One question I kept thinking about as I read The Vagina Monologues was “Based on the monologues, what is Ensler trying to say about women? What can we as a society say about women in our culture?” I kept coming back to this question for a few reasons. First, I kept thinking why these monologues? She interviewed hundreds of women, but selected these to turn into monologues. Ensler admits in the book that some of the monologues are verbatim what the women said, some are combinations of what many women said, and she took some creative liberty with a topic that came up in an interview or multiple interviews. Secondly, some of these monologues are extremely personal and controversial. I started to wonder if this was a emotional decision (the stories provoked a strong emotional reaction in Ensler and she wanted to provoke a strong emotional response in the reader or viewer) or if this was a tactical decision (she want was structuring the book or performance in such a way that that certain topics were discussed in a certain way or order)? Possibly a combination of the two?
When I think about what this piece of work says about women, many words come to mind: strong, sophisticated, loving, compassionate, empathetic, scared, ashamed, explorative, open, kind-hearted, oppressed, inspiring. The women in these monologues amaze me for having the ability to open up and share in the way they did, because this is not something that I can do. I think if I had to pick one word that these monologues inspire is strength. Women have to over come and deal with so much more physically, mentally, and emotionally when compared to many men, and I think that some of the men in our class acknowledged this in some of the class discussions we had on this book.
When I look at and consider the monologues collectively, I get the same sense of strength, because I feel the book has topics from oppression to freedom. The sense of strength ranges from the strength the women demonstrated in their monologues to the fact they were brave enough to share their story with Ensler. Monologues like “The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could” and “The Flood” give a whole new meaning to womanhood. The strength these women have is even demonstrated when they answer some of the questions that Ensler posed, because I honestly do not know if I would be able to answer a question like “What would your vagina where” or “What would your vagina say?” Then there are the vagina facts, which are interesting and intense, and give me a whole new appreciation and respect for my sex and gender. I never knew the clitoris has 8,000 nerves or how disturbing genital mutilation actually was. It was eye opening to read.
I really do not know what Ensler’s rhyme or reason was when she selected the monologues she did. I think it had something to do with the emotional appeal and relate ability of some of the stories. Maybe she chose them because she found them inspirational and wanted to inspire others. We know that the topics she selected were common to many of the interviews and that is why they were included, so maybe some of the stories related to the topics were appealed to Ensler’s emotion, and she though they would appeal to the audiences.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I know I keep saying it, but I really did find it eye opening. This is not something that is discussed in our culture, but I think it should be. Women need to know we are all going through similar things and that we can rely on each other. Women have come so far over the past few decades, and this book the response it has gotten is going to help women to continue their journey.
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