Social Justice Event (1): The Vagina Monologues

Yesterday I went to The Vagina Monologues at Rhode Island College, created by Eve Ensler. This performance was a staged reading of ensemble pieces from vagina interviews which became vagina monologues. It is performed every year around Valentine's day (or as they called it V Day). The focus of this I believe was to get people to not be so uncomfortable when discussing vaginas and women's pleasure. I definitely pushed myself to go, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word vagina in my life more than I had last night in the eighty minutes I was there. Basically, a variety of women in different shapes, ages, races, and identities came on stage and read a series of one women or several women's stories that were shared with the author. The interviews read ranged from a 72-year-old woman who shared her personal experience entitled “The Flood” (which was funny) to a 16-year-old girl who was always told her vagina couldn’t be touched but was raped by her fathers best friend and hated the idea of being touched until she had an encounter with a 24-year-old woman. All these stories were told at different volumes and tones because they could get serious and the statistics seemed unbelievable. In fact, a UNICEF 2005 report said that 3,000,000 girls per year genitals are mutilated to remove their clitoris. One of the most shocking and honestly humorous is how it is illegal to sell vibrators in Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, and Virginia yet plausible to purchase a firearm. People are afraid of women having sexual pleasure. Short skirts were also brought up and how it is not a provocation or indication that a woman is eager to give or want sex. Women want to own their sexuality and have been and continue to be brought down because of it. Another story told was that of trans women who were beaten, bullied, and pushed away from becoming who she always wanted to be because of the close-mindedness of others. She described that people “beat the girl out of my boy”, which broke my heart. Historically women are taught that they should save themselves for someone special, someone to take care of their needs, yet men have the freedom to explore. Women need to explore too, and it’s taboo because society has made it so. Lastly, the author made a comparison of the vagina and the heart while talking about her daughter giving birth and I believe the metaphor get to the point. The vagina and heart are the same, both capable of repair, they both are stretched and ache for the sake of life. I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation although the examples of different types of sexual moans done for about ten minutes did make me a bit uncomfortable I stepped out of my comfort zone to learn something new, and I did. So far in class, we’ve already read and discussed only two topics but there are connections to be made. In the article Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan G. Johnson, he explains how we avoid using certain terms because society says that we shouldn’t say it and the same could be said about vaginas. In Physiology today the author Lissa Rankin published an article called “What? We Can't Say "Vagina?" which explains the stigma around the word vagina and the products for it.
What? We Can't Say Vagina

People have even gotten fired from positions due to saying the word inappropriate settings because it was labeled as offensive. In all reality, this is a part of the body, and people need to grow up. This two minute long video on You Tube called “Why are people uncomfortable with the word “vagina” shows multiple stories on how women have gotten in trouble for using the anatomical word.
The second article that we read in class was called “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children” by Lisa Delpit. The article speaks about codes of power. Men really were in charge of most of the decisions we made in this country until 1920 they had the power. So men are able to discuss their genitalia openly and when women do it it is clinical. A source I found is a sex and health blog for teens called “Why is it So Difficult to Talk About Vaginas?” and this explains to teenagers the societal norms of double standards that men can be open about their sexuality but women not as much.
All in all, it was a powerful way to spread feminism I saw both men and women of all ages and races watching this piece.



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