Nicholas Barnard Women's Playwrights: The Vagina Monologues May 20, 2002
1. a. I think the symbolism of this whole scene is that a woman's vagina does not in a sociological sense belong exclusively to her. It is controlled by many different factions. The armies of the world that support raping their civilian populations, and boyfriends desiring it as an object of pleasure. But also within this is a lack of power over the vagina, as characterized by “There is something between my legs. I do not know what it is. I do not know where it is. I do not touch…” Here is a woman who is unaware of her physical biology
b. I think this quote symbolizes the push that women must make toward self-independence and strong self-images. The woman involved has to be part of her body that is independent from her because she is unaware of it. She thus is seeing the need to be independent and grow her self-esteem.
c. The Closed due to Flooding I think representative of women's real or perceived greater emotionalness. Women in popular medias are sometimes portrayed as breaking down flooding of tears when they are unable to deal with a situation, either because of its unexpectedness, or because of unprepared ness.
d. I think this symbol is more forward looking. This girl has learned the value and pleasure that lesbian sex has for women and how heavenly and beautiful. While this is not a complex interpretation, I do believe that it is the best one.
e. I think the symbolism here is concerning the resilience of women, and their ability to change, mold, and adapt to their situations. While still within these situations being caring, loving, and able to forgive the wrongs of fellow people.
2. I think the sections concerning what a vagina would say or wear was to indirectly determine how women feel about their vaginas.
I spent some time fall quarter asking some of my gay friends that if they had a child today who was about to reach puberty, and they had to make the choice if the child would be homo- or hetro- sexual, or the child would just cease to exist. While this is a totally hypothetical question because all of the people I asked are too young to have children nearing puberty, and there is not a magic switch to determine someone's sexuality, the responses to the question gave me insight to how people saw both the present social environment and the predictions for the future social environment.
I think the sections where woman stated what a vagina would say or wear was telling us how women perceive their vaginas, and in some ways what women imagine their vaginas to be. If Eve Ensler directly asked women “What do you see as the future of your vagina?” or “How do you incorporate your vagina as part of yourself?” women would have been put off, or have given much more esoteric theoretical answers, and not the inner truths that a vagina's clothing will tell.
3. I believe the reoccurring theme of the importance of the orgasm's political and person meaning is better thought of when considered within the whole theme of love of the vagina.
An orgasm is one of the most pleasurable things a woman can have from a vagina, in many ways it is one of the main functions of the vagina. Both male and female sex organs were biologically evolved in such a way as to be one of the quickest ways of stimulating vast amounts of pleasurable neurochemicals.
So I think the underlying personal message is love your self, and enjoy the pleasures that your vagina can bring. The political message is the de-demonifaction of the pleasure derived from a woman during an orgasm that women have as much right and desire to obtain pleasure from their sex organs.