Tampons, Pap smears, giv­ing birth, periods…the female repro­duc­tive organs endure many hard­ships and sufferings.

But what about other dis­tresses that are less fre­quently talked about? Like rape or abuse?

The Vagina Monologues, an annual pro­duc­tion put on at Ferris, is a col­lec­tion of inter­views from women about var­i­ous expe­ri­ences, usu­ally sex­ual, rang­ing from comedic rants about all a woman has to endure to deeply poignant con­fes­sions of abuse.

“A lot that is talked about are rough sub­jects,” Kate Schwartz, FSU senior in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion and the­ater minor, said. “Lots of peo­ple don’t like to come out about being raped or abused, so to be able to be part of this pro­duc­tion and let peo­ple know they can come out and that oth­ers will sup­port them is a very close mes­sage to me.”

Schwartz will be involved for her fourth year in this year’s The Vagina Monologues, act­ing as the nar­ra­tor. When Schwartz saw the show for her first time dur­ing her fresh­man year, she thought the show was funny and decided to audi­tion two years later.

Though the comedic value was what ini­tially drew her in, the deeper mean­ing of the show was what kept her involved over the long run.

“The show now holds a tighter mean­ing than just being funny to me,” Schwartz said. “It made me become more aware of abuse against women and sort of an activist against it. The show touches me and makes me want to share its mean­ing with other people.”

Schwartz’s favorite mono­logue is enti­tled “My Angry Vagina” and is a woman vent­ing about the dif­fer­ent issues vagi­nas to through. She enjoys it for its com­edy and sarcasm.

Val Ferrera, FSU junior in crim­i­nal jus­tice law enforce­ment, is par­tic­i­pat­ing for her sec­ond time.

“Historically, women have had a lim­ited range of socially accept­able con­ver­sa­tional top­ics; the show says we exist and are allowed to be who we are,” Ferrera said.

Ferrera will be act­ing in a mono­logue enti­tled “They Beat the Boy Out of Me, Or So They Tried.” It’s about five trans­gen­dered women who even though they looked like boys, they always knew they were girls. After sex-change oper­a­tions, the women talk about how much hap­pier they are.

“There are a lot of funny ones [mono­logues] and semi-serious ones, but I think this one is really impor­tant, espe­cially after being in The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later,” Ferrera said. “Transgendered indi­vid­u­als are often for­got­ten about or feared and there’s a huge stigma that goes with that. Awareness is grow­ing and I’m glad I can be part of that.”

The Vagina Monologues will be per­formed at Williams Auditorium on Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $6 for stu­dents and $10 for all oth­ers. For more infor­ma­tion about the event, con­tact Jamie Burkle at fsu_vaginamonologues@yahoo.com or ext. 2606.

“Go vagi­nas!” Ferrera added.