The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by
Eve EnslerEve Ensler is an American playwright, performer, feminist and activist, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues.- Personal life :...
which ran at the
off-BroadwayOff Broadway theater is an umbrella term for a defined set of plays, musicals or revues performed in New York City. Originally referring to the location of a venue and its productions on a street intersecting Broadway in Manhattan's Theatre District, the hub of the theater industry in the United...
Westside TheatreThe Westside Theatre is an off-Broadway house located at 407 West 43rd Street in midtown Manhattan.Renovated in 1991, the building houses two auditoriums...
after a limited run at
HERE Arts CenterHERE Arts Center is a New York City based off-off broadway presenting house, founded in 1993, with two stages specializing in hybrid performance, dance, theater, multi-media and puppetry. From 1993-2009, HERE supported over 12,000 artists and served approximately 950,000 audience members...
in 1996. Ensler originally starred in the production; when she left the play it was recast with three
celebrityA celebrity is a person who is famously recognized in a society or culture.Generally speaking, a celebrity is someone who gets media attention and most frequently has an extroverted personality. The desire to be notable is implied by some to be a part of Western culture and more specifically the...
monologistsA monologue is an extended uninterrupted speech by a character in a drama. The character may be speaking his or her thoughts aloud, directly addressing another character, or speaking to the audience, especially the former. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media .Monologuing is...
. The production has been staged internationally, and a television version featuring Ensler was produced by cable TV channel HBO. In 1998, Ensler and others, including
Willa ShalitWilla Shalit is a Jewish-American artist, theatrical and television producer, photographer, author/editor, socially-conscious entrepreneur and philanthropist. She graduated from St. Ann's School and Oberlin College...
, a producer of the Westside Theatre production, launched V-Day, a global non profit that has raised over $50 million for women's
anti-violenceSexual violence occurs throughout the world, although in most countries there has been little research conducted on the problem. Due to the private nature of sexual violence, estimating the extent of the problem is difficult...
groups through benefits of
The Vagina Monologues"
The Vagina Monologues is made up of a varying number of monologues read by a varying number of women (initially,
Eve EnslerEve Ensler is an American playwright, performer, feminist and activist, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues.- Personal life :...
performed every monologue herself, with subsequent performances featuring three actresses, and more recent versions featuring a different actress for every role).
The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by
Eve EnslerEve Ensler is an American playwright, performer, feminist and activist, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues.- Personal life :...
which ran at the
off-BroadwayOff Broadway theater is an umbrella term for a defined set of plays, musicals or revues performed in New York City. Originally referring to the location of a venue and its productions on a street intersecting Broadway in Manhattan's Theatre District, the hub of the theater industry in the United...
Westside TheatreThe Westside Theatre is an off-Broadway house located at 407 West 43rd Street in midtown Manhattan.Renovated in 1991, the building houses two auditoriums...
after a limited run at
HERE Arts CenterHERE Arts Center is a New York City based off-off broadway presenting house, founded in 1993, with two stages specializing in hybrid performance, dance, theater, multi-media and puppetry. From 1993-2009, HERE supported over 12,000 artists and served approximately 950,000 audience members...
in 1996. Ensler originally starred in the production; when she left the play it was recast with three
celebrityA celebrity is a person who is famously recognized in a society or culture.Generally speaking, a celebrity is someone who gets media attention and most frequently has an extroverted personality. The desire to be notable is implied by some to be a part of Western culture and more specifically the...
monologistsA monologue is an extended uninterrupted speech by a character in a drama. The character may be speaking his or her thoughts aloud, directly addressing another character, or speaking to the audience, especially the former. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media .Monologuing is...
. The production has been staged internationally, and a television version featuring Ensler was produced by cable TV channel HBO. In 1998, Ensler and others, including
Willa ShalitWilla Shalit is a Jewish-American artist, theatrical and television producer, photographer, author/editor, socially-conscious entrepreneur and philanthropist. She graduated from St. Ann's School and Oberlin College...
, a producer of the Westside Theatre production, launched V-Day, a global non profit that has raised over $50 million for women's
anti-violenceSexual violence occurs throughout the world, although in most countries there has been little research conducted on the problem. Due to the private nature of sexual violence, estimating the extent of the problem is difficult...
groups through benefits of
The Vagina Monologues"
Plot summary
The Vagina Monologues is made up of a varying number of monologues read by a varying number of women (initially,
Eve EnslerEve Ensler is an American playwright, performer, feminist and activist, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues.- Personal life :...
performed every monologue herself, with subsequent performances featuring three actresses, and more recent versions featuring a different actress for every role). Every monologue somehow relates to the vagina, be it through sex, love,
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
, menstruation, mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm, the variety of names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the body. A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a tool of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality. Some monologues include:
- I Was Twelve, My Mother Slapped Me: a chorus describing many young women's and girls' first menstrual period.
- My Angry Vagina, in which a woman humorously rants about injustices wrought against the vagina, such as tampons, douche
A douche is a device used to introduce a stream of water into the body for medical or hygienic reasons, or the stream of water itself.Douche usually refers to vaginal irrigation, the rinsing of the vagina, but it can also refer to the rinsing of any body cavity. A douche bag is a piece of equipment...
s, and the tools used by OB/GYNsObstetrics and gynaecology are the two surgical specialties dealing with the female reproductive organs, and as such are often combined to form a single medical specialty and postgraduate training program...
- My Vagina Was My Village, a monologue compiled from the testimonies of Bosnia
Bosnians are people who reside in, or come from, Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the modern state definition a Bosnian can be anyone who holds citizenship of the state. This includes, but is not limited to, members of the constituent ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats...
n women subjected to rape camps.
- The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could, in which a woman recalls memories of traumatic sexual experiences in her childhood and a self-described "positive healing" sexual experience in her adolescent years with an older woman. In the original version, she is 13, but later versions would change her age to 16. This particular skit has sparked numerous controversies and criticisms due to its content (see below).
- The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy, in which a dominatrix for women discusses the intriguing details of her career and her love of giving women pleasure. In several performances it often comes at the end of the play, literally climaxing with a vocal demonstration of a "triple orgasm."
- Because He Liked to Look At It, in which a woman describes how she had thought her pubic area was ugly and had been embarrassed to even think about it, but changed her mind because of a sexual experience with a man named Bob who liked to spend hours looking at it.
- I Was There In The Room, a monologue in which Eve Ensler describes the birth of her granddaughter.
Every year a new monologue is added to highlight a current issue affecting women around the world. The monologue is performed at thousands of local
V-DayV-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls inspired by Eve Ensler's play, The Vagina Monologues. The movement was started in the late 1990s by author, playwright and activist Eve Ensler. Ensler has been quoted as saying that it was women's reactions to the play that launched...
benefit productions of the play that take place annually in February and March raising funds for local groups, shelters, crisis centers working to end violence against women. In 2003, for example, Ensler wrote a new monologue about the plight of women in
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
under Taliban rule. This Monologue is known as "Under the Burqa."
History
Eve Ensler wrote the first draft of the monologues in 1996 (there have been several revisions since) following interviews she conducted with 200 women about their views on sex, relationships, and violence against women. The interviews began as casual conversations with her friends, who then brought up anecdotes they themselves had been told by other friends; this began a continuing chain of referrals. In an interview with women.com, Ensler said that her fascination with vaginas began because of "growing up in a violent society.""Women's empowerment is deeply connected to their sexuality." She also stated, "I'm obsessed with women being violated and raped, and with
incestIncest is any sexual activity between close relatives irrespective of the ages of the participants and irrespective of their consent, that is illegal or socially taboo. The type of sexual activity and the nature of the relationship between persons that constitutes a breach of law or social taboo...
. All of these things are deeply connected to our vaginas."
Ensler wrote the piece to "celebrate the vagina." Ensler states that in 1998, the purpose of the piece changed from a celebration of vaginas and femininity to a movement to stop violence against women.
The play first opened at
HERE Arts CenterHERE Arts Center is a New York City based off-off broadway presenting house, founded in 1993, with two stages specializing in hybrid performance, dance, theater, multi-media and puppetry. From 1993-2009, HERE supported over 12,000 artists and served approximately 950,000 audience members...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
on 3 October 1996 with a limited run that ran through November. The play gained popularity through a word of mouth campaign that culminated with a performance at
Madison Square GardenMadison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, has been the name of four arenas in New York City. It is also the name of the entity which owns the arena and several of the professional sports franchises which play there. There have been four incarnations of...
in 2001, which featured
Melissa EtheridgeMelissa Lou Etheridge is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician.* * Etheridge will be featured in UniGlobe Entertainment's breast cancer docu-drama titled 1 a Minute scheduled for release in 2010...
and
Whoopi GoldbergWhoopi Goldberg is an American actress, comedienne, singer-songwriter, activist, and media personality....
performing segments of the play.
V-Day
The Vagina Monologues
is the cornerstoneThe cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...
of the V-Day movement, whose participants stage benefit performances of the show worldwide each year between February 1 and March 31.
On February 21, 2004, Eve Ensler in conjunction with Jane FondaJane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou and, excluding a 15 year hiatus, has appeared in films ever since. She has won two Academy Awards and received several...
and Deep Stealth ProductionsAccording to its website, Deep Stealth Productions was founded by Calpernia Addams and Andrea James and produces entertainment and educational content for several media. Besides a production company, Deep Stealth is also a popular site for support and products related to the transgender community...
produced and directed the first all-transgender performance of The Vagina Monologues, with readings by eighteen notable trans women, and including a new monologue documenting the experiences of transwomen. It debuted in connection with "LA V-DAY until the Violence Stops" with moving monologues documenting the violence against transgender people. Since that debut the Women's' Centers of many universities and colleges have added these three "Transgender Monologues" to the original production.
Feminist criticism
The Vagina Monologues has been criticized by a number of people in the
pro-sex feministSex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a movement that began in the early 1980s...
, gender egalitarian, and individualist feminist movements. Harriet Lerner, renowned in the field of Women's Psychology, points out the "psychic genital mutilation" embedded in the play's title, which ignores the Clitoris and Labia, and should more accurately be called "The Vulva Monologues". Pro-sex feminist
Betty DodsonBetty Dodson, Ph.D. is an American sex educator, author, and artist. Dodson held the first one-woman show of erotic art at the Wickersham Gallery in New York City in 1968. She left the art world to teach sex to women...
, author of several books about female sexuality, saw the play as having a negative and restrictive view of sexuality and an anti-male bias. She called the play "a blast of hatred at men and heterosexuality". Individualist feminist
Wendy McElroyWendy McElroy is a Canadian individualist anarchist and individualist feminist.-Political views:Among feminists, she identifies herself as being sex-positive: defending the availability of pornography and condemning anti-pornography feminism campaigns...
agreed, stating that the play "equates men with 'the enemy' and heterosexual love with violence".
Elements of the play critics find contentious include:
- the amount of attention given to brutal sexual encounters compared with consensual or harmonious sexual encounters;
- negative portrayal of male-female sexual relationships;
- In "The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could", an underage girl (thirteen in earlier performances, sixteen in the revised version) recounts being given alcohol and then having sex with an adult woman; the incident is recalled fondly by the grown girl.
- the fact that Ensler interviewed girls as young as aged six, asking them intimate questions, such as what their vagina smells like.
Colonialism and heterosexism
Kim Q. Hall further criticizes the play, particularly the sections dealing with women in the
Third WorldThe term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned or neutral with either capitalism and NATO or communism and the Soviet Union...
, for contributing to "colonialist conceptions of non-Western women." Although she supports frank discussions about sex, Hall rescales many of the same critiques leveled by feminists of color at White privilege among
Second-wave feministsThe "second-wave" of the Women's Movement, Feminist Movement, or the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States refers to a period of feminist activity which began during the early 1960s and lasted throughout the late 1970s. Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on overturning legal ...
and "premature white feminist assumptions and celebrations of a global 'sisterhood.'"
Social conservative criticism
The play has also been criticized by social conservatives, such as the
American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and PropertyThe American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property is an organization of Catholic inspiration, and adheres to the traditional teachings of the Roman Catholic Church...
(TFP), and the
Network of enlightened WomenThe Network of enlightened Women is a national organization in the United States of traditionalist and conservative university women with chapters at colleges and universities nationwide...
. The TFP denounced it as "a piece replete with sexual encounters, lust, graphic descriptions of
masturbationMasturbation refers to sexual stimulation, especially of one's own genitals , often to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by other types of bodily contact , by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods...
and
lesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
behavior", urging students and parents to protest. Following TFP and other protests, performances were canceled at sixteen
CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
collegeCollege is a term most often used today to denote degree awarding tertiary educational institution. More broadly, it can be the name of any group of colleagues, for example, an electoral college, a College of Arms or the College of Cardinals...
s. Recently,
Saint Louis UniversitySaint Louis University is a private, co-educational Jesuit university located in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1818 by the Most Reverend Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg SLU is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River. It is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit...
made the decision not to endorse the 2007 production, claiming the yearly event was getting to be "redundant." The response of the university's student-led feminist organization was to continue the production at an off-campus location.
The case of Robert Swope
In 2000, Robert Swope, a conservative contributor to the
GeorgetownGeorgetown University is a Jesuit private university located in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Father John Carroll founded the school in 1789, though its roots extend back to 1634. While the school struggled financially in its early years, Georgetown expanded into a branched university after the...
university newspaper,
The HoyaThe Hoya is one of Georgetown University's campus newspapers that prints an edition every Tuesday and Friday, with a circulation of about 10,000. The newspaper has four main editorial sections -- news, opinion, sports, and The Guide, a weekly arts and lifestyle magazine.Students founded The Hoya in...
, wrote
an article critical of the play. He suggested there was a contradiction between the promotion of rape awareness on
V-DayV-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls inspired by Eve Ensler's play, The Vagina Monologues. The movement was started in the late 1990s by author, playwright and activist Eve Ensler. Ensler has been quoted as saying that it was women's reactions to the play that launched...
and the monologue "The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could", in which an adult woman recalls being
date rape"Date rape", often referred to as “acquaintance rape”, is an assault or attempted assault by usually a new acquaintance involving sexual intercourse without mutual consent.-Drug-facilitated date rape:...
d at 13 by a 24 year old woman as a positive, healing experience, ending the segment with the proclamation "It was a good rape." Outcry from the play's supporters resulted in Swope's being fired from the staff of the Hoya
, before the piece was even run. Swope had previously criticized the play in an article he wrote entitled "Georgetown Women's Center: Indispensable Asset or Improper Expenditure?". His termination received editorialEditorials are featured in many newspapers and magazines, usually written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of the publication. Additionally, most print publications feature an editorial, or letter from the editor, sometimes followed by a Letters to the Editor section...
coverage in The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is an English-language international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, in New York City, with Asian and European editions. As of 2007, it has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million, with approximately 931,000...
, Salon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online magazine, with content updated each weekday. American liberal politics is its major focus, but it covers a range of issues. Reviews and articles about music, books and films are also a prominent feature of the site....
, National ReviewNational Review is a biweekly magazine and web site, founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955 and based in New York City...
, The Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic is an American magazine founded as The Atlantic Monthly in Boston in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. Though based in Boston, it quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and...
, The Washington TimesThe Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon and is subsidized by the Unification Church community.-Founding:...
and the Weekly Standard
.
See also
External links
The Vagina Monologues
at Random House
The VagAnus Monologues: All the News that's Fist to Print: Bleached and Overbalanced.
at http://vaganus.blogspot.com
V-Day official site
China mainland premiere (March 2009)
The Vagina Monologues at Wakefield Theatre Royal
The Russian production of The Vagina Monologues
The Hungarian production of The Vagina Monologues at the Thalia Theatre
Official UK Page
Video of Eve Ensler performing an excerpt from "The Vagina Monologues." Presented February 2004 at the TED Conference in Monterey, CA. Duration: 21:11
"The Missing Vagina Monologue", Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser Syndrome(MRKH): www.MRKH.org
Pamela Grossman (April 19, 2000). Down the Vagina Trail. Salon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online magazine, with content updated each weekday. American liberal politics is its major focus, but it covers a range of issues. Reviews and articles about music, books and films are also a prominent feature of the site....
Eve Ensler - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.orgThe American Theatre Wing is a New York City-based organization "dedicated to supporting excellence and education in theatre," according to its mission statement...
, October 2006
Eve Ensler Q&A
"Eve Ensler on "good" bodies and bad politics -Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/arts/qa/2004/11/11_100.html
The television production
Criticism