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Vagina Monologues

Tonight I watched a local production of the Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler. They are put on all over the country on Valentine's Day (now reclaimed as V-Day) to shine a spotlight on violence against women and to bring a voice to the voiceless. If you have not seen it performed, you must go see it. If you are female, it will empower you. If you are male, it will educate you (it also educates the ladies). It's a book too.

A running theme throughout the monologues are questions posed by Eve Ensler to various women across the country and the world. Some answers from the show are in green. My answers are in red. How would you answer?

1) If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear? Beret, leather jacket, silk stockings, milk, a pink boa, glasses, an electroshock device to keep unwanted strangers away, sweatpants. Nothing, it would bask in the sun and get a tan.
2) If your vagina could talk, what would it say, in two words? Slow down, Feed me, I want, Yum Yum, Oh Yeah, Not Yet, Let's Play, Stay Home, Be patient.

Here's an except (I think it's from an introduction, not an actual monologue):

"I never once heard the word clitoris. It would be years before I learned that females possessed the only organ in the human body with no function other than to feel pleasure. (If such an organ were unique to the male body, can you imagine how much we would hear about it-and what it would be used to justify?) Thus, whether I was learning to talk, to spell, or to take care of my own body; I was told the name of each of its amazing parts except in one unmentionable area. This left me unprotected against the shaming words and dirty jokes of the school yard and, later, against the popular belief that men, whether as lovers or physicians, knew more about women's bodies than women did." Excerpted from The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, copyright© 2001 by Eve Ensler.

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Oh goody, finally a reason to be happy I'm turning 30: Fact #1: 17.6 % of women in the United States have survived a completed or attempted rape. Of these, 21.6% were younger than age 12 when they were first raped, and 32.4% were between the ages of 12 and 17.

Fact #21: Females ages 12 to 24 are at the greatest risk for experiencing a rape or sexual assault (DOJ 2001). For more "fun" facts, go here.


[I see you Chile, Norway and Italy!]

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