THE BEST kind of theatre is that which is profoundly honest. Even better theatre is the kind that makes audience members laugh and then cry within the span of a few minutes. On Saturday night, I attended the Vagina Monologues. A woman named Eve Ensler wrote the play and originally performed all of the monologues herself. Now, the play is staged internationally and has especially been embraced by college campuses across the United States. Some of the monologues were side-splitting. Others were heartbreaking. And through this range of emotions, the audience found the eloquence and truth of Eve Ensler's masterpiece.
"My Angry Vagina" had just about every woman in the audience nodding in agreement. The monologue details the everyday tribulations of being female, from tampons to the dreaded visits to the gynecologist. The monologue put in relief how the most normal experiences for women are considered too taboo to discuss candidly. At the same time, discussing in detail subjects like the visit to the "woman's doctor" points out how awkwardly hilarious these experiences are. Having conversation with the doctor while one's legs are up in cold metal stirrups? Absurd.
All members of the cast performed a monologue entitled, "If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?" Some would wear rhinestones, some would wear sweatpants. One woman's vagina would wear Armani and only Armani. Obviously, vaginas don't get dressed. So why then have this monologue? It allowed, if only for a few brief minutes, the audience to laugh about the unspeakable cachet of one part of a woman's body.
Not surprisingly, some of the monologues were controversial even for the most avid supporters of women's liberty and equality. One monologue was about reclaiming the word "c***." The idea is that if women use it regularly, then it can no longer hurt them or belittle them when men use it. Personally, I don't think the word should be reclaimed. It should be expunged from every decent person's vocabulary. Just becoming desensitized to something does not make it less reprehensible. Regardless of one's stance on the word, though, the monologue certainly got people talking. And that was the point.
Coupled with the tongue-in-cheek, funny monologues were a few serious ones. "My Vagina was my Village" featured two actresses telling the story of one woman's wartime experience. The first actress expressed the spirit of the woman before the war, when she was carefree and loved her body. Then the second actress, obviously spirit-broken, expressed how the woman felt after she had been brutally raped by multiple soldiers. It went on for days. Sometimes they used rifles.
Most people know how horrible wars are for soldiers, but seldom do people discuss the rape that is tragically commonplace in wars across the world. This is not surprising. After all, a person is sexually assaulted in the United States every two minutes, according to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN). And to think we call this "peacetime." With statistics and war-time narratives like these, women cannot possibly feel at ease.
And no, this ode to women's liberation was not a sparsely attended performance. This past weekend, the actresses performed their monologues to a packed house, full of women and men, young and old. Standing room only. The men seemed to be having as good a time as the women -- well, almost as good a time. The event ended up raising $5,000 for Medica Zenica, an organization in Eastern Europe that aids war-traumatized women, as well. There is little better than raising money for a worthy cause and having a very good time while doing so.
Across campuses nationwide, there tends to be a small, but vocal opposition to the performance of the Vagina Monologues. In years past at the University, other publications published articles condemning the play, calling it more or less lascivious and improper entertainment on a college campus. But that opposition seems to be eroding quietly. As more students attend, as more experience the deep belly laughs and the knowing glances among women and the tears shed for the regular violence against them, the Monologues stop being political in a caustic or divisive sense. They're simply about loving women and most of all, about helping women learn to love themselves. All of themselves.
Marta Cook is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at mcook@cavalierdaily.com.
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