The Vagina’s came and conquered: A man’s perspective on The Vagina Monologues

Truthfully, like a lot of other guys, I was hoping to avoid seeing the Women’s Resources Center’s rendition of Eva Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues. This play has a firm, and, as it turns out, well deserved reputation for being anti-male. So I’d be paying $12 to be man-bashed for two and a half hours?

The main problem with this play is that one really needs to have “one” to get it. The 30-50 year old women sitting around me were in stitches almost the entire time. I thought I heard a guy laugh once, but it might also have been my imagination. The message delivered early on in the play was that men are evil, militant lesbianism (that’s “militant” not “mnage”) and new age mantras like “you are your clitoris” are the solution to all the world’s problems. Communally shouting words that can’t be printed in this paper also aren’t the answer, but giving all proceeds to charity is at least a healthy start.

On the plus side, a variety of women were profiled-from Afghan women under the Taliban, homeless women in the US to murder victims in Mexico. However, the performances, while heartfelt, weren’t very strong and some of the actors seemed to be mismatched with their material; material that was boiled down to an infinitely long, but occasionally interactive, two and a half hours followed by an additional twenty minutes thanking their sponsors, beneficiaries, faculty consultants, cast, crew (all of whom were already listed in the program).

I dare the Men’s Resource Center to sponsor The Penis Monologues next year (yes, it is a real play!). If run in tandem not only does it amount to theatrical intercourse, but creates a defacto inter-sex dialogue. Which reminds me, doesn’t having two or more performing each sketch defeat the purpose of a monologue?

The Women’s Resource Center sponsored the performance of Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues on March 3-4 to celebrate V-Day, a nationwide campaign to stop violence against women. Proceeds from the two performances go to support the Miami Victims Services Center, (www.vscmiami.org) which provides assistance to people recovering from violent crimes.

Jonathan Twiggar can be contacted at j.twiggar@umiami.edu