Vagina Monologues Analysis

Amanda Márquez

Extra Credit Write Up

I recently attended the Vagina Monologues, also known as the Blank Monologues at the University of Washington. Various self-identified women spoke about different experiences that invoked various reactions of feelings, thoughts, and actions, however, unapologetic for all of these instances that were the results of bigotry, addiction, depression, or violence. One women spoke about her mother who was her first heartbreak and her morning process from no longer having her in her life, while another woman spoke about her father who would sexually molest her sister growing up, and the love and hatred she still felt for him despite his violent, drunken, and perverted actions. Another transwoman discussed the hate

UW decided to rename this series to “Blank Monologues” from “Vagina Monologues” because it was originally formed by white feminists, and may even equate women’s experiences directly to their sexuality and anatomy. This is a change I believe WSU should also enforce in its Vagina Monologues, because rhetoric is just as important as it is powerful. Although I was impressed with the amount of participants from the LGBTQ community, I was disappointed at the low amount of women of color who participated, while the majority were white, even despite the event’s name change. I admire these women’s ability to openly share about some of these traumatic and empowering experiences to a group of strangers. Although there were some stories I was able to relate with more than others’ based on my own experiences as a woman, such as the stories of sexual assault and their absent fathers, each story was just as relevant and influential as the other. While many were related and similar, many of them were also unique and different, although because of this difference, I take solace that most of the women in the audience were able to identify with at least one story in one way or another. I appreciated that the poems were written and told in a way that was not formal, nor did not seem rehearsed, which contributed to the rawness of the realness of these stories. I also