we need to, and we must, reassess where we are, where’ve come from, and where we’re going. As she put it, “if you know where we are, we know who we are.”

So, while Williams’ lecture may not have been a commentary on the Dartmouth lifestyle, what I left her lecture with was. Too often we find ourselves rushing from one place to the next, one day to the next. And before we realize it, we’re in the middle of winter term, suddenly aware of how much has happened and how little we’ve taken note of.

THE MASTHEAD
Editor-in-Chief: James H. Wang
Publisher: Amy Gu
Executive Editor: Paul Lintilhac
Managing Editor: Amanda R. McNally

THE MASTHEAD
Editor-in-Chief: James H. Wang
Publisher: Isabel S. Murray
Executive Editor: Amanda R. McNally
Managing Editor: Soo Jeong Kim

THE MASTHEAD
Editor-in-Chief: James H. Wang
Publisher: Isabel S. Murray
Executive Editor: Amanda R. McNally
Managing Editor: Soo Jeong Kim

People hook up at Dartmouth. People also don’t hook up at Dartmouth. The latter is something that too many people here ignore. If there’s one piece of advice I want to bestow upon you fresh-faced ‘13s, it’s that it is ultimately up to you to decide your Dartmouth experience, and that includes what you make of the “hook-up culture” that pervades the Greek system here.

It’s Complicated

Let’s step back for a moment. What does “hooking up” mean really? One ’11 sorority member speaks truth: “‘Hooking up’ is a ubiquitous and generally undefined word that leads to a LOT of confusion. It should generally be interpreted as any kind of remotely sexual action.” So “hooking up” can translate to anything from making out at a dance party to having sex on the green.

But the complexity and the problems of the Dartmouth hook-up culture involve more than just the ambiguity surrounding the term “hook-up.” The Greek system—and the social scene that it provides—creates an atmosphere that strongly encourages hooking up. More bluntly, it’s a recipe for sex: a lot of drunk, hormonal, and stressed boys and girls herded into a dimly lit basement mingling over some pong, booze, and grinding. This sort of environment and interaction generates some sex-positivist opportunities (pro’s!), but is not without its anti-feminist, anti-relationship social constructions (con’s!).

The Hooking-Upside

You can hook up if you want to and go however far you are willing to go. People are generally supportive of your boundaries, but be sure to make them clear up front. It’s also completely normal and accepted to not hook up, if it’s not your thing. “I think it’s easy to remain a virgin here, if you consciously and soberly choose so. I personally have never had a case where somebody has forced himself upon me, but granted, I’ve heard of other people’s stories of that happening…” states an unaffiliated ‘12 girl.

But if you do want to go all the way (or part of the way), the Sexperts are a great campus resource that you should definitely utilize. “The Sexperts is a student group that teaches strategies and gives ideas for how to increase your enjoyment of sexual experiences in healthy, safe ways. Even if you don’t go to their workshops, the presence of the group is felt throughout campus through its open, positive, progressive attitude about sex,” explains an ’11 affiliated female. Think of the Sexperts as an informative army wielding swords of rubber dildos for condom demonstrations and preaching sex education to the ignorant and horny, all under the unifying banner of “consensual sex is HOT.” Also, be sure to keep in mind: “There are other contraceptives available at Dick’s House Pharmacy, including Plan B and birth control,” says the same ’11 affiliated female who knows a lot about sex, or at least the resources that are available for you on campus.

Undeniably, there are hook-up opportunities that you can take advantage of if you want to have sex without the long-term relationship that usually accompanies it. Or as one unaffiliated ’12 female so eloquently puts it, “You can pretty much get some whenever you want.” Just don’t expect too much romance. After explaining his failed efforts to find a girlfriend and blaming Dartmouth, Dartmouth girls, and his lack of trying as the root of his problems, one ’11 fraternity brother apathetically states his “view of Dartmouth sex would currently have to involve Keystone and little romance.”

Though even with that unfortunate tale, there still does exist the potential for hook-ups to result in relationships. However, that is generally the exception and not the rule because relationships are basically nonexistent at Dartmouth, which leads me to the cons of the Dartmouth hook-up culture.

The Sexually Transmitted Downside

Maybe this is stating the obvious but a culture that permits promiscuous hooking up makes the cultivation of meaningful long-term relationships virtually impossible. “If you’re looking for a relationship, [Dartmouth] is not the right place. You can’t casually date. There is no such thing as casual dating at Dartmouth. In general, the norm is hooking up. People aren’t ever looking for relationships, they’re looking for hook ups, at least for the guys,” says one unaffiliated ’12 female. She highlights the dichotomy of extremes that constitutes the Dartmouth hook up culture—either you’re randomly hooking up (norm) or you’re committed in a solid, long-term relationship (exception), but there really isn’t any room for casual dating—like, say, an actual date to The Nugget Movie Theater rounded off with a dinner at Molly’s.

Students have also expressed dissatisfaction with the hook up culture itself. One experienced and affiliated ’11 sorority member delves into the topic: “I would say that while hooking up may seem to be the norm at Dartmouth, and while there definitely is pressure to do so in terms of how Greek houses interact with each other, I don’t think I’ve witnessed many people who are actually satisfied with the hook up lifestyle in the end. I know personally that when I used to be single and into hooking up, I quickly realized that I wasn’t very happy with myself and the choices I had been making, because what I really wanted was real connection with other people, which hooking up (for the most part) didn’t really lead to.”

She goes on further to comment on how random hooks up are actually more complicated than they might seem. “It seemed to make things a lot more complicated, because nothing is ever really “no strings attached”—[and] even if the two people directly involved think so, the ex-girlfriend or the ex-hook up is not going to be so nonchalant about it, necessarily, for example.” Having an intimate relationship with someone changes the way you see and feel about him or her. Not to mention the awkward encounters you will have to deal with outside the context of the hook-up, say in class the next day or at the library or in line at FoCo—not fun if your maturity level can’t handle it.

One serious offense of the Dartmouth hook-up culture is the perverted social conventions that are constructed, accepted, normalized, and engrained into the lifestyle mentality of Dartmouth students. One of these conventions is the objectification of women and the unnecessary pressure to hook up. “The frat scene definitely feels conducive to sex. The rate of sexual activity is probably much lower than what is generally perceived, but speaking from a girl’s standpoint, I sometimes feel like a sexual object in the frat basement. The good news is if you want to hook up you certainly can. The bad news is you might feel pressure to hook up, regardless of your gender,” says one ’11 female. Furthermore, the hook up culture is a male-dominated system that subjugates women to the power of men. As one ’12 girl expresses, “The hook up culture is male dominated because they dictate the standards, because they’re the ones who pick and choose—they decide. If a girl doesn’t meet their expectations, they move on. The girl is just left behind, whereas the guy can do whatever he wants and bang whoever he wants to. He can move on and hook up with as many girls as he wants as long as he gets his expectations met.”

She further recounts her personal experiences with this problem: “Guys have an expectation of sex on the first hook up and when they don’t get it, they’re done. They just leave. It’s based on the kind of mentality they have: if they want to have sex, they can, it’s really easy for them.”

The Wisdom of Your Sexy Elders

So you’ve gotten a little taste of the Hook-Up Culture, but it’s definitely not all-inclusive. Hear what some of you sexy elders have to say:

It’s more of that vibe you give off intentionally, so be careful how much you drink.”

“You have to take care of yourself because no one else will.”

“Don’t hook up with total strangers [you’ve] just met because you won’t know who you’re getting involved with or what you’re getting yourself into, and you might get an STI.

“Don’t stay with boy/girlfriends from home! Invest in life here, you don’t want to spend 4 years on the phone and if it’s meant to be, you’ll get together after college.”

“Don’t hook up with hallmates or teammates. Too complicated.”

“Always use a condom, and be careful at dance parties.”

“Make sure you go out with a group of friends, and have an idea of whether you’re going home with them.”

“Watch out for playas.”

“Don’t feel pressured to do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”

“Don’t do anything you’re not going to want to think about the next day.”

“Don’t ever hook up with someone for self-validation or to prove your self-worth. It’s not worth it.”

Your participation in Dartmouth’s unique social scene will require an assessment/evaluation of the positive and negative aspects. Ultimately, you have to determine for yourself, according to your own value system, how you fit into this socially constructed framework. Do what you want, just play it safe, do it for the right reasons, and have fun.