1) The genre of this piece of literature is drama, meaning that Ensler wrote these monologues to be performed. Why do you think she wants vaginas to be publicly performed? Why does she want vaginas to be physically embodied? What effect does this have on the way we see and think of vaginas?
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| Image: "Black Iris" by Georgia O'Keefe |
In The Vagina Monologues Eve Ensler aims to expose the audience to the word "vagina" as many times as possible. When you you stop and think abut the word vagina, it becomes odd that the word us considered to be so taboo in our society when in essence, it is just the name of a female body body part. Is it because of it's sexual nature? Other sexual body parts such as a males penis and a females breasts are also awkward to say to an extent, but not nearly as much as the word vagina is. This is the main reason why Ensler intended The Vagina Monologues as a performance, to show to both women and men that this word is nothing to be ashamed of.
When Ensler talks about vaginas, she is not just referring to the body part, but she uses vaginas to represent women, and the experiences they have gone through. By presenting the concept of the vagina as not just a piece of the body, but as an extension of the person who owns it. We stop seeing vaginas in a purely sexual nature, and see them as another piece that makes up who a woman really is.
Humanizing and embodying the vagina has an immense effect on the audience itself. By hearing the word itself over and over again, we start of become desensitized to it, it becomes just another part of out vocabulary, and by exposing this word as a concept, we begin to understand what it really means, and what it represents to us all.
I don't think I have EVER used the word "vagina" more in my entire life than I just did in this blog post...and that is the beauty of it.
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