The Vagina Monologues (play)
"The Vagina Monologues" is a groundbreaking play created by Eve Ensler, which originated in 1994. The work is based on interviews with over two hundred women, exploring their personal stories and experiences related to their bodies and sexuality. Ensler's play aims to break the silence surrounding women's bodies and confront the pervasive violence and alienation many women face. The term "vagina," while a medical term, became a focal point of controversy, highlighting societal discomfort around discussing women's anatomy.
The play features a variety of characters, including a Bosnian war survivor, an elderly Jewish woman, and even Ensler's own reflections on her granddaughter's birth. With its mix of humor and poignant storytelling, "The Vagina Monologues" resonates with diverse audiences, including men, and has been performed worldwide. It also sparked the V-Day movement in 1998, which raises funds and awareness to combat violence against women, contributing over $35 million to various programs aimed at addressing issues such as rape, genital mutilation, and sex trafficking. Overall, the play serves as a powerful vehicle for women's empowerment and advocacy.
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Subject Terms
The Vagina Monologues (play)
Identification Controversial Off-Off-Broadway play
Author Eve Ensler (1953- )
Date First produced in 1996
Place Here Arts Center, New York City
Although initially outrageous, the continuing performances of this play not only served to reconnect women with their bodies but also generated a powerful social movement condemning violence against women.
During a conversation with a feminist friend in 1994, playwright Eve Ensler was shocked to realize that the woman seemed alienated from her own body. Ensler, who had been raped and abused in childhood, recognized that she too had become emotionally detached and began to talk with other women about their attitudes toward their bodies. As she interviewed more than two hundred women of all ages and backgrounds, she discovered that many shared her disconnection. She based The Vagina Monologues on their stories.
Mindful of a tradition of silence about women’s bodies and of widespread violence against them, Ensler argued that women needed to tell their intimate stories and reclaim their own words. Because “vagina,” a medical term, generated controversy, at first she had difficulty placing advertisements for her play. In her introduction to the book version, published in 1998, she explained: “I say it [vagina] because I’m not supposed to say it. . . . I say it because I believe that what we don’t say we don’t see, acknowledge, or remember.”
Originally, the play consisted of several monologues by different voices (all played by Ensler), but soon other actors were involved. Each performance was different, tailored to the specific audience. Any awkwardness was allayed by her impish humor, and audiences, including men, generally responded with enthusiasm.
After seeing a Newsweek photograph of Bosnian girls rescued from a Serbian rape camp, Ensler traveled to Croatia to interview Bosnian refugees. Her outrage at rape as a deliberate tactic of war resulted in the powerful monologue of a Bosnian survivor. Other characters included an elderly Jewish woman recalling a humiliating date, a six-year-old girl, a corporate lawyer turned lesbian dominatrix, and Ensler’s own poetic recollection of her granddaughter’s birth. Later monologues featured an irate woman complaining about a gynecological examination and an Afghan woman living under Taliban rule.
Impact
The Vagina Monologues won a 1997 Obie Award and was widely produced in many cities and on college campuses. It inspired the V-Day movement, which began with a celebrity-studded performance on Valentine’s Day, 1998, generating $150,000 for local charities seeking to end violence against women. Annual V-Day fund-raising celebrations continued to spread worldwide, with performances in more than eighty-one countries. By 2006, more than $35 million had been raised for specific programs that called for increased awareness to combat not only rape and physical abuse of women but also genital mutilation, sex trafficking, forced marriage, and public executions for adultery—hard truths Ensler brought home to the consciousness of America.
Bibliography
Baumgardner, Jennifer. “When in Rome . . .” The Nation 273, no. 19 (December 2, 2002): 22-24.
Ensler, Eve. Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security-Obsessed World. New York: Villard, 2006.
Smith, Dinitia. “Today the Anatomy, Tomorrow the World.” The New York Times, September 26, 1999, p. 2.7.