The Vagina Monologues, second time around

Two years ago, I was in the Vagina Monologues as an actress. I performed Woman 4 of "I was 12. My Mother Slapped Me" (which was taken out this year, much to the disappointment of most of the actresses). Since then, I've grown a little distant to the V-Day movement, although not because I don't think it's valid, but because other causes became a bit more important to me.

We all know the Vagina Monologues gets a lot of shit. Some people think it's vulgar. Some people can't fathom the reason why women would want to talk about their genitals in public. Others are angry that Valentine's Day has been co-opted by a bunch of uppity feminists who want to talk about their down-theres rather than celebrate it with chocolates and roses and Cupid. Then there are others who think that sexual positivity for women is more important than combating violence against women.

Now, of course talking about genitalia is a little crass, no matter what gender one is. But it's also fun. Plus, the Vagina Monologues brings to the forefront the fact that for most part, women's private parts are rarely looked at or considered. As a result, women are treated as sexless objects. When you can easily treat a woman as an object, chances are, you can also treat a man as an object too. And sex is still such a touchy subject unless it's people bragging about how they got some, or basically degraded someone else for their sexual pleasure.

Some people can't fathom why anybody would want to discuss genitalia, period. I don't know why guys sometimes say something random about their cocks and it's not always funny because it tends to be ridiculously egotistical. One time I had BIG VAGINA! in my MSN nick and guys were messaging me, basically assuming that *I* was the one with the big vagina. I don't, actually. But I liked saying it. I suppose the male culture has semantic differences. Anyway, it's good to be able to talk about genitalia. It's a part of one's self, so why not?

Co-opting Valentine's Day for the Vagina Monologues is a silly idea. Lots of people still celebrate the silly hallmark holiday, and in worser ways than one might think.

And yes, there ARE people who think there're better causes than V-Day. Yes and no. If one wants to focus on sex education, go right ahead. But don't say it's more important than combating violence against women. That's not helpful. They're all valid causes. We're not trying to out-do each other with a "well, THIS is more miserable!" competition.

Anyway, I'm one of those people who fear that the Vagina Monologues reduces a woman to her genitals, just like how men are sometimes reduced to their penis (you know, "men think with their penises" and all that). I know that they're not, of course, and that they present to the audience a wide range of different facets of women. Some of the monologues are obviously problematic - Coochi Snorcher features a relationship between a 16-yr-old and a 24-r-old. The fact that the monologue on menstruation was recently excised is also problematic. I also don't like the fact that everything is filtered through Eve Ensler - she writes the prose.

But it is, nevertheless, important feminist discourse. The V-Day movement has raised millions of dollars towards women's shelters all over the world. Someday, men will realize that it's needful for them to have men's shelters as well, for abused men and boys all over the world. If it hadn't been for the Monologues (all proceeds from the shows go to various charities all over the world), these shelters would probably still be struggling to get by.

So anyways. ( Onto this year's SMU Vagina Monologues. )