Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues
Eve Ensler wrote the play The Vagina Monologues. It is intended to represent women’s experiences with their vaginas. Ensler seeks to dispel what appears to be a widespread disdain among women for their vaginas. She discusses women’s attitudes toward their vaginas, ranging from highly negative to profoundly positive. Among the subjects explored in the play are sexual aggression, hygiene, sexual pleasure, birth, and sexual intercourse. The play, in my opinion, is extremely enlightening about a topic that is so personal and accessible to women in a way that is both hilarious and severe at the same time. Any woman who watches the play would feel an unprecedented connection with her vagina.
The Flood Monologue
The monologue about ‘The Flood’ resonated with me on a personal level. It highlights the story of a woman who never embraced her sexuality in all her 72 years because of a bad experience with a boy. Briefly, during her first kiss her vagina responded by getting wet. When her partner shamed her for it she completely recoiled sexually. “I was a ‘stinky weird girl, he said’ (Ensler 11). I remember my first kiss. I was thoroughly embarrassed when I felt a wetness in my underwear and refrained from engaging in further sexual encounters for about two years after that. Presumably, if not for the sex talk I had with my mother, I may have had a similar fate as the woman in the monologue.
The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy
My favorite monologue is “The woman who loved to make vaginas happy”. It tells the story of a woman who has completely embraced her sexuality and derives tremendous pleasure from helping other women do the same. She quit her job as a lawyer to become a sex worker. However, the intriguing factor for me is that she has dedicated herself to the universal fulfillment of the vagina. “It was my art…It was as if I had found my calling” (Ensler 33). I appreciate the fact that this woman has given up everything that should matter by conventional societal standards and taken up a profession that aids her to pursue the things that give both her and other women pleasure. Her actions are unreal and oddly inspiring.
Overcoming Society's Taboos
The Vagina Monologues mentions ‘vagina’ several times. Personally, I would not feel as comfortable saying the word, especially before other people. Several women feel this way because society has made them feel that ‘vagina’ is an ugly word that should be spoken privately or secretly if at all. In fact, I would be highly reluctant to have a vagina interview because it would be significantly out of my comfort zone. Naturally, having grown up in this society I would feel embarrassed about talking about my vagina.
Informative and Empowering
The Vagina Monologues is informative for both men and women in the contemporary society. It enlightens men on the profound experiences of women that they would otherwise be unaware of. For instance, the monologue Hair the women states, “I could feel his spiky sharpness sticking into me, my naked puffy vagina” (Ensler 4). From this, a man would know the pain of a woman. Alternatively, the play enables women to celebrate their vaginas and feel a connectedness to it rather than be ashamed of it.
A Universal Perspective
The play is relevant to people of all ages and ethnicities because each of these groups have women whose commonality is mainly a shamed perspective of the vagina. Vagina-shaming is universal.
Promoting Gender Equality
Conclusively, The Vagina Monologues is a suitable medium to transmit the message on gender equality because it addresses a serious issue in a manner that is engaging and seemingly entertaining. Unlike the traditional means of addressing this issue, which have mostly been futile, the play invokes attention.
Work cited
Ensler, Eve. The Vaginal Monologues. 1996. Print.
