Parental Advisory

[venta]

Does anyone know anything about The Vagina Monologues ?

I'd been told, by people who I'd regard as reliable, that they were extremely funny. Last night, I accidentally found a performance on the telly. The 2 minutes I watched seemed to consist entirely of a woman explaining how she'd "reclaimed" the word cunt, and then repeatedly saying it in different silly voices.

Which the audience seemed to find hilarious. Which I found incomprehensible. It's not like I found it offensive, it just... wasn't funny.

[One Notional Kudos Point to anyone who realises why I suddenly remembered about this :) ]

Comments

Ah, I'm probably fighting a rear-guard action here, but...

[condign.livejournal.com]

That's as may be, but you don't have one.

Which is rather why I like the mystification of it. We've done an awful lot just in the last ten years, and quite a lot over my lifetime to really cheapen that which is sexy, and this is one more step down that road. The major reason that I've not seen the Vagina Monologues is that I'm afraid of being enraged at a number of things I'll find touching or, indeed, important, sharing a stage with a cartload of dross taking itself too seriously.

It's almost a rule these days that things which are 'challenging' or 'statement-making' have to be shocking and crass--the very name 'The Vagina Monologues' makes me want to cringe, as if I saw a copy of Delta of Venus retitled A Cock and Cunt in Paris.

Re: Ah, I'm probably fighting a rear-guard action here, but...

[frax.livejournal.com]

to really cheapen that which is sexy, and this is one more step down that road.

There is nothing *sexy* and never was anything *sexy* about female circumcision and sexual violence against women two very common themes in TVM. Therefore this is in no way "one more step down the road".

TVM is about female empowerment and if that offends your gentlemanly principles then tough because it is isn't about you its about women who have suffered victimisation and their need to reclaim what are their organs.

Calling it the Vagina Monologues instead of the Lotus Flower monologues indicates that it is nothing to do with sexiness or romance but it is making a political statement.

Frax

Re: Ah, I'm probably fighting a rear-guard action here, but...

[condign.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, these are two of the themes, but are not the sole themes of the work. And the discussion to date has rather focused on a single one of the monologues, the one about 'reclaiming' the word cunt--not exactly a high point of victimisation. Furthermore, even if that is its intention, if an unintended consequence of the manner in which it is done is to cheapen that which is sexy, I'm entitled to make that argument--art may be considered within the entirety of its social surroundings, not merely within the box the author (or a viewer) wishes to place it in.

TVM is about female empowerment and if that offends your gentlemanly principles then tough because it is isn't about you its about women who have suffered victimisation and their need to reclaim what are their organs.

To whit Jiggery-Pokery's comment about men not being welcome? But again we return to the issue of empowerment...