By Isabel T. Escoda
ANYONE who thinks that Cebuanos, by and large, are unsophisticated people should think again. Last March 8, a theater company called “2 TinCans Philippines Inc.” presented “Vagina Monologues,” an episodic play written by a famous (or notorious, depending on one’s point of view) feminist named Eve Ensler.
After it was first presented in the US in 1996, the play sparked a global activist movement long before the recent #MeToo one exploded on the scene. It targeted sexual harassment, assault and other similar issues in the US. Ever since then, V-Day (V for vagina) has been known and performed fairly regularly in many parts of the world.
Eve Ensler wrote her play to raise awareness of violence against women and girls. Its manifesto promotes the rights of women and girls to be respected and have freedom and equal opportunities in every sphere.
The recent show in Cebu, held to mark the Year of the Woman in 2020, was not the first time it’s been performed in the Philippines.
The show featured some 30 amateur and professional actresses (a couple of transgender ones) who took on the roles of the characters involved. Each talked both seriously and humorously about female body parts and usually verboten issues like orgasms. Though some in the audience giggled and squirmed their seats with embarrassment on hearing explicit words not usually heard in public, most struck me as appreciative.
What I found upsetting was to find a couple of parents take along their young children (the youngest around five and the oldest a preteen). It struck me that they were abdicating their role to inform their girls about sex education, perhaps thinking the kids would not understand what was being said on stage or hoping they would learn about the facts of life from a play.
Among the issues expounded by each character were male violence against women, lesbianism, “comfort women” used as sex slaves by the Japanese during World War 11, trafficking (expertly done in Cebuano by two actresses playing prostituted women in Malaysia and Qatar), different types of female orgasms (performed hilariously by one actress) and a few others that drove home the point of the need for equality for both sexes.
There has been criticism by various folks around the world about “Vagina Monologues” being vulgar and disgusting, but those who have realized the validity of the topics have embraced its message. In Cebu there seemed to be quite a number who did just that.