V is for Vagina, and Violence

Many of our readers may have seen the signs advertising Eve Ensler’s upcoming speech and book signing here in honor of V-Day. Many students new to Vanderbilt may also have wondered, “Who is Eve Ensler?” and “What the heck is a V-Day?”

The simplest answer to the first question is that Eve Ensler is the award-winning playwright who wrote The Vagina Monologues, a series of meditations on, you guessed it, the vagina. Originally written in 1996 to explore female sexuality, Ensler edited the play in 1998 to focus on violence against women instead. Yet the violence featured in The Vagina Monologues is unmistakably male/female, and male/female relationships are depicted almost exclusively as violent. Every male-female sexual encounter in the original published edition from 1998 (Ensler releases a new edition every year) is negative, including two brutal rape scenes, while every female-female sexual encounter is positive, including the famous rape scene in “The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could.” This scene, the most controversial in the play, is a graphic monologue in which a thirteen-year-old girl (later changed to sixteen) is given alcohol and sexually abused by a twenty-six-year-old woman. But the encounter is depicted positively; in the original version, the victim describes the encounter as “a good rape.”

If using monologues about “good rape” seems to you like an odd way to stop violence against women, you are not alone. The Vagina Monologues have been criticized by people of all political views, even feminists, including Wendy McElroy and Betty Dodson. Although the play is criticized for its graphic descriptions, for its focus on masturbation and lesbianism, and for defining women by their sexual organ (at one point a woman says that her clitoris “was me, the essence of me”), it is most often criticized for depicting men as The Enemy and equating all sex with violence.

According to its website, V-Day, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, is “a global movement to stop violence against women and girls.” Ending violence against females is definitely a noble and worthwhile goal, and there should be more done to achieve that end. Celebrating V-Day, however, is not the right way to do so. In 1998, Eve Ensler attempted to commandeer Valentine’s Day and make it V-Day, with the V standing for Violence and Vagina, as well as Valentine. Just like her Vagina Monologues, V-Day seeks to equate sex and romance with violence. By supplanting Valentine’s Day with V-Day, she links romance to violence, and in The Vagina Monologues, the obvious lack of positive male/female sexuality imparts the idea that there is no such thing as positive male/female sexuality. Furthermore, Ensler’s replacement of Valentine’s Day with V-Day says that harmony between the sexes should take a backseat to highlighting violence, when in fact harmony between the sexes may be the only way to end sexual violence.

V-Day is celebrated every February 14th by performances of The Vagina Monologues, showings of documentaries about violence against women, and speeches about ending sexual violence. With its focus on violence and atrocities committed by men, it’s not quite as cheery as its traditional counterpart. Yet despite the somber mood (or perhaps because of it), it has garnered tremendous support among celebrities, including Jane Fonda and Susan Sarandon.

The Women’s Center has put on performances of The Vagina Monologues to celebrate V-Day for the last few years. This year, the center is bringing Eve Ensler to speak at Vanderbilt instead, which is, in my opinion, preferable to hearing about a damaged thirteen-year-old being healed through an act of pedophilia. Eve Ensler has radical liberal tendencies, but that is nothing new with the speakers Vanderbilt attracts. Ensler has travelled around the world and interviewed countless women about their experiences, and does have some informative things to say. Whether she will say something informative or spew hate-speak is unknown.

However, whatever takes place on February 18th, it will be interesting. In the very least, a listener will gain a glance at the workings of Ensler’s mind, and he may even hear engaging stories about eating forbidden ice cream in Afghanistan, or the seemingly universal dislike women feel for their bodies. Although there is no planned Q&A session in which to question Ensler about her verbal violence towards men, there will be a book signing where a brave soul could confront her (or praise her, if one feels so inclined.)

Unless you are sure you could not stomach her, I’d say buy a ticket and embrace the experience to see a slightly unhinged award-winning activist.