If you are a woman or appreciate the anatomy of a woman's body and you have not read or watched the play The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, go now. It is truly a life changing experience.
What is it about you ask? You guessed it, VAGINAS. It touches on topics like sexuality, rape, individuality, and so much more. I was required to read it in my theater class for an assignment and I did not expect for it to impact me the way it did. Before you read my opinion about the play, read a little of it.
Vaginas are not usually the topic of conversation so it was quite refreshing reading a piece of work that is centered something essential to our lives as women. The beginning monologues of the play were hilarious and relatable. I could not help but die reading " My Angry Vagina". Here are some of my favorite lines: "Stop shoving things up me. Stop shoving and stop cleaning it up. My vagina doesn’t need to be cleaned up. It smells good already."
Each little monologue evoked a sense of awareness about my own vagina because I never really thought about how important it actually is. Vaginas are awesome.
Many of us could definitely relate to the speaker in “Because He Liked to Look at It”. She was insecure about how her vagina looked that she never wanted a man to be intimate with it. When her man appreciated its beauty and uniqueness, she gained a great amount of confidence about herself and she learned to love her vagina. This made me feel so proud of my own body and made me realize that every vagina is unique and we should embrace it.
Not all things in here are happy-go-lucky in this world of vaginas. Many different types of social issues are portrayed in the play.
In "Hair", the speaker describes the events of how her husband cheated on her because she wasn’t shaving. There goes the "something must be wrong with the wife" and "men are never at fault" bull-crap. Shouldn’t men love our bodies just the way they are? Why is his excuse for his infidelities her fault? Because she chose what she wanted to do with her OWN body? This infuriated me. A man should never tell a woman what to do with her body and I think that Ensler including this monologue portrays how ridiculous it is to have a man do so. We need to take control of our own bodies and not change ourselves to please a man.
One particular monologue definitely hit home: "My Vagina was My Village". The woman describes her experiences with being raped during the war within her country in a poem. Here is a little excerpt:
Not since they took turns for seven days smelling like feces and smoked meat, they left their dirty sperm inside me. I became a river of poison and pus and all the crops died, and the fish.
My vagina a live wet water village.
They invaded it.
Butchered it and burned it down.
I do not touch now.
Do not visit.
I live someplace else now.
I don’t know where that is.
Though this scene is dark, it made me realize that sometimes we may be in a situation where we doubt our self worth due to prior experiences or situations, but those events don't define who we are as a person.
The Vagina Monologues helped me become more comfortable with my body and me feel confident. It made learn to love myself for who I am despite all of the baggage I carry. It also made me realize that something that is so often forgotten dictates much of this world. Because of it, we are all here so we need to freaking appreciate it.
