Freshman Kate Grudzinski wants to raise awareness about violence and injustice toward women.

The Gender Studies Program, Philosophy Club and Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice Club will host “The Vagina Monologues,” Feb. 25 and 26.

Eve Ensler wrote “The Vagina Monologues” in 1996 after interviewing women and girls all over the world about sex, gender-based violence and their vaginas.

Groups all over the world perform the monologues as part of V-Day, a global movement to raise awareness and end violence against women and girls.

Grudzinski will perform “They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy… Or So They Tried,” along with four other women.

This monologue shows the collective experiences of transwomen around the world, Grudzinski said. It has five speakers to represent how many women share similar situations.

“I have many dear friends who live outside the gender binary, who do not belong to the gender they were assigned at birth,” she said. “Some of these friends I grew up with and witnessed their struggles first-hand.”

Grudzinski said she thinks the monologue “My Short Skirt” is especially relevant to her generation.

“Victim blaming is prevalent in modern day, especially on college campuses, as represented by ‘The Hunting Grounds’ film that USI recently showed,” she said.

The monologue argues clothing is not an excuse or justification for rape or sexual assault, Grudzinski said.

“It also says that a woman’s clothing, no matter how revealing or modest, tell nothing of her character, only of what she was interested in wearing that day,” she said.

One hundred  percent of proceeds from the monologues will go to Willow Tree of Posey County, an organization that helps to empower women and girls who are survivors of sexual assault or domestic violence.

“They provide counseling. At times, they’ve paid for even a hotel room for someone to stay in if they’ve got an abusive partner that is proving threatening,” event organizer Mary Stoll said.

In previous years, an organization would have to give 10 percent of its V-Day proceeds to the global organization, the associate professor of philosophy said.

The new rule this year requires that all of the money goes to a local organization to empower women and girls.

“This is a way to fund grassroots activism,” she said. “The idea is that the people who are there know what the people there need.”

The Angry Vagina is one of Stoll’s favorite monologues and always makes the audience laugh, she  said.

Being able to speak openly about vaginas at the monologues is a relief because society still considers the subject taboo, Stoll said.

“Making it taboo can actually cause problems for people who are dealing with the ramifications of sexual assault or domestic violence,” she said.

Not being able to discuss vaginas, and specifically menstruation, can also hurt women’s health, Stoll said.

“If guys were totally ill occasionally, I’m pretty sure they would talk about it,” she said. “But because it’s a natural part of being a woman, you’re taught to be ashamed of it.”

Stoll wants people to think about how society’s gender norms affect public health.

“I hope that people realize the ways that we do and don’t talk about women’s experiences,” she said.

Fast Facts

Time: 7 p.m.

Date: Feb 25- 26

Location: Forum II of the Wright Administration Building

Cost: $7