Vagina Monologues return without protestation

It would be unfair to the actors in Saturday’s eighth annual showing of the Vagina Monologues at Boise State University to write this article in any typical fashion.

The classical nature of news writing does not mesh with the fleshy, personal nature of Eve Ensler’s interviews.

Just one quick note, before I disappear. This year there were no protests, no signs or sidewalk chalk, no slants or anti-vagina propaganda. This year it did not sell out. But that is OK, because this year, I actually got a ticket.

I laughed and cried. When actress Jessica Henderson screamed with her heart on her lips to Stephanie Brooks . two tears fell off my cheek. Think Bosnia/Kosovo and war. Think systematic rape as a function of war, and of Henderson acting the part of a woman tragically disfigured, tortured, her village that was her vagina, destroyed.

Vagina references (couldn’t catch them all): Bermuda Triangle, twat waffle, monkey box, nappy dugout, anatomical vacuum, pussy, cunt (The monologue “Reclaiming Cunt,” was dedicated to one woman who used the word “cunt” and was excited to sing and explain why. The word is ancient, only recently a slang term), etc.

Adjectives: Hairy (”Hair” was told from a woman’s p.o.v. whose husband made her shave her vagina and she didn’t like it. He cheated on her because she refused. Even when she let him do it, she said, “My husband never stopped screwing around”), wet, moist, clammy, bizarre, unknown, angry, afraid, free and so many more.

Issues: Rape (”The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could,” includes a slideshow of a girl’s school photos ages 5-13. The girl was punched in the vagina at 5-years-old, tore it bouncing on a bedpost at 7, raped by her father’s friend at 10 (her father shot and paralyzed the friend), at 13 thought her vagina to be a mess of pain, nastiness, a ‘bad-luck zone,’ and eventually, at 16, brought home with a beautiful female woman (24) who dressed her in lingerie and taught her how to kiss a woman, how to pleasure herself. For the girl, this moment, although politically incorrect, illegal and a source of disdain and protest for many who see and read the monologues, for the girl this one-night stand with that woman was “salvation.”

Issues: Ignorance. “The Flood” was about an elderly woman who never talked about her vagina and the awkwardness of one night with a boy when she got excited and excreted her pleasure onto his front seat until Ensler’s interview brought it up. Sondra Miller acted the part of the woman so confused and afraid of her own body she gave up chasing men, but after the interview went home, lit candles, took a bath and more than an hour to pleasure herself, because she was arthritic. “You’re the first person I ever told this, and I feel a little better,” she said.

Facts: Throughout the monologues, there were interstitial facts addressed to the audience in the Special Events Center. There were statistics about attempted and completed rape, assault, stalking, abuse and much more. For these numbers, check out womenscenter.boisestate.edu.

Images: The vagina workshop. Picture your vagina. Picture someone picturing their vagina. Find the clitoris. Remember that it is part of the female body. It contains 8,000 nerve endings (twice that of the penis). Millions of girls around the world have their clitorises ritualistically cut, sliced and hacked off. Many others simply never know what it is, what it does or how to use it. The workshop taught women to view, draw, picture and understand their vaginas.

Emotions: Mine? Disgust at what people do to others. Anger, a little fear for family and friends (when so many college students get raped how can I not fear for my coworkers?), understanding for the women who can honestly hate men, love for all, empathy for the hurt and discarded women of this world, sadness for those whose lives have been snapped by this senseless violence and for those who did not make it out alive, wonder of their strength, joy in their revelations, an honest attraction to the feminine form, exultation in its liberation and the rest of the gamut I don’t have room for.

Life Cycles: a T-shirt in the lobby of the SPEC said it best, “We all come from vaginas.” Life begins in the womb. It is beautiful. For so long, the female body was glorified only in its most beautiful subjects. The point of the monologues is to tell the stories of women, by women, all of whom have one thing in common. Though the differences in the female gender are as infinite as atoms, its members are united in their differences, not just by their vaginas. That would be too mean a measure. They are united in support of the unsupportable. They will speak and keep on speaking until violence against women and girls comes to an end.

Lessons: Love your body, your self. Violence against women and girls is a pandemic, a sickness of the earth. The Vagina Monologues are not anti-male. They are pro-female. The skits may sometimes be crude, even vulgar in content and language, but they are based in reality, a reality that needs to be changed.

DUSTIN LAPRAY
Editor-in-Chief

Related Posts:

1. V for vagina: ‘Vagina Monologues’ plays at Special Events Center
2. The Vagina Monologues were Well-Received at BSU
3. ‘The Vagina Monologues’ riles sold-out audiences at Boise State
4. Vagina Vagina Vagina!
5. Local scripts written for ‘The Vagina Monologues’