Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2002 | 8:28 a.m.
Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" has been heralded by Oprah, praised (and even lambasted) by feminists, berated by conservatives and revered by women worldwide.
Since first appearing off Broadway in 1996, predominately female audiences have packed theaters to applaud Ensler's heady and socially introspective play centered on female sexuality.
Before long everybody was talking about vaginas, or trying desperately not to talk about vaginas. It spurred a new wave of feminism and a global movement to end violence against women.
But for Ensler, the "vagina revolution" began simply with a conversation about menopause a conversation that inspired a movement.
"It's thrilling to see what's come out of this," the 49-year-old native New Yorker said recently via telephone from London, where she was participating in "The Vagina Monologues" to start the Labour Party conference.
"I didn't know that it would become what it's become."
"The Vagina Monologues" opens tonight at Cashman Center Theatre for a nearly two-week run, starring Kim Fields (tonight through Sunday), Susan Anton (Oct. 16 through Oct. 20), Rhonda Ross and Glynis Bell. The production is part of a national tour.
For those who have missed the hoopla, the play is a collection of anecdotal stories that range from the humorous --"If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?" -- to moving tales about women who discover themselves sexually, to brutal accounts of sexual abuse and rape camps in Bosnia.
The stories are a compilation of Ensler's interviews with roughly 200 women of different ethnic, cultural, social and religious backgrounds, which came about after Ensler watched a friend struggle to discuss her own body when talking about menopause.
"Everybody has different stories," Ensler said. "(But) the same themes were existing in each.
"A lot of women were brought up to be ashamed of their vaginas."
The V word
The production has done what essentially every movement does: It got people talking.
Celebrities have poured forth to perform in "Monologues," from Glenn Close to Marisa Tomei to Marlo Thomas to Calista Flockhart, Teri Garr, Phylicia Rashad and Edie Falco.
Women on college campuses throughout the United States have performed "The Vagina Monologues" as part of V-Day, a worldwide movement to raise awareness of violence against women.
The first event, held in New York City in 1998, drew criticism for its date -- Valentine's Day. The 2001 event, held at Madison Square Garden, drew criticism from some who questioned whether 18,000 women chanting a four-letter slang term for female genitalia was indeed empowering.
The charity, however, has raised more than $14 million in five years to help fund programs -- including the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. (Proceeds from the production at Cashman Center Theatre will go to the Shade Tree Women's Shelter through V-Day).
"This year there were 800 V-Days," Ensler said. "V-Day is a global movement. Eventually we'll have a vagina revolution. Women will take back their bodies, their power."
But first, the word vagina has to roll off the tongue a little more comfortably.
To many, the word vagina, when thrown into general conversation, is embarrassing at best, offensive at worst.
When appearing on CBS's the "Late Show with David Letterman" Calista Flockhart couldn't get Letterman to say vagina, Ensler writes in the introduction of her book "The Vagina Monologues." A CNN program ran a 10-minute segment about "The Vagina Monologues" without saying the word vagina either, the book says. Some newspapers refused to print advertisements for the touring production.
"I have several different theories," Ensler said, attempting to explain why so many people are offended by the word vagina. "One recent theory is that it's about being alive. It reflects women's power, women's sexuality, women's independence, women giving birth. Because it's an invitation to come into a difference place.
"Because it's not a dirty word. It's not degrading."
Reporting back
The monologues begin with the introduction: "I bet you're worried. I was worried. That's why I began this piece. I was worried about vaginas. I was worried about what we think about vaginas, and even more worried about what we don't think about them.
"There's so much darkness and secrecy surrounding them -- like the Bermuda Triangle. Nobody ever reports back from there."
Until now. As the production traveled to stages throughout the country, women say they feel liberated by its directness. Others approached Ensler to tell her how it released feelings of desire and, in many cases, pain.
The latter she detailed in her book: "Night after night I heard the same stories, women being raped as teenagers, in college, as little girls, as elderly women; women who had finally escaped being beaten to death by their husbands; women who were terrified to leave; women who were taken sexually, before they were even conscious of sex, by their stepfathers, brothers, cousins, uncles, mothers and fathers" to the point, Ensler said, where "I began to feel insane."
One of the monologues includes Ensler's recollection of seeing a photo of six women who had just returned from a rape camp in Bosnia on the cover of Newsday in 1993.
Appalled and shocked that tens of thousands of women were being raped in the middle of Europe in 1993 "as a systematic tactic of war," a friend of Ensler pointed out that more than 500,000 women are raped in the United States each year and "theoretically the country is not at war."
Shortly after, the crusade known as V-Day was born. Both V-Day and the play have been criticized for male bashing and portraying women as victims, something Ensler expects will eventually change.
"It takes a while to liberate people," she said. "Usually the people who don't get it are the people who don't see the show."
Whether or not Sin City -- known for its sex industry and topless shows rather than for feminist values -- embraces the monologues will determine if Las Vegas is what Ensler refers to as a "vagina-friendly" city.
"I think Las Vegas is an important place for 'The Vagina Monologues,' " Ensler said. "I think it's a really complicated place."
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