Extended Q&A with Grinnell Monologues leaders

The S&B sat down with Amanda Slatus ’07 and Stephanie Rosenbaum ’08, co-leaders of this year’s Grinnell Monologues. The Monologues will be performed tonight at 9 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. in Loose Lounge.

How long have the Grinnell Monologues been going on?
AS: This is the third year.
SR: The idea is based on the Vagina Monologues, but what we did was decided to take the idea of the Vagina Monologues and make it our own. So it’s actually all written by the Grinnellians who are in it.
AS: Grinnell Monologues is a brainchild of Sarah Millhouse, who came to Feminist Action Coalition three years ago and said, “Listen, every year when we do the Vagina Monologues we invite Grinnellians to write their own and we always get fantastic ones. I think we have enough interest to do a show all of our own and not even do Vagina Monologues.” And so she and a few other people, including myself, created the Grinnell Monologues out of Feminist Action Coalition.

So is it still about vaginas?
SR: Some of it. Not all of it.
AS: The subject matter has certainly expanded. We’ve gotten monologues about everything from body image to smelly vaginas to …
SR: Gender identity, sexual orientation, fetishes …
AS: Being awkward …
SR: Dating at Grinnell. Because it’s such an open forum, you get so many different responses to what we aim to talk about.

How many pieces are there?
AS: There are 16, and three choral pieces.

What’s the boy-girl ratio?
AS: This year we have three boys.

What do you think makes this special for Grinnell?
SR: I think a really nice part about it is that it’s a very honest way of expressing how people feel about certain issues that may be more uncomfortable to talk about. So when you have a group of people that are willing to share their own experiences about sex, sexuality, body images, all of these above topics, which are sometimes taboo to talk about, which are sometimes very uncomfortable to talk about, and you have these people that are being very honest about their own experiences, it opens it up for other people to say what they think about it.
AS: For me, it’s really cheesy, but you start off at the beginning of the process with a group of strangers, and by rehearsal week, not only do we know each other’s monologues and each other’s names, but we know each other’s feelings about a variety of things, and we’ve become friends.