When I asked my mom if she wanted to see the TV movie version of The Vagina Monologues, she responded that it sounded like porn and was not interested. Since the movie is based on a one-woman play called The Vagina Monologues, and Eve Ensler, the sole performer, appeared to be clothed in all the promotional material, I did not share her concerns. In the play, Ensler depicts various women that she interviewed, and the play consists of monologues based on her interviews. The Vagina Monologues, the TV movie, simultaneously includes play excerpts, interviews with women that match the play’s themes at that point in the movie, but the monologues are not based on these interviews and behind the scenes interview with Ensler about how she got the material for the play. The Vagina Monologues, the TV movie, is equal parts performance, examination and recreation of the creative process.
The Vagina Monologues starts humorous, cheeky and uplifting, but becomes more somber as the play unfolds. The Vagina Monologues addresses psychologically and physically scarring experiences. There is explicit sexual content addressed in The Vagina Monologues, but it is only one theme. In The Vagina Monologues, the vagina is emblematic of the speaker’s personality and experiences and not solely a sexual or reproductive organ.
While I enjoyed The Vagina Monologues, I was disappointed that it did not contain the entire play. I would have preferred more content and fewer scenes showing Ensler’s makeup and hair prep. One of the monologues, “The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could,” includes one woman’s account regarding why she feared her vagina. She suffered accidental trauma, rape when she was a child and constant criticism. In this monologue, she has an epiphany that her vagina can be a source of joy when she sleeps with an adult, but she is only 16 years old at that time. I am happy that this person had a redemptive experience, and all experiences should be reflected in art, but the adult still sexually exploited a child regardless of how that child feels. It is possible for those realities to coexist at the same time. The Vagina Monologues may have implicit judgments based on the beliefs held by the women whom Ensler interviewed. Unfortunately, The Vagina Monologues is limited to those experiences and basic surface emotions and does not go deeper to reflect further on the textured implications of and complex spectrum of emotions within those experiences.