Most normal people don't associate Valentine's Day with prostitution, exhibitionism and statutory rape - but that's not how feminist activists would have it.
Those are just a few of the activities celebrated in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues
a play performed on hundreds of college campuses throughout the month of February. The Monologues is part of a larger movement called V-Day (short for Vagina Day) that activists hope will soon replace Valentine's Day. The mission of V-Day and The Vagina Monologues according to vday.org, is to end violence against women and girls. It is a claim that, upon reading the script, seems completely specious.
I recently picked up a copy of The Vagina Monologues just to see what all the fuss was about. After all, Gloria Steinem has called it poetry for the theater and many respectable Hollywood actresses have performed in it. Because I support V-Day's mission, I assumed I would enjoy the play.
Wrong.
Not only did the graphic and deliberately coarse descriptions of women's genitalia cause me to lose my appetite, I also found no connection between any of the monologues and V-Day's goal of ending violence against women.
In one monologue, called The Little Coochi Snorcher that Could
a 16-year-old girl describes how a 24-year-old woman gets her drunk, forces her to masturbate and then seduces her (in the original version, the girl is 13 years old). According to the law, sex between a 16-year-old and an adult is statutory rape - a form of violence against women. But in this case, the attacker gets a pass from feminists because she is a woman.
A scene called The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy features an attorney-turned-prostitute who caters exclusively to women. The play treats lesbian prostitution as an acceptable alternative to a real job: There was nothing like this in tax law. There was no props
no excitement
and I hated those blue corporate suits. So much for the feminist claim that sex work dehumanizes women.
A third monologue, titled Reclaiming Cunt
involves the actress leading the audience in a chant of the obscene slang term. People often use the word cunt as an abusive term to describe a woman herself, not the body part. Yet feminists would still like us to reclaim it.
Do you get the picture? None of this has anything to do with ending violence against women. In fact, it seems that the only connection The Vagina Monologues has to this mission is that proceeds from ticket sales are usually donated to a worthy organization, such as a domestic violence shelter.
And yet supporters of the Monologues insist that the play raises awareness about domestic and sexual violence. This is apparently accomplished by repeating the word vagina as often as possible in public. A student performer at Cornell University said, I relished the fact that I was able to use the word 'vagina' in my everyday vocabulary. I said VAGINA at least a dozen times a day - and was able to reclaim it as a word.
Pro-Monologue feminists then absurdly claim that any woman who criticizes the play is anti-female, a victim of the patriarchy or ashamed of her sexuality and/or genitalia. In my case, I know those accusations are false. I just want to know what Ensler's vulgar play is doing to end violence against women.
The most disappointing thing about the Monologues is that it could have been tastefully written. There's certainly nothing wrong with a play about female sexuality and how it shapes the rest of a woman's life. It could have included more monologues about sexual violence and what can be done to stop it, instead of inane speeches about pubic hair, sex toys and tampons.
The women who produce and perform in the Monologues insist on behaving like preschoolers who have learned the meaning of vagina for the first time. Chanting the word incessantly will not stop violence against women, and neither will a tasteless play that glorifies the very worst of female sexuality.
- Ashley Herzog is a sophomore journalism major. Send her an e-mail at ah103304@ohiou.edu.
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Ashley Herzog
