The word “vagina” appears 136 times in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. Any slang term imaginable is also mentioned with giggles and orgasmic moans to boot. The show is about “spreading the word.” Its aim is to start a conversation about the “word” by unabashedly breaching the taboo subjects of female sexuality, desire, abuse and pleasure. The Monologues are as much political as they are theatrical.
Last weekend in the ’Sco, a group of Oberlin students brought the Monologues to Oberlin. They are based on hundreds of interviews Ensler conducted and transformed into an act.
Ensler began performing them herself as a one-woman show in 1996. This expanded into a three-woman show, which became a star-studded benefit event, and transformed into a global movement called V-day. The V-day “Until-the-Violence-Stops” movement has been raising money to end violence against women and girls for over five years.
Hovering somewhere between stand-up comedy and political commentary, The Vagina Monologues continue to be performed at colleges and theaters across the country and around the world. For a few years now, Oberlin College has been performing them annually to benefit the local Lorain County Rape Crisis Service.
Why go to a benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues? To support local women? To be reminded of women’s issues globally? Yes and yes. But the assumption is also that it will be enjoyable. Unfortunately, Ensler’s recent additions to The Vagina Monologues may have made them more issue-heavy and less entertaining than they used to be.
The Vagina Monologues website claims the performances are “a celebration.” This is a reasonable description of the original script, but Ensler’s new material focuses more on global women’s rights violations and less on the vagina. Her trips to visit the women of troubled countries such as Bosnia and Afganistan and her continued interest in gathering the stories of victims have led her to add darker, more didactic monologues. Some audience members this weekend found them moving, revealing, upsetting or cathartic. Some found them too close to emotionally manipulative political propaganda to be enjoyable.
In any event, all agree the new monologues are grimly serious. Isn’t there a way to enlighten, empower, and induce uncontrollable laughter all at the same time? The answer is, well, yes.
At least one actor this weekend proved that comedy benefits a benefit. First-year Diona Reasonover, a powerful new talent at Oberlin, did not allow Ensler’s personal political mission to outshine her performance. Her monologue about a smart sex worker who loves to make vaginas happy truly celebrated vaginas and female sexuality.
By teaching, preaching, ad-libbing and unabashedly impersonating the diverse world of the orgasmic moan, she whipped Ensler, audience and fellow actors into shape. She had the audience screaming, yelling, clapping, blushing, hooting and raving with every line. Thus, each night, another room full of people was empowered by the gift of comedy.
Participating in The Vagina Monologues is an unmistakably inspiring experience. Clearly, by performing Ensler’s edifying material and thus tackling the subject of the female body, these Oberlin women have come to feel newly empowered. Their empowerment transcended the stage to speak to men and women alike.
But what if you have already seen The Vagina Monologues? What if you already feel empowered enough? Ensler wants to expand our western gaze to include female atrocities happening all over the world with her additions in the spirit of enlightenment. This is probably very important. It just may not be as entertaining as an imitation triple-orgasm.