Eve Ensler was a wonderful speaker. She told us about what VDay has been about all these years, what's been happening, what they've done, where they've been going. I URGE you to go out and pick up a copy of the Vagina Monologues - there is a 10 th anniversary edition that chronicles the last 10 years of the movement. At the booksigning I will confess, I did tear up. I'm not a pretty cryer so if you want to see that buy the documentary when it comes out. She stood up and gave me a hug - b/c I was trying to get it together before I spoke. I told her that in my life when I was young, I only knew about one type of woman. My kind of woman, strong women. My family is full of strong women. At least that's what I saw when I was young. I don't know if they're more strong b/c of things that happened to them or if they came that was - fresh out of the box, as it were. I didn't really fully realise until after reading her play that there were other women, who could not speak up for themselves, who did not know how. Someone one must speak for them, must raise their voice. Someone must be a watcher, a learner, a talker, a teacher. At some point it has to be me. It has to be you. If we continue to say - NOT ME!!! and run away - nothing will ever get done. Something MUST be done. Something is being done. But a fire needs fuel. Will YOU be fuel?
And she noted my name & its origins - that was nice. I'm not named after a plantation y'know.
The productions at Clemson were fantastic. My Angry Vagina was done by a woman named Sheldon Paschal. She was wonderful in it. It came alive. & I realised that an angry Vagina... probably does have a southern accent. There is nothing more fearsome that a southern woman with an ax to grind.
Jazzma Pryor was wonderful in all of the pieces she performed.
Say It - the piece about the Philipino Comfort Women's fight for an apology from Japan - was performed by Anna Chovanec, Anita Chen, Kelly Hunter, & Erin Martin. It was a driven, angry, pleading, enraged, empowered work & they managed to bring it all inside where it seemed to large to fit.
...and then there was Reclaiming.... Cunt... you heard me, that's right. I'm not fucking around about this one - haven't I been telling you for years? Well, maybe not YOU... Trish Liguori did an awesome job with it - but I think perhaps she should have invovled everyone more before leaving the stage.
I've always liked the word cunt & now so do half the women in that audience last night (conservative estimate).
The newest piece was Welcome to the Wetlands. It compares New Orleans to a Vagina (capital V people - let's remember it stands for life). & an invitation was extended to all present to come to New Orleans on APRIL 11th & 12th - for the SuperLove @ the SuperDome.
"POWER THE MOVEMENT, PREACH THE WORD (VAGINA), PROTEST THE VIOLENCE, PLANT THE FUTURE, PUSH THE EDGE, PLAY THE MUSIC, PRAISE THE WOMEN, PLUG IN THE MEN, PARTY, PERFORMANCE, PINK PARADES!
VAGINA POWER!!! PEACE!!!!"
VDAY X 10!!!
VDAY 1({})
And she noted my name & its origins - that was nice. I'm not named after a plantation y'know.
The productions at Clemson were fantastic. My Angry Vagina was done by a woman named Sheldon Paschal. She was wonderful in it. It came alive. & I realised that an angry Vagina... probably does have a southern accent. There is nothing more fearsome that a southern woman with an ax to grind.
Jazzma Pryor was wonderful in all of the pieces she performed.
Say It - the piece about the Philipino Comfort Women's fight for an apology from Japan - was performed by Anna Chovanec, Anita Chen, Kelly Hunter, & Erin Martin. It was a driven, angry, pleading, enraged, empowered work & they managed to bring it all inside where it seemed to large to fit.
...and then there was Reclaiming.... Cunt... you heard me, that's right. I'm not fucking around about this one - haven't I been telling you for years? Well, maybe not YOU... Trish Liguori did an awesome job with it - but I think perhaps she should have invovled everyone more before leaving the stage.
I've always liked the word cunt & now so do half the women in that audience last night (conservative estimate).
The newest piece was Welcome to the Wetlands. It compares New Orleans to a Vagina (capital V people - let's remember it stands for life). & an invitation was extended to all present to come to New Orleans on APRIL 11th & 12th - for the SuperLove @ the SuperDome.
"POWER THE MOVEMENT, PREACH THE WORD (VAGINA), PROTEST THE VIOLENCE, PLANT THE FUTURE, PUSH THE EDGE, PLAY THE MUSIC, PRAISE THE WOMEN, PLUG IN THE MEN, PARTY, PERFORMANCE, PINK PARADES!
VAGINA POWER!!! PEACE!!!!"
VDAY X 10!!!
VDAY 1({})
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
I have a daughter. And a while ago I raised the question as to how I should refer to her vagina (i.e. when she's washing, showering or using the bathroom, etc). At first I thought that I was just being an "awkward guy" about the whole thing - growing up with two brothers didn't help - but I was surprised to discover that when asked, my wife draw a similar blank. Surely her parents must've had a suitable noun that we could adopt and use as our own. In fact I was more surprised that my wife didn't just turn around, call me an idiot and say "Duh, we just called it a vagina, now get on with it!"
The truth is, she has absolutely no recollection of how her parents would talk to her about this area of her body.
At this point it would be reasonable to assume that my wife is in a unique situation, However, it seems that she is not. I widened the search and began asking my female friends. (not as weird as it might sound, a lot of them are parents too and I guess this is the sort of thing that gets discussed). I got exactly the same response from all of them. No one had a word that they felt comfortable using to describe female genitalia to their kids. And not one of them had any clear recollection of any words used by their parents. That INCLUDES the word vagina!!
The extent of the taboo is quite overwhelming, especially that it seems to extend not just to those terms that are perceived as "offensive" but to any euphemism. People just don't seem comfortable using them. Maybe it's just me and my crazy friends!!
Anyway, in the end my wife and I decided that our daughter's vagina should be called exactly that, (unless you have any suggestions?) It does seem that the challenge of "demystifying the snatch" is a larger one than most people would realise, but I'm not sure the world is ready to hear my three year old refer to her "cunt" just yet!! Haha.
P.s. Found this picture online, found it funny and quite appropriate.