A Little More Conversation: 15 Years of “The Vagina Monologues”

Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues,” a collection of short, frank theatre pieces the playwright originally performed herself, debuted in 1996 and has since become a living document, a sub-equatorial state of the union, radiating outward from women’s personal experiences with their sexuality to governmental attitudes about – and actions against – women’s bodies.

“The Vagina Monologues” has been performed thousands of times in dozens of countries (including Pakistan, Egypt, and Indonesia), won an Obie Award, and has been produced on HBO.

A new staging at the Los Angeles campus of Antioch University benefits Ensler’s V-Day, an awareness and fundraising campaign to end violence against women and girls.

Sex educator and porn star Nina Hartley performs the monologue “The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy” in the Antioch production. Aside from her roles in more than 1500 softcore and adult movies and hundreds of seminars (“as ‘Nina’ is both a character as well as an actual part of me” Hartley says), she’d only had one line on stage in a theatre production before. In high school.

“It’s great being part of a collaborative process,” Hartley said. “It’s nice to be able to rehearse instead of it always being essentially a live sporting event.”

Director Lesley Alexander met Hartley when the latter gave a seminar in Los Angeles.

“I knew [Hartley would] be good, I just did not know how good,” Alexander said, “and how versatile and deeply sensitive to every nuance of character.”

Hartley brings an element of stunt casting to a theatre event that has seen its share of celebrity performers. Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, and Melissa Etheridge, to name a few, have been guest monologuists.

In addition to having fresh voices read existing pieces, Ensler each year pens new monologues. In this way “The Vagina Monologues,” the use of which is tightly controlled by Ensler’s V-Day foundation, remains inextricably Ensler’s vision. Recent new monologues have focused on violence against women in the Republic of Congo.

While the “Monologues” are undoubtedly theatrical, they never stray from Ensler’s activist base. So college and community performances of Ensler’s work often feature non-actors on stage.

“I hope we switch on a few light bulbs in our audience,” says monologuist Sandra Daugherty.

Daugherty performs the monologue “Reclaiming Cunt” in the Antioch production (“It is the rallying cry,” says Alexander). By day Daugherty supervises the Lube, Condom, and Book department at West Hollywood’s Pleasure Chest, where she also teaches classes on “on some of the most sought-after skills in lovemaking.”

“I do like to act on occasion,” Daugherty says, “[but] I am not an actress. If I call myself an actress, I could also call myself a chef, a stylist, and a sexaholic. That is to say, I cook sometimes, dress myself, and I like sex.”

While performances of the play and other works have helped V-Day raise a reported $60 million for its causes around the world, “The Vagina Monologues” is sometimes criticized for being misandrist, heterosexist, and hypocritical. Writing in 2001, Camille Paglia stated that Ensler “encourages the delusion that [women] are in full control of their reproductive system and that everything negative or ambivalent about it has been imposed by the prejudice of misogynous males.”

Further, early performances of the monologue “The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could,” in which the narrator recounts with pleasure her seduction, at 13, at the hands of an older woman who plied her with alcohol, were revised to add three years to the narrator’s age during the incident and removed the line “it was good rape.”

But Alexander wants the “Monologues” to inspire dialogue.

“I want to hear that people are moved so much they cannot wait to do something about it,” she says. “That’s what happened to me. I am forever changed  by my involvement with V-Day and that’s what I want for every single audience member. ”

“‘The Vagina Monologues’ sends a sex-positive message,” said Daugherty. “It says to men, ‘Look at me! My girl parts as just as alive and aware as your boy parts! Help stop our punishment for being just as you are!’

“To women, it says, ‘Embrace yourself! Be proud! It’s okay! Your experience is your own! You don’t have to be like everyone else!’ So much pain, misinformation and shame keep women from exploring those hidden gems between their legs and between their ears.”

• Antioch’s production of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues”
• starring Amy Gottlieb,Carol Gustafson, Charlisse M. Bennett, Claudia Shields, Connie De Paepe Layton, Dianne Pennie-Jacobs, Flint, Helena Segal, Julie Rodriguez, Laura Shnitzer, Lesley B. Alexander, Milli Marie, Mindy Meyer, Nina Hartley, Pat Parker, Sandra Daugherty, Shanadi Liyanage, Shishonia
• March 4, 5, and 6 at 7 p.m.
• Antioch University Los Angeles Room A1000
• 400 Corporate Pointe, Los Angeles, CA
• Tickets are $20 in advance and may be reserved here, $25 at the door

See also: V-Day