After my recent stint portraying a sexually defunct seventy-two-year-old in last week's production of "The Vagina Monologues," I received dozens of responses from both men and women concerning their reactions to the show. While some complimented me on my performance, most of them told me how powerful the show had been.
And indeed, "The Vagina Monologues" is an incredibly powerful experience -- whether viewed from the audience or from backstage. Working with a group of extraordinarily talented, strong women was in and of itself the greatest reward for doing the show.
There are those who felt the show was lacking, and, of course, such opinions are always valid in dealing with theatric productions. Sometimes, a show just isn't enjoyable, and that's fine.
What was shocking, however, was when one peer told me "Monologues" is "stupid and inflammatory" -- and he hadn't even attended the performance.
When I asked him why he thought that way, he told me that men were genetically wired to be sexual, and women were inherently nurturing, a characteristic which was the primary focus of a woman's makeup.
Well, so much for the last forty years of the women's liberation movement.In this colleague's political blog, I found he had posted a reaction to a Tufts University production that responded to a particular monologue, entitled "The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could." This monologue concerns the sexual education of a young girl by an older woman. This particular woman said that the monologue, as well as the show in its entirety "was supposed to be empowering, but moral questionability overshadowed this."
Just to get this out of the way -- if you're concerned about sexual content, a show entitled "The Vagina Monologues" is probably not for you. (I'd recommend "Oklahoma!" as a nice alternative.)
That being said, "The Vagina Monologues" is based on interviews with hundreds of women -- a fact stated at the very beginning of the play -- so making the claim that the content of the show was "questionable" is just plain wrong. The events of the show are true -- they happened. No amount of theatrics change the basic premise of the show: women have had sexual experiences. Whether or not you enjoyed hearing about them, these events did take place.
The point of "The Vagina Monologues," all else aside, is to show that women are capable of sexual expression. It's a celebration of female sexuality. And it's also a device by which the audience can be educated about the horrors of being a woman -- for example, rape and genital mutilation.
The annual performance of "The Vagina Monologues" takes place on V-Day, which is an unofficial holiday devoted to awareness of issues surrounding women today. Part of the V-Day mission is a spirit that embodies the belief that women "should spend their lives creating and thriving, rather than surviving or recovering from terrible atrocities."
The aforementioned Tufts respondent asked, "If hundreds of women were interviewed to compose this[w]here were the women who found their own sexuality or empowerment by being attractive and interesting to men?"
"The Vagina Monologues" is not about hating men. It has little to do with men at all.
I ask, why is it impossible for a woman to be a fully realized sexual being in the absence of a man? But this isn't about separating the sexes. It's about allowing women to thrive as a gender. It's about freedom for women to exist as individuals.
It's about stopping the violence against women, about stopping the often life-threatening mutilation practices, and ending the crime of rape.
But most importantly, "The Vagina Monologues" is a show by women, for everyone.
