Monologues expose patriarchy from a privileged point of view

MIM sums up the Vagina Monologues as short performances about sex 
from the perspective of wimmin. Usually we hear about sex from the 
perspective of men with wimmin as the object to be acted on. But 
the Vagina Monologues focus on sexual pleasure and bio-determinist 
liberation theory reduces it to just another trope about First 
World pseudo-feminism.

Exposing the position of wimmin is key to the battle against 
gender oppression. And education through performance art is an 
excellent way to reach people. The Vagina Monologues started as a 
play written by Eve Ensler Obie about wimmin's position in society 
and their relationship to their bodies. The performance of the 
Vagina Monologues at Harvard University, directed by Billie Jo 
Joy, was overall entertaining and well done as performance, but 
fell far short of what MIM considers politically progressive 
education about patriarchal oppression. Performance art -- like 
any art -- cannot be judged by its entertainment value alone since 
all art is part of a social structure based on inequality and 
oppression. To be entertaining without being educational or 
revolutionary is to support the status quo of oppression.

Much of the performance was straight up pornography, the only 
difference from TV or the movies being that this pornography was 
wimmin doing the literal acting rather than being acted upon. For 
the director as well as the playwright, pornography from the 
perspective of wimmin is part of the process of liberation. This 
upholds the play's overall view that the real issue is who is 
speaking, not what is being said. Statistics were given about 
clitoral/vaginal superiority over the penis and how the vagina is 
the center of a womyn's self. This bio-determinism masquerading 
itself as progressive ignores the cyclical theory behind much 
pseudo-feminism. Patriarchy says wimmin are defined by their 
bodies, this brand of pseudo-feminists say, "wimmin are more then 
their bodies" and then embrace the patriarchal idea that a vagina 
is a womyn's center. The outcome: wimmin gain "power" through 
accepting that which the patriarchy deals them: objectification. 

$10 from every ticket sold goes to benefit the V-Day (to coincide 
with Valentine's Day performances) foundation funding groups 
fighting violence against wimmin, and have raised a lot of money 
through nation-wide sold-out shows. The groups funded by the V-Day 
foundation, administered by the Ms. Foundation for Women, 
similarly focus on reformist groups working on the issue of 
violence against wimmin within the U$.These groups fail to address 
the root cause of gender oppression. And as MIM has pointed out in 
our theory journal on revolutionary feminism (send $6 to MIM for a 
copy MIM Theory 2/3) domestic violence and rape prevention 
organizations within the u.s. generally fail to even provide an 
effective band-aid against this abuse. Rape and battering have not 
been reduced by the efforts of these groups, and many of them put 
out the misinformation that prosecuting rapists and batterers, to 
put more men in prison, is a progressive action. 

The performances had one scene where a family friend raped a young 
girl. Supporting the killing of the rapist, the performance 
further degenerated into an idealist fantasy by supporting the 
girl's eventual rape by a much older womyn. The encounter was 
considered liberating because the girl enjoyed it. MIM disagrees. 
Just because someone enjoys their subordination does not mean they 
are liberated by it. Power over another individual defines sexual 
relationships in a patriarchal society. No amount of masturbation, 
sexual arousal or lesbianism will erase that. The only real-life 
outcome of such subjectivism is the lynching of more Black men in 
a criminal injustice system that is incapable of dealing fairly 
with any issue of crime.

At the Harvard showing there were a few pieces about wimmin 
outside the U.$. Focusing on genital mutilation in Africa and war-
time rape in the former Yugoslavia. These were the most overtly 
political. The Yugoslavia scene correctly described gendered 
violence by describing the wimmin's rape as an attack on the 
entire society. But within the context of the whole performance, 
this piece degenerated to just another womyn telling her story as 
if that were all that one need to do to reach liberation. 

None of the performances attempted to put gender oppression in a 
global context or discuss how we could really take on the 
patriarchy and win. By the very nature of its focus on wimmin 
within the U.$. and their lack of connection with their vaginas 
and lack of sexual pleasure, the Vagina Monologues raised the need 
for sexual pleasure to the most important aspect of the struggle 
against gender oppression. It is this decadence that makes clear 
the First World perspective of the Vagina Monologues. Even the 
discussion of wimmin in other countries neglected to mention the 
role of imperialism enforcing the patriarchal conditions and 
bringing about the wars.

MIM tells the participants in the Vagina Monologues to look at 
reality in terms of objective access to power, not subjective ways 
wimmin can manipulate the patriarchal power to empower only those 
wimmin at the top of the social hierarchy. The wimmin in the 
performance are obviously skilled performers, but MIM challenges 
these wimmin to use their talent to create an art that serves the 
masses of the worlds wimmin and builds a movement to destroy 
patriarchy, not perpetuate it.