Feb. 12, 2016
Arts & Entertainment
the Racquette
7
SAGE Club Events Spread Positivity Jay Petrequin
Arts & Entertainment Editor
On Saturday, February 13th, members of Student Activists for Gender Equality (commonly known as SAGE) are coming together to talk about femininity, equality, and personal identity; a discussion held in the form of a production of “The Vagina Monologues.” SAGE is performing “The Vagina Monologues” for the second year in a row, as one of several events the club has planned for February that center around the promotion of self-expression and personal identity; concepts vital to the interests of the club itself. “In its most basic sense, the Vagina Monologues are about embracing femininity and what it means to be someone who identifies as a woman,” said SAGE member and “Vagina Monologues” director Lyanne Garcia. Garcia is directing the show for the second time, and has been with SAGE for three years, with a role on the executive board in the last three semesters. The monologues performed in “The Vagina Monologues” are all authored by Eve Ensler. They vary in form, from poems to essays and other styles in-between, but they all share a common purpose. SAGE’s production, which has been in the works since early last December, gives each actor a piece from the play, allowing a variety of voices the chance to speak.
“It’s really fulfilling to see these people identify strongly with the pieces they’ve chosen and have it truly become a performance,” Garcia said. She went on to say that, despite the frenzy and confusion of taking on the show for the first time last year, this time things are different: “I can sit back and enjoy the pieces for what they are, and kind of let it all fall into place organically.” “The Vagina Monologues” is far from SAGE’s only event in the works. The group is also celebrating Love Your Body Day on the 12th, hoping to help foster body positivity in the SUNY Potsdam community. SAGE members will be celebrating Love Your Body Day by hosting a table in the Barrington Student Union, where they will be handing out positivity-themed freebies for passersby. Club member Roseanna Boswell said that Love Your Body Day “is a about setting a day aside specifically to appreciate yourself.” She highlighted the high standards of body image in our society, in which young people are pressured “to obsess about perfecting our bodies, whether that’s losing weight, or gaining weight, being too tall, or too short, having the “wrong” kind of hair, skin, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or whatever is trendy this week. LYB day is about saying no to that pressure, and loving and accepting yourself just the way you are.”
The event’s timing has some relevance as well. Love Your Body Day is an event recognized nationwide; what makes SAGE’s celebration different is that it occurs in February, while the day is more widely recognized on October 14th. The event’s placement in February serves two purposes. For one, the SAGE club is involved with enough events during the Fall that fitting it in would have been a challenge; second, and on more of a sentimental note, Love Your Body Day’s February timing puts it just a couple days away from Valentines day. “We wanted it to be close to Valentine’s Day,” said Boswell, “because that’s a day that is all about romantic relationships, and we want to remind everyone that whether or not they’re in relationships, they are still valuable and awesome.” Last year, the club spread messages of self-worth by handing out free “compliment cards” written with kind and motivational messages. Those interested in the Student Activists for Gender Equality club itself are in luck; the organization is hosting a mixer on February 19th, and extends open arms to potential new members. In addition to the fairly universal draws of new people and free food, the SAGE mixer will feature games of feminist Jeopardy, giving newcomers a taste of the subject matter the club discusses while
keeping things light and fun. “For our last mixer in the fall, we ended up breaking up into smaller groups by picking pieces of paper out of a hat,” said SAGE club president Erin Johanns. “Then we went around different groups and talked amongst ourselves about different issues.”
“We want to remind everyone that whether or not they’re in relationships, they are still valuable and awesome.” SAGE’s mixer events are treated to a certain degree as casual social time events for everyone involved. That very round table-style group discussion model is a big part of how SAGE operates as a whole. The club is largely a discussionbased organization, and members will often come in with a particular topic in mind to discuss with their peers. Some of the club’s main focuses include gender identity and expression, in peoples across all sexual and cultural identities. Johanns, who has been with the SAGE club since her first semester at SUNY Potsdam, said that she
has seen the club work to become more inclusive of transgender and nonbinary students in her time there. She also said that each meeting includes an introduction round, where each student visiting the club has a chance to share their personal pronouns. Those who want more performance events centering around issues of gender and sexuality will be in luck come May. SAGE is currently working with the LougheedKofoed Festival of the Arts to bring spoken-word poet Denise Frohman to campus, to read poetry centering around issues of gender and race. Meanwhile, when it comes to SAGE itself, Johanns had this to say to prospective new members interested to know more about the club: “Student Activists for Gender Equality is primarily a feminist organization, but as a feminist organization we’re not just interested in white, cisgender heterosexual womens issues. We’re interested in gender expectations; we’re interested in analyzing the gender binaries; we’re interested in talking about different ways that gender is expressed and also the different levels of oppression. For example, we talk about how different issues of gender oppression will affect somebody who is nonbinary, we talk about how gender issues also affect women of color as well.” Student Activists for Gender Equality meets in room 203 in the Student Union, every Thursday at 7.
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