The Vagina Monologues

I know...for those of you who do not know what this is, you are probably wondering what in the world this is and why am I blogging about it. Well, the Vagina Monologues is a group of women who interview women and ask them questions like, "If your vagina could get dressed what would it wear?" or "If your vagina could talk, what would it say?" Actually, this is all a part of the act of the Vagina Monologues. They use these interviews as comedic relief/satire to convey a very powerful message. The Vagina Monologues are advocates for what is called V-Day; a day in which women reclaim peace. According to the pamphlet I received,
V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anit-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sexual slavery. The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine, and Vagina.

At the beginning of the show I found myself cringing at the multiple uses of the word "vagina," but I soon became intrigued by the messages in which they were trying to portray in their acts. Most acts were very funny and received great responses from the audience (of mostly women, I should add). Other acts were more serious and described the violence of women in third-world countries. It is terrible to think of the experiences women are going through and the violence and terror they face. In these acts I actually started crying, trying to picture these women as permanently damaged or ruined as a result to overly-excited, cruel men.

The Vagina Monologues were very empowering, and made me realize that it is important to formulate a classroom in which violence (against either girls or boys) is prohibited. Today we are seeing an abundance of messages that exhibit violence: tv/movies, video games, child's play, etc. As future teachers, we need to figure out a way to speak to our students about handling conflicts in such a way so to prevent further violence.