Customer Reviews

The Vagina Monologues: The V-Day Edition

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

This book is a life changer. I read it six months ago and I cannot believe how much it has liberated me and my attitude towards my body. Like everyone says, you cannot put it down once you begin reading it. Ensler talks about the things I've kept hidden. I never knew just how central to my life my vagina is. A chapter about menstruation, my god, people talk about this? A chapter about orgasm and hair and the fear we have of our own body. The part we never like to talk about. The chapter on birth is amazing, and until then I never knew how complex the woman's vagina is. For a woman of 22, this is a very important read. If you ever get to see her read from The Vagina Monologues, go. She puts on an amazing show. Some people think it's simple but I feel it's life-changing. I would be a very different person without it and not many books can have that kind on impact.

I picked up the book in a local bookstore before the media here started paying attention to the play, which has recently opened in Brazil.

First of all, I was amused by the title. What would a vagina have to say? As a man, I could understand some female sensitivities, since men are a minority in my family. The Brazilian edition of the book has a microphone placed in front of a female pubis, and that surely looked funny to me.

I showed it to my wife, but she didn't have much of a positive reaction due to her conservative upbringing(she tries, though), but when I read her one of the stories she was amused

A few weeks later "The Vagina Monologues"was all the rage here. The Brazilian version of the play(directed and adapted by actor/director Miguel Falabella) opened in Rio de Janeiro, and suddenly everyone was talking about it. Even Eve Ensler, the author of the play, gave an interview to a local newsmagazine directed to the female public. One could not turn on the TV or open a newspaper without stumbling into a Vagina Monologues comment.

I havent (as of this writing) yet seen the play, but I found reading the book very enjoyable. It is a collection of very short stories related to various vagina-related subjects, such as the discovery of pleasure, childbirth, and even rape. There are also a few facts of the vagina world.

Personally, there are two favorite stories, in my opinion. The first is a married woman who dislikes having her pubic hairs shaved - she feels like a child when it is done to her, and the story on rape; the metaphorical description is so clear that brings tears to one's eyes.

As any other collection, there are also a bad moments - the introductiuon is sometimes annoying, for it reads like an outdated sixties feminist chant - but, all in all, the play, as a reading piece, is utterly enjoyable.

Bottom line: A good piece for both women and men, regardless of sexual option

When I told my mother we were performing _The Vagina Monologues_ for V-Day 2000, she said, "What? What a disgusting thing to do!" That is exactly why _The Vagina Monologues_ must be read and performed -- to help us get over the disgust we have about our vaginas.

The variety of monologues in the book is incredible; Eve Ensler has created several personas that all tell you about their vaginas and their associated experiences. The monologues are well ordered -- the moods change from one to the other, with little overlap -- and you'll likely laugh, cry, squirm, cry, then laugh again.

Buy it, read it, share it.

I bought The Vagina Monologues prepared to be wowed, moved, and forever changed. After all, isn't that what happens to every woman who reads The Vagina Monologues? Well, not for me.

The first problem that I had with this book is that it simply doesn't work well as a book. I didn't laugh. I didn't cry. I didn't anything. The monologues are written as performance pieces and simply don't stand up without the performance. It isn't their fault, just the nature of the thing. As a sidenote; I was able to see the monologues sometime late, which really brought home the point to me - it needs women to make it come alive.

The second problem that I had with The Vagina Monologues was that I felt it missed the mark. As with so much feminist literature it mixes up freeing women/relieving oppression with a sort of 'no holds barred' abandonment of any type of morality. As a result, I have very mixed feelings about the monologues. I feel some are very important and need to be heard by more people (such as the monologue which illustrates why rape as a tactic of systematic warfare is a very bad idea). That monologue (for me) speaks to the idea of acknowledging women's suffering and seeking to do something to stop it. On the other hand, I felt that some of the monologues were in very bad taste that borders on criminal. I'm thinking specifically of a monologue which details how a grown woman makes love (I call it molests) a thirteen year old girl. I'm sorry if I seem too conservative for the times, but I don't see how it is liberating to women to be commiting pedophelia upon them.

Which brings me to another point about The Vagina Monologues. The author's message of freeing women from the bonds of oppression gets all mixed up with a 'lesbians are good' message. Regardless of whether lesbians are or are not good, I feel that this muddies the waters in this book considerably. After all, if the thirteen year old girl that I mentioned in the last paragraph had been involved with a grown man, we'd all be howling from the rooftops.

In summary, I feel that The Vagina Monologues have lots of potential but suffer from a clear definition of mission. The book plays fairly badly as well. Read the Vagina Monologues if you wish, better yet, attend a performance. Be prepared, however, to hold yourself back from being swept into the popular tide of thought so that you may think and judge critically, for yourself, what you find.

I received "The Vagina Monologues" as an early Christmas present this year, and I finished it in one quick sitting. While I wouldn't consider myself a "feminist" in the strictest sense of the word -- rather an enlightened, liberal woman -- this book forced me to realize how much women are NOT talking about important issues. There was nothing shocking or revolting about this book, as the average person might predict from the title. Rather, I was moved by each chapter, as women of all ages and backgrounds shared their memories, fears and celebrations of the one thing that makes them the most feminine. I plan to give this book to all my girlfriends; it is definitely a work everyone should read. I would like for my husband to read this as well - while he is a sensitive and intelligent man, this book could certainly teach him a thing or two about the female experience.

This book had to be the most amazing book I have read in years. I picked it up and didn't put it down until I was finished. What Eve Ensler has done to reclaim the word "vagina" and make it ours again it both breathtaking and brave. She has started the break down of so many sexual and societal barriers and has started the road to shameless sexual sucess. But the book is not only about having better sex and knowing how to please yourself. It is about becoming more comfortable with being a woman and knowing who you are and where to locate all of your parts. I have been waiting for a book like this for years and I am so proud that it should come in such a wonderful form as the beautiful and moving poetry/prose of this wonderful author. To any man or woman who feels that they know everything there is to know abot a woman's vagina, read this book. It will not only change your views but it will rock your world. I'm in love with this book. Well done.

This book was incredible. I laughed and I cried. It should definetly be on every woman's bookshelf, as a reference for themselves and for future generations of women. In my after- teen life I have wished so many times that women would get a better initiation into what they are about to become, a creation of a more positive atmosphere for the "acceptance of our new bodies". Eve Ensler has made an important step exactly towards this point. Women have to perceive their bodies, not as objects of manipulation or sublimination but as parts of our own identity. Too often women are separated beings: body vs. mind/soul. The V-Day has given women of all possible age-groups a chance of reconciliating, introverting and discovering or rediscovering as well as defining and redifining their Vaginas and within this scope themselves. Eve has interviewed a wide scope of women from various backgrounds. It is great to be a woman. Vaginas forever. Thank you Eve.

PS.: I can only recomend this book to guys as well - You know how you always complain that you can't understand women, well maybe after this book you might or at least you will be close to it.

I read this book in two hours, I literally could not put it down!! It was so enlightening to hear so many different kind of women tell their stories. This is the kind of book that celebrates womanhood and all the wonders that come along with our wonderful species. It's a must read!

At my book club meeting a couple months ago, one of the members (who had just returned from a trip to London) was raving about this one-woman show she saw. I had heard of The Vagina Monologues before but couldn't recall exactly what it was about. Well, this member gave us all the gritty details and sparked quite a discussion about it. And with us all being such book nuts, we had to know, "Is there a book?"

Reading The Vagina Monologues left me with a new feeling of empowerment and happiness at being born a woman. The women Eve Ensler interviewed for the essays came across as strong individuals -- simply because they survived. The essays cover a wide variety of topics such as birth, sex, rape, genital mutilation, and menstruation. All different types of women were interviewed, and their stories will make you laugh, cry, and shout with joy. Plus, reading the letters in the back of the book from people who attended the live performances was very moving. Just hearing how the show affected the audience (men and women alike) was enough to see its worth.

I thank Eve Ensler for creating The Vagina Monologues and for believing in the power, uniqueness, gentleness and strength of women. Makes me want to start my own show. And to quote one of the women who directed the play, "Viva Vagina!"

This book is about giving women the power to heal themselves. It is meant to counteract centuries of active destruction of feminine symbols which have caused women to feel shame about their bodies. For instance, in the monologue "My Vagina Was My Village," the speaker tells of having her home and body ravaged by soldiers: "They invaded it. / Butchered it and burned it / down. / I do not touch now. / Do not visit. / I live someplace else now. / I don't know where that is." These lines speak eloquently about our bodies as our primary home. Our bodies have everything to do with our sense of self. There are many experiences a woman may have that would make these words from VAGINA MONOLOGUES ring true. Other monologues use humor to get at intimate truths, such "Hair": "I realized ... that hair is there for a reason--it's the leaf around the flower, the lawn around the house." Ensler is right to title the book as she does and to repeat, repeat, repeat the word "vagina." Reading it, hearing it, seeing it, and saying it gives women the power to own their own bodies, their first and forever home, and thus themselves, again.