“I was worried about vaginas. I was worried about what we think about vaginas, and even more worried that we
don’t think about them. I was worried about my own vagina. It needed a context of other vaginas – a community, a culture of vaginas” – Eve Ensler in The Vagina Monologues
“. . .the traditional design of most patriarchial buildings of worship imitates the female body. Thus, there is an outer and inner entrance, labia majora and labia minora; a central vaginal aisle toward the altar; two curved ovarian structures on either side; and then in the sacred center, the altar or womb, where the miracle takes place – where males give birth.” – Gloria Steinam in The Vagina Monologues The Vagina Monologues was written by Eve Ensler to celebrate the vagina in 1996. The book has been revised many times thereafter. According to her, the vagina provides empowerment to the women to achieve her ultimate feminine identity. It is based on her interviews with a lot of women about their sexuality, feminine consciousness and violence against women. Her interest and enchantment with vaginas came out of her growing up in a violent society. According to her, women’s empowerment was intimately linked to their sexuality. She envisioned vagina as the root of things like rape, incest and violence. According to her, the female sexual organ was far superior to its male counterpart in view of the former containing the clitoris, which was exclusively meant for providing ecstatic pleasure. She was inspired by Tina Turner to write the book “who was a woman who fully inhabits her vagina.”
The Vagina Monologues consist of a series of monologues read by a variable number of women . All the monologues concern with the vagina in different ways like love, rape, sex. menstruation, mutilation, masturbation, orgasm etc. The monologues include:
I Was Twelve, My Mother Slapped Me: a description of first menstrual period of many girls and women,
My Angry Vagina, in which a woman humorously shouts about injustices done to the vagina through tampons, douches, and other instruments used by doctors & gynaecologists,
My Vagina Was My Village, a
Monologue of the Bosnian women subjected to non-consensual sex,
The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could, in which a woman recollects her painful sexual experiences of childhood and her sexual experience in her adolescent years with an older woman.
The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy, in which a dominatrix talks about her career in providing women pleasure.
Because He Liked to Look At It, in which a woman who had a revulsion for her vagina, changed her mind after a pleasant encounter with a man who loved to spend hours looking at her vagina,
I Was There In The Room, a monologue in which Eve Ensler speaks about the birth of her granddaughter. The monologue is revised every year in order to highlight a burning issue affecting women around the world. There are also performances through out the world known as Vagina-day celebrations.
The Vagina Monologues is a milestone in feminist literature.