2/13/06
I’m going to see The Vagina Monologues on Friday. I’ve seen it once before in ASL, so this will be the first time I see it in English. In ASL, I thought it was powerful, and fascinating, and important. I was not offended, not even when one performer emphatically signed “CUNT! C-U-N-T! CUNT!!!” and the interpreter yelled it accordingly. I was fascinated (the clitoris has more nerve endings than any other human body part!), I was horrified (it’s customary in some cultures to punish a woman for various affronts to social norms by throwing acid in her face), but I was not offended.
I’ve recently read a few articles that indignantly decry the horror of this play, (which, by the way, is put on by a non-profit organization that is devoted to stopping violence against women, such a horrible cause.) Apparently the writers of these articles think vaginas are inherently offensive (ridiculous) and that The Vagina Monologues is about vaginas.
This is much like saying that the Grapes of Wrath is about a family that moves to California to become farmworkers. It sounds true, until a person capable of thought spends a nanosecond thinking about it and realizes that The Grapes of Wrath is about social injustice, prejudice, class discrimination, labor, unions, government, food production, the strength and depth of the human spirit, etc.
“The Vagina Monologues are about vaginas.” It sounds true until a person capable of thought reads it, thinks about for a nanosecond and realizes it’s about social injustice, sexism, class discrimination, prejudice, violence, establishing identity and self-esteem, self-exploration, and the process of appropriating language, etc.
If you ever get the chance, go see the show. www.vday.org
Thanks for reading my rant. Here’s another rant and a link to one of the original articles:
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2006/02/16/the-vagina-warriors-are-gonna-getcha