Vagina Warriors fight against domestic violence

Lakeisha Moore
The Signal
Vagina is a word usually reserved for private or anatomical conversations, but at UHCL the word has become synonymous with an annual production whose purpose is to raise awareness and funds to help end violence against women and girls.

For the fourth straight year, UHCL has played host to “The Vagina Monologues,” a production used by the V-Day Campaign, an international organization founded by Eve Ensler. The play was written by Ensler in an attempt to break taboos enabling women to freely express certain issues that derive from being a woman. The areas covered within the monologues during the Feb. 17 and 18 productions included domestic violence, body image and sex – both pleasurable and forced.

“What we are really trying to focus on is letting people know that sexual and domestic violence happens every day in our community,” said Julie Smith, UHCL coordinator of women’s and LGBT services. “It’s here; it’s us.”

UHCL students are not immune to domestic violence. One student, whose name is being withheld to protect her privacy, said she was molested repeatedly by her teenage brother starting when she was five.

“In the middle of the night, my brother would climb out of his bed and into mine,” the student said. “He called it a game.”

It was a game she didn’t enjoy playing and a game that left her in excruciating pain and bearing undetectable scars. She became suicidal.

She grew up unable to show affection toward anyone in her life. Any attempt of affection made her fear that it would result in being abused again.

“That fear was in my heart and I was disgusted by any male in my life,” she said.

Widely reported statistics show that one out of three women in America, more than one billion, become victims of sexual or domestic violence daily. Ninety percent of the funds raised from the production benefit Bay Area Turning Point (BATP), a local nonprofit organization that provides recovery solution services for survivors of family violence and sexual assault. The other 10 percent will go to the international V-Day Campaign to help build safe homes for women in Haiti.

“All of the funds raised from events like UCHL’s ‘The Vagina Monologues’ go directly to victim services,” said Diane Savage, president and CEO of BATP.

The services offered by BATP help provide sexual and domestic abuse victims with transportation, childcare, medical attention and job and life skills. Other services include a 24-hour crisis hotline, therapeutic counseling and emergency victim accompaniment to area hospitals and police stations.

Last year, nearly 8,700 Clear Lake-area women and children were aided by BATP, Savage said.

Domestic and sexual violence not only takes a toll on the lives of its victim but also those associated with the victim.

“Everyone is impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault,” Savage said. “In the workplace, you are around people who have been abused and there are children in school classrooms that have been abused. You could be sitting next to someone who has survived domestic or sexual abuse or a person who currently is being abused and not even know it.”

Regrettably, Savage said, everyone is a target, as she recalled a recent incident in which a man not only killed his estranged wife but the wife’s friend, too.

“You may have a friend, family member or co-worker who is being abused and wind up placed in the middle of an attack,” Savage said. “Although you are innocently with him/her, you could be made susceptible to domestic violence as well.”

Potential batterers may be identified by certain behaviors like showing early signs of jealousy, making excuses for their excessive anger or making their victims feel like things are too good to be true.

Smith said that while UHCL’s production of “The Vagina Monologues” is entertaining, its true mission, and the mission of the international V-Day Campaign, is to educate audience members about sexual and domestic violence. Her hope is that aside from raising awareness about domestic violence the production may encourage someone who is being abused to come forward. Victims can turn to the UHCL Counseling Center by calling 281-283-2580 or 281-557-0290 for Bay Area Turning Point.

The Signal broadcast reporter Ashley Toman interviewed cast members Amanda Rhodes and Joyce Delores Taylor from UHCL’s production of “The Vagina Monologues.” Video shot and edited by The Signal reporter Joshua Ojeda.