After class on Wednesday, I decided that since there were only three males in this women’s literature class that I would use one of the questions that were brought up in class as the backbone to my blog this week. The question was, “what do men think of The Vagina Monologues?” and I feel that the males response and opinion is just as important as one from a female.
It is interesting to read a piece such as this, simply for the fact that I do not have a vagina, but that shouldn’t stop me from reading this. As many people in class pointed out, the title of the book gives a first impression that is not can turn heads, but I think that is a good thing. Ensler is right about the fact that the world vagina is kept hidden from everyday conversation and is a difficult word to muster when speaking but nonetheless we need to be conditioned, if we haven’t already, so that it is not a “dirty” word. I didn’t feel awkward in class, though I didn’t speak once today but even reading this book, I felt comfortable with most of it. Although there were certain chapters that made me cringe, but they did what Ensler wanted it to do to me.
Men should read The Vagina Monologues considering that one of the main points of her writing is to raise awareness on violence against women, and for the most part the abuse comes from a male. Ensler is not assuming that all men treat women the way they were portrayed in her writing but it is good for men to see the way women think and feel about how they are treated. It sheds light to many men about the woman’s insight. Aside from the messages she is trying to convey, The Vagina Monologues are very interesting and personally I found many of them to be humorous. I mean this in no offense but she is a great writer and has the capability of making me laugh. My hat goes of to Ensler, and to her Vagina Monologues.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Where art thou?
Ensler wrote The Vagina Monologues as a drama, and with that in mind she saw that she wanted people to perform and represent the vagina with the essence of a person, giving the vagina a more tangible appearance. And by doing so it allows the member of the audience to either see the vagina from a different perspective or allow the audience to remember that their vagina is as unique as any other.
The most important part of The Vagina Monologues is that is it performed by many different women all over the world just to raise awareness of its existence. Obviously everyone knows what a vagina is but as many of the pages of Ensler’s book say, not all women have fully discovered their vagina’s personality. Having a person performs the character of a vagina helps to see and understand that one particular personality and its characteristics and that is very crucial considering that Ensler says that all vaginas are unique. Each vagina has individual characteristics that are particular to the person they belong to. Those characteristics and that personality is part of every woman and until each woman finds what truly lies between their legs then they will never fully understand themselves.
I am a guy so it is a little harder to for me to understand exactly what the women in this book are talking about and what they have gone through but at the same time I do feel that after reading and getting into the minds of these women that I see what Ensler is doing. To me it makes perfect sense. I know many girls and they are all different, some more than others, but being conscious of their vagina definitely has helped the women I know to better understand themselves. You cannot hid or shun ones vagina but you must accept it as part of you and know that every other woman in the world has one as well, but yours may just be unique to you.
The most important part of The Vagina Monologues is that is it performed by many different women all over the world just to raise awareness of its existence. Obviously everyone knows what a vagina is but as many of the pages of Ensler’s book say, not all women have fully discovered their vagina’s personality. Having a person performs the character of a vagina helps to see and understand that one particular personality and its characteristics and that is very crucial considering that Ensler says that all vaginas are unique. Each vagina has individual characteristics that are particular to the person they belong to. Those characteristics and that personality is part of every woman and until each woman finds what truly lies between their legs then they will never fully understand themselves.
I am a guy so it is a little harder to for me to understand exactly what the women in this book are talking about and what they have gone through but at the same time I do feel that after reading and getting into the minds of these women that I see what Ensler is doing. To me it makes perfect sense. I know many girls and they are all different, some more than others, but being conscious of their vagina definitely has helped the women I know to better understand themselves. You cannot hid or shun ones vagina but you must accept it as part of you and know that every other woman in the world has one as well, but yours may just be unique to you.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Vagina with Clothes
After starting to read The Vagina Monologues, I find Ensler to be a very humorous writer, whether hat is her intent or not, but the words she uses to descried vaginas is what the reader understands to be their shared understanding of vaginas.
As Ensler writes, she strives to make the women she interviews understand and revisit the wonderful, life-producing organ between their legs. She, first, wants to make the world except a new understanding of the word “vagina” because she feels that right now, the word is associated with darkness and a sense of privacy and she wishes that the word had an association with such things as part or your soul, the truest voice of a woman or the life if the party. This is what I conceived to be the most important message thus far because by shunning a woman’s own vagina, she is shutting herself out one of her most valued treasures.
I got quite the laugh immediately after I read the section that asked woman how their vaginas would respond in two words about what they would wear. It was interesting because I can imagine that the responses do and do not match up to the appearances of the women answering Ensler’s questions. The responses received be Ensler show that a woman’s vagina can influence her personality, if it does not have its own secret personality separate from the body it belongs to. Also by asking these questions and releasing them to the world, it begins to condition those who read or see her work with the thought and idea that every woman has a vagina and that no one should be shy or timid when speaking about their vagina, or just about vaginas in general. This directly correlates to her idea of giving the vagina clothes to wear, trying to give life to the thing between women’s legs.
As Ensler writes, she strives to make the women she interviews understand and revisit the wonderful, life-producing organ between their legs. She, first, wants to make the world except a new understanding of the word “vagina” because she feels that right now, the word is associated with darkness and a sense of privacy and she wishes that the word had an association with such things as part or your soul, the truest voice of a woman or the life if the party. This is what I conceived to be the most important message thus far because by shunning a woman’s own vagina, she is shutting herself out one of her most valued treasures.
I got quite the laugh immediately after I read the section that asked woman how their vaginas would respond in two words about what they would wear. It was interesting because I can imagine that the responses do and do not match up to the appearances of the women answering Ensler’s questions. The responses received be Ensler show that a woman’s vagina can influence her personality, if it does not have its own secret personality separate from the body it belongs to. Also by asking these questions and releasing them to the world, it begins to condition those who read or see her work with the thought and idea that every woman has a vagina and that no one should be shy or timid when speaking about their vagina, or just about vaginas in general. This directly correlates to her idea of giving the vagina clothes to wear, trying to give life to the thing between women’s legs.
Friday, February 11, 2011
"Trenches and Moats and Mounds of Dirt"
The second piece of work I chose from Nye’s 19 Varieties of Gazelle was a poem named “Trenches and Moats and Mounds of Dirt” and this was chosen because I caught a glimpse of the very first line in her writing. I am a history major and happen to love ancient studies so I was excited to see her writing about the ancient world, until I continued to read her work.
After reading this poem over a few times, I took her words on the paper to be describing a way of life. This way of life that I saw was that of man and women coinciding together since the beginning of man.
The first stanza, I felt, is Nye describing that since ancient times men and women have been living together to survive. And then as she writes on, she writes, “Where is her nesting place, the safe slot between branches?” and this I interpreted as the woman’s personal quiet space, which is quite literal but shows truth in it. In every relationship between a man and woman, there are times in which both either one of them needs their space to think and to be alone and sometimes this is for good reasons and other time it is for bad reasons.
The very next stanza she writes, “There is a language between two languages called Mean but who will admit they are speaking it?” and this is the defining point for my evaluation. This language called Mean is words that are spoken far too often, in nearly all cases hurting the person being spoken to and she writes the last stanza of the poem hoping that seeing the world through the other’s eyes will help both of them to better understand each other, ultimately resulting in a more peaceful coexistence.
After reading this poem over a few times, I took her words on the paper to be describing a way of life. This way of life that I saw was that of man and women coinciding together since the beginning of man.
The first stanza, I felt, is Nye describing that since ancient times men and women have been living together to survive. And then as she writes on, she writes, “Where is her nesting place, the safe slot between branches?” and this I interpreted as the woman’s personal quiet space, which is quite literal but shows truth in it. In every relationship between a man and woman, there are times in which both either one of them needs their space to think and to be alone and sometimes this is for good reasons and other time it is for bad reasons.
The very next stanza she writes, “There is a language between two languages called Mean but who will admit they are speaking it?” and this is the defining point for my evaluation. This language called Mean is words that are spoken far too often, in nearly all cases hurting the person being spoken to and she writes the last stanza of the poem hoping that seeing the world through the other’s eyes will help both of them to better understand each other, ultimately resulting in a more peaceful coexistence.
Fundamentalism
"Fundamentalism" by Nye was the first poem i chose to read and the reason I picked it was because it instantly caught my eye while I had been flipping through the pages of 19 Varieties of Gazelle. The reason it caught my eye was because of the way she created the last two verses or stanzas, they were indented much more than any of the earlier stanzas.
That was not the only reason "Fundamentalism" caught my attention, as I was reading it, I noticed that all, except the last two stanzas again, were all ending in the form of a question even if it was not really a question she was writing.
There were a few lines that intrigued me, "If one way could satisfy the infinite hearts of the heaven?" and then the final line, which was, "If he would believe his life is like that he would not follow his father into war." The first of the two lines I believe that I interpreted differently than most other people because I saw it as a call for unity; I saw the heavens as not necessarily souls of people but more so that of God. I interpreted this as a call for peace. Seeing as she is both Palestinian and American and that there have been wars waged over the Holy Lands long before she was born, I take her words to be full of hope for the future that one day all religions can coexist without bloodshed.
The very last line of this piece is very important because it is showing that not all people want to stay in the same rut their entire lives and that if the son, here, does not wish to live the life his father lived, he must deviate and create his own path or destiny.
That was not the only reason "Fundamentalism" caught my attention, as I was reading it, I noticed that all, except the last two stanzas again, were all ending in the form of a question even if it was not really a question she was writing.
There were a few lines that intrigued me, "If one way could satisfy the infinite hearts of the heaven?" and then the final line, which was, "If he would believe his life is like that he would not follow his father into war." The first of the two lines I believe that I interpreted differently than most other people because I saw it as a call for unity; I saw the heavens as not necessarily souls of people but more so that of God. I interpreted this as a call for peace. Seeing as she is both Palestinian and American and that there have been wars waged over the Holy Lands long before she was born, I take her words to be full of hope for the future that one day all religions can coexist without bloodshed.
The very last line of this piece is very important because it is showing that not all people want to stay in the same rut their entire lives and that if the son, here, does not wish to live the life his father lived, he must deviate and create his own path or destiny.
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