The following people were honored as Vagina Warriors in the February 2004 performances of the Vagina Monolouges:

Christina ~ Heather ~ *S*

Christina’s Story:

Hello, my name is Christina Giacalone. I am a 41-year-old mother of 3 children and have overcome many obstacles in working towards my goals of obtaining a higher education as well as a life.

I never finished high school until I was 22 years old. I had dropped out of school in the 9th grade, and was married by the age of 16 to an elderly man. By the age of 21 I was pregnant and had left my husband due to drug and alcohol use, which brought out extreme cruelty in the form of verbal abuse, “You F***en slut, nobody wants your ugly ass, you make me drink just to look at you.” So I left to make a better life for my son and me. I left Nevada heading to California, and went back to high school to complete and get my high school diploma.

After receiving my diploma, I met my second husband and we had two more children only ten months apart from each other. Things went well for a while, but I started to gain weight. Soon my husband became physically and mentally abusive towards me, my weight gain, and my mothering skills, and soon he was attacking my personality as a person. By the time I was 28 years old, he beat me so badly that I was hospitalized and he went to the hospital to get his hand cast, for he broke it on my face. Later he was taken to jail and held on a hundred thousand dollar bail.

When I was released from the hospital, I went to seek help from the local Domestic Violence Center. By this time my children were seven, five and four years old. The D.V Center moved into a safe shelter where I would have no contact with any family or friends for fear of my husband finding out where I was. After two months in the shelter, I was relocated with my children to Lancaster, California. There, I found myself lonely, afraid, with no job, no job skills, no money, no friends, and living on welfare in the Lancaster projects raising my children all alone. I continued to put on weight and I sank deeper into depression.

When my husband was released from jail, he came back home. I thought after his jail time and counseling I could make my marriage work and felt I had no other choice. I was scared and alone, and my children, who had witnessed the beatings, were acting out at school as well as at home. I had no hope at this point, and I topped the scales at 400 pounds. I had no one to love me, and I needed help.

Things started off very well (the honeymoon phase) and went well for a while. My husband went to anger management classes and I began working for the Children’s Bureau, getting involved with community projects such as tutoring in the “America Reads” program and running a drug free poster contest for the kids under eighteen in the projects where we lived. I joined a weight loss group and started to make a few friends.

Despite my attempts to lose weight, I continued gaining weight and now weighed over 500 pounds. I continually struggled with my weight and one of my daughters was out of control.

I began making friends, and found myself lacking the education it would take to move to a different position within the Children’s Bureau, so I started taking classes at the community college. As soon as I started to get more involved in the community, make friends, and grow educationally, my husband felt threatened and the beatings started all over again. At this point I was 36 years old and my weight was beginning to affect my health as my heart had enlarged and I couldn’t breathe very well when I walked around. I started finding it harder to leave the house because of my weight and the bruising that seemed to be part of my daily make-up.

The doctors became concerned with my weight gain and tried many ways to help me lose weight, but to no avail. During this time my husband became continually more abusive and my middle daughter was diagnosed with learning disabilities and emotional disorders, yet I was bound and determined to complete my education.
The doctors finally decided that I was a candidate for the gastric bypass surgery, and they wanted it done immediately. I had other plans and decided I had to finish the last semester I was in at college. One week after my graduation at Antelope Valley Community College I went in for surgery, and I would find this the beginning of the end of my marriage.

My husband became very angry at my success. At my graduation, in front of everyone, he lifted his glass and toasted me “Tina, I hope you die during your surgery.” Everyone stood quietly in shock, especially my mom. I knew I had to get out.

After my surgery, I came back home for a short time. My husband continued to abuse me and would not help me through my recovery and he even started to take his anger out on our children. The last straw was when he would not go or let me go to the airport and pick up our special needs daughter that had been with a friend in Las Vegas during my surgery. She was left all alone until my friend stepped in and gave me access to get out and go and get her. However, this was only after she had been down there all by herself for three plus hours and my husband had dismantled our car and tried to block my friend’s car in. I threw some clothes in a bag, grabbed my two other kids, and never went back; I moved to my mom’s house.
I stayed at my mom’s house and she helped me with my recovery, which really was just as horrible as staying with my husband, because my mom had control issues.

I quickly relocated to San Jacinto, then to Hemet, where I currently reside. After my move, and when I was up on my feet, I felt it was very important for me to continue my education, so I took some classes at San Jacinto Community College so I could transfer to UCR, where I continue to go today. I am now only four classes away from attaining my bachelor’s degree in Women’s Studies and Sociology.
I have overcome many odds and challenges in raising my kids and continuing my education so that I could support my family. I have had to do it alone as a single parent, as a single parent with a special needs child that has required me to carry a cell phone at all times in case she is hospitalized.

I am currently volunteering as well as doing an internship at CASA, Center Against Sexual Assault, where I am an advocate/counselor for rape survivors and do intakes to provide counseling opportunities. As an advocate I go to the hospitals to support the victim and stay by their side during the evidence gathering. I also do follow-ups to ensure they are safe and if they need any other resources that I can provide them with. I also volunteer at UCR in the Women’s Studies Department. I plan to work in the social fields of our community to help women and families overcome the struggles we face everyday as females and let them know there is hope and there is help out there.

Heather’s Story

I met Heather a few years ago when she came to the Women’s Resource Center seeking support to re-establish the UCR campus National Organization of Women (NOW). Heather is a very outgoing young woman with an infectious smile.
Just before the Christmas holiday, Heather was raped. She has had to cope with a number of compounding issues as a result of the assault beginning with the rape examination itself. She has faced the loss of several “close” friends and the question of whether or not to report the assault.

Heather is the definition of a “Vagina Warrior”, in that she has been violated, suffered and grieved it, and is now working to put her life back together. She has shown great strength in attempting to move forward- not an easy task, especially with a much shorter list of friends to offer support. Heather wrestled with the insulting friends who initially didn’t believe her because it was an acquaintance rape, not a situation where a “monster” jumped out of the darkness liked depicted on television.
I have watched helplessly as she beat herself up over where her friends were at a time when she needed them most! I sat with her as my stomach turned in knots when she struggled to repeat her story during her reporting.

It’s good to see her flash that infectious smile once again. I’m proud to see her continuing to move forward carrying herself like a true warrior!Shakina’s Story

*S*'s Story

*S* is a person who embodies the meaning of a vagina warrior. Her existence as a transgender person shatters the gender norms that are relied on as a basis for gendered discrimination. *S* speaks of his personal experiences of gender based discrimination, even when others might feel more comfortable pretending that these atrocities do not exist. There are very few people who have heard the story of a male bodied person being raped as a woman, and *S* speaks about this experience to help people understand the harsh reality of sexual assault. She uses her experiences to help educate others about what it is like to exist as a transgender person, a man and a woman in this world. He refuses to remain invisible, when many would rather that his words be silenced.

Since *S* is a male-bodied person, it might be easy to assume that she utilizes her access to male privilege for personal gain, as so many others do. Instead, Shakina actively speaks out against it, challenging those around him to incorporate new perspectives into their views. She is always willing to speak her mind and does so with clarity and grace. He has the gift of being able to challenge the way people think, without upsetting or offending. *S* is the type of person who rarely gets enough recognition for her radically transgressive nature and progressive acts. It is for that reason, combined with her experiences as a transgender person, her willingness to challenge status quo and his all around greatness, that I nominate *S* as a vagina warrior.