Worshipping the Infertility Goddess
A review of The Vagina Monologues
Emily Karrs
|
Attending the GW production of The Vagina Monologues was less like attending a play than it was like stepping inside a revival meeting at a charismatic Christian church. Bright-eyed volunteers sat outside at tables with sign up sheets for associated causes, a small bake sale was held in the foyer for charity, and an engaging emcee marshaled the audience's attention between speakers, giving testimony of their "conversion experiences." Woman after woman took the stage, describing how she came to believe her vagina was beautiful. One woman described her revelation during the first time she learned to masturbate by saying: "The quivering became a quake, an eruption, the layers dividing and subdividing. The quaking broke open into an ancient horizon of light and silence, which opened onto a plane of music and colors and innocence and longing, and I felt connection." Another 72 year-old female character cries the first time she masturbates. An underage girl (16 in the play, but 13 in the book) calls the 24 year-old woman who teaches her to masturbate her "salvation." Just as many ancient civilizations worshipped fertility goddesses, these monologues resemble a spiritual poetry celebrating the vagina goddess within every woman. But while ancient women worshipped fertility, today's devotees shift the focus from procreation to pure physical pleasure.
In the introduction of the last monologue performed, the emcee of the performance mentions that it took her two years of performing The Vagina Monologues before she realized she had not included anything about birth. Admitting that this was a "bizarre omission," she now includes a rather beautiful and moving monologue about the birth of her grandchild. Yet the omission is not so bizarre when one views the vagina as mainly a conduit to individual orgasmic pleasure rather than a gateway to new life or union with another person.
On an interesting note, the monologues performed at GW contained at least nine discrete sexual experiences. Of those nine, five were positive and four were negative. Four of the positive sexual experiences were entirely female, and all four negative experiences involved men. Only when free from the specters of pregnancy and patriarchy is it possible for the modern feminist to see beauty in the sexual act. During the intermission, a Power Point presentation of feminist quotes flashed statistics about the availability of contraception and abortion to women. Outside of the theater, tables set up by abortion-choice activists passed out information and signed up new members.
Perhaps the most shocking element of the play is its identification of a woman's vagina with her self. While metaphorically this might be interesting, this play takes it beyond the level of metaphor into the realm of the truly weird. One character muses about her clitoris, declaring, "It was me. The essence of me-I didn't have to find it, I had to be it. Be it. Be my clitoris. Be my clitoris." And the only positive sexual experience between a woman and a man occurs when the man insists that he gaze at her vagina because "it's who you are."
Many women also attributed outside personalities and characteristics to their vaginas. The author of the monologues, Eve Ensler, conducted interviews with women to aid her in writing the play and included questions like, "If your vagina could talk, what would it say?" and "If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?" Many of the actresses in the show sent shout outs to their vaginas in their program bios. Since when did vaginas become anthropomorphic entities that speak and go shopping for fabulous outfits? The vagina has been transformed from one of the many parts that work in harmony in a woman's body into a secret deity that must be communed with in order to attain heavenly pleasure on earth.
Much of the outcry against The Vagina Monologues has been against its graphic content or its delight in controversial expressions of sexuality. Yet, an excerpt from the show is far less graphic than a Natural Family Planning course at the local Catholic Church. The true disagreement between the admirers of the play and those who oppose it is whether or not an orgasm is the ultimate fulfillment of a woman's life. While these monologues might not produce a cogent case for the betterment of women, they most likely will find a number of converts to the orgiastic glee of vagina worship.