The Vagina Monologues, A Review

I've been meaning to write this review for a long time. I saw the play for the first time, this past Valentine's Day and I was utterly surprised. I went to see it with my boyfriend, and in my mind the title made me feel that it would be an uncomfortable or inappropriate play to watch during Valentine's but I was wrong in that assumption. Now granted, you don't want to go see it with a new beau or a significant other you don't know very well, unless you two are very mature adults, it may cause some discomfort.
(Random story: I'd had an awesome Spanish teacher when I was in high school who told me she would be preforming in this play. She didn't want me to see it because she said it was too explicit for my age, but I think it's fair to believe that being a college student at 20, it was now appropriate for me to see this play, for only $5 :))
It is national tradition for "The Vagina Monologues" to be shown on Valentine's Day, which was a fact I was ignorant of before seeing it and following up with research. In a nutshell, I saw the big themes as being "Progressive," "women-empowering," "women-liberating," and "revealing." The monologues consist of various soapbox stories dealing with every aspect of woman experience, of course surrounding her private parts.
Eve Ensler, the original writer, wrote the monologues based off of 200 previous interviews she'd conducted with with women about their views on "sex, relationships and violence against women." I thought that was a cool thing for her to do, as sex has always been a taboo issue. When the women answered her questions, they brought up many personal anecdotes to help explain themselves, which Ensler was inspired to use to create a compilation of these monologues.
There is one monologue dedicated to a very old woman who said she had never had sexual intercourse before because when she became aroused she would "flood" with a terrible stench and this would embarrass her. I've never heard of that, but Im assuming that it's maybe a rare condition some women may have. Another monologue speaks on a young girl who'd always had bad experiences with her private. As a young girl she was jumping on the bed...had jumped too high and landed between her legs on the bed post...OUCH! As an adolescent someone punched her there and when she was 16 a beautiful, woman she admired in her neighborhood taught her how to please herself. This experience, I assume touches on the issue of same sex relations.
If you are thinking right now, Yasmine what's the matter with you?! Hey, the answer is nothing, I am simply relaying your with facts surrounding the play, but for this reason...the shock value, this play is truly revolutionary.

Another story, my absolute favorite is the one of The Angry Vagina! It speaks of how horrible the doctor visits are...in which you are told to strip naked, put on an itchy piece of thin cloth, told to slide down in the stirrups and are examined with a cold instrument, called a speculum, which the monologue calls "duck lips!" lol This angry monologue also condemns whoever thought of the tampon which the monologue calls "a dry cotton swab, you shove up... :)
There are also a couple of more serious, sad monologues, those of foreign girls in poor countries in places like Russia, where girls are sex trafficked and terribly abused, and those of women in African who are mutilated so there is no longer any feeling. Mutilation often leads to vaginal infections and miscarriages...it is a painful process.
There's another funny one about a married woman who does not like to shave. She has a firm belief that you (as a man) cannot like it, without liking hair! LOL She found her husband cheating on her, and was told that compromise is sometimes necessary for relationships to work. So she agreed and started shaving, but her husband continued to cheat on her. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this one!
Overall, I thought the play was great! I'd like to say "It's the play that sheds light on all the things women can't say OUT LOUD!" If you go see this play, there are two things you must do...1) You must be honest with yourself about all good and bad sexual experiences you've had in the past and 2) you MUST be open minded to the perpectives of other women, even if you don't necessarily agree with them. If you do these two things, there should definitely be times when you are laughing your guts out and maybe a time or two when you are crying. It's a liberating, emotional roller coaster! This goes for men as well...I think it will open their eyes (probably more than they want them to be opened lol) to women's perpectives on sex.

Review by Yasmine Arrington