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By Sridatta Gupta on September 17, 2008

VAGINAS CAN SPEAK

“How many of you can utter the word ‘vagina’?”, only few hands rose up with reluctance. “If we all utter ‘vagina’ in chorus can you utter it?”. There were quite a few vigorous nods but most of them shied away. None of these are any extracts from any medical literature or a seminar but words of a passionate woman who has joined the revolution for the liberation of ‘vagina’ - an empirical symbol of womanhood. However, it has been subjected to continuous humiliation and torture. This was and is the call of The Vagina Monologues - a fight to liberate womanhood – vagina.

The Vagina Monologues is an Obie Award winning episodic play written by Eve Ensler which ran at the Broadway Westside Theatre. Ensler originally started in production; when she left the play it was recast with three celebrity monologists. The production has been staged internationally, and a television version featuring Ensler was produced by cable TV channel HBO. In 1998, Eve launched a V-day, a global non profit that has raised a huge sum for women’s anti-violence groups through benefits of the play.

India, being a developing nation, has its own taboos. In India, every 26 minutes a woman is molested, every 34 minutes a rape takes place and every 43 minutes a woman is kidnapped. Yet, the Indian Government comfortably sits back and watches the show. Indian women have been awarded the status of second class citizens, whereas their contribution is almost at par with the men folk.

In such a dismal situation, a few had to put their feet firmly on the ground and become the mouthpiece for the women fraternity. Mody Kotwal (a film personality), Dolly Thakore (who is a theatre legend in her own right), Jayati Bhatia (she has many, many roles to her credit including Kasturba in Mahatma vs Gandhi, the girl in All the Best and she appears in popular serials like Tu Tu Mein Mein and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki), Avantika Akerkar (a brilliant actress and NGO activist) and Sonali Sachdev (an orthodontist who has become an actress). These dynamic women have joined hands to fight for this cause through the popular play, The Vagina Monologues. They have adapted the creation of Eve and added monologues of other women collected through their rigorous surveys.

This play contains different experiences of women all around the world and these are presented in story formats. Some of the most popular ones which are regularly performed are:
I Was Twelve, My Mother Slapped Me: a chorus describing many young women’s and girls’ first menstrual period.

My Angry Vagina, in which a woman humorously rants about injustices wrought against the vagina, such as tampons, douches, and the tools used by gynaecologists.

My Vagina Was My Village, a monologue compiled from the testimonies of Bosnian women subjected to rape camps.

And many more tales of the horrific situations which are unheard of and to which women are regularly subjected to.

The play is one mouthpiece of millions of women who are, at every moment, subjected to such humiliations and disgrace. The monologues are beautifully portrayed and in every dialogue, the audiences can feel the trauma and pain which the women tend to suffer from.

This production is undoubtedly an eye opener, a new source to join the fight and help these women gain back their rights. This can be the most apt way to make them believe in a beautiful life waiting ahead of them.

Sridatta Gupta

(4 votes, average: 2.75 out of 5)

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[Image Source: http://www.womensstudies.ku.edu/images/vaginamonologues.jpg

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Comments:

Guneet Narula on September 20th, 2008 at 2:40 am |

Before I begin, I must tell you that I am a 20 year old guy from Delhi[ncr]. I read this article not because I read the word ‘vagina’ (well, okaym it may have counted a little bit, but let’s no go that side), but because I finished reading the article “The Mighty Indian Female” before opening this page. I was curious of the approach of these two articles towards the same issue.

One more thing, I do agree with the issue that women all over the world have been discriminated against, but only to a certain extent. I have my reasons, and I am open minded enough to respect or accept opinions. Though some may argue that this issue deals with facts not opinions. And finally, I give the same respect (sometimes more, ’cause of some obvious reasons) to women and men. Hence I am aware that I should choose my words carefully.

The first article I read has been written by a certain “Shishir Srivastava”, who I am assuming with some confidence is a guy. The approach of that article tackles the issue from the present. It lays out the current status of the matter, lays out the rising curve on the time-status graph. And I’m hoping its spreading encouragement.

While your article on the famous broadway production, I feel, sums up the reality that even though the curve is rising on the graph, its slow and deserves better. Agreed. But I am still confused.

To be honest, I feel the same confusion with every similar issue like racism, casteism etc. where a certain faction of the population is discriminated against. I may sound idealistic here, but I am saying this after giving adequate thought to both sides of the arguement.. I think the reasons behind such discrimination have been overlooked.
Before I carry on, I would like to know the approach and the objective that guided you on writing this article.

But I must say, it has been well written and stirs up (and maintains) strong emotions. Hope to hear from other readers and the writer soon.

manoj nath on September 24th, 2008 at 3:29 pm |

I’m a graphic designer by profession. I deal with static visual communication designs.
My seniors ask me to make a CLASSY design. I get their point and use jazzy backgrounds. Not to mention, most of the times, there remains silhouettes of dancing women…err….divas!!!
I recall my communication-management-classroom session where a visiting faculty presented us with the stereo typical imagery of portrayal of women for advertising communication. I couldn’t make up my mind as to go which track. This entire session was a breaker to the existing thought process. Quite true was the depiction of this stereo typical imagery, women being used as products of display. This was one way to delineate feminism as a subject, had many reasons for its existence. For one, the age old male-dominated world had subdued the paraphernalia of the female, which got translated into visual imagery as well. The so-called second class sex has taken a lot of set backs.
As per the above article, the play seems to be a better portrayal of women’s journey with twists and turns, with different hues, but somehow maintains the trauma, an average woman is getting in life, day in and out. A bold rendition of woman as a subject, The Vagina Monologues appears to be an eye-opener as well as a shocker!!
I haven’t seen the play, I’m eager to witness it.

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