Girl Talk

fem·i·nism - [fem-uh-niz-uhm] –noun
1. the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.
2. (sometimes initial capital letter) an organized movement for the attainment of such rights for women.
3. feminine character.

So, many of you guessed what I was talking about in my last post. I was actually a bit surprised that so many of you haven't seen it. But I guess I have special privilege. Working against violence against women is part of my everyday life. I conjure revolution everyday.

The Vagina Monologues have had a very significant part in making me the feminist and the woman that I am. It was really one of the first sources of information I had ever seen where social stereotypes and negative mythology surrounding my very own body were thrown up into my face for examination. And the ideas surrounding the feminine must be looked at. See, I cannot ignore this. I cannot say that this play does not pertain to me. It does. This is my body we are talking about. My body and yours and that of your sisters and your mothers and your daughters.

And it is a wonderful thing! That is the point of the Vagina Monologues. To celebrate what a wonderful thing it is to be female at the most central point of our femininity. It is to condemn and damn all of those things that defile the celebration; that make a sanctuary into a sewer.

Rape. It happens with alarming frequency. My Girl Friday has a 1 in 1 statistic. Because of the women she knows, who she has grown up with, from all different education levels and professional levels. Every single one of them has been sexually assaulted at some point in her lifetime.

Most importantly, I think that it is so important that like the feminist movement, and the anti-violence movement, that the Monologues are not seen as a "chick show." Why should men see the Vagina Monologues? For the same reason they should know about rape and domestic violence. Who commits these crimes against women? The vast majority of the time it is men. There are so many men in the world who would never ever dream of hurting a woman or a little girl, and I am not misandristic (I have a wonderful husband and two sons). But there is a level of education that needs to occur. Men need to know about vaginas, too. About more than just sex. About birth and identity. If they love women in any capacity, they need to understand what it means to be female. They need to understand.

Not that long ago, I spoke with a male colleague who does social justice work with men regarding men's violence against women. He is a big strong black man (just for a mental picture...it is pertinent) and he has a bumper sticker on his truck that says, "Another Man Against Violence Against Women." When he goes and speaks to everyday guys in everyday places about being non-violent, they look at that bumper sticker and tell him he is weak. No joke. I wonder if it comes into their consciousness that when they say that a man who is not a rapist or a domestic violence perpetrator is weak, they are using these violent acts to define what it means to be masculine. And that is an insult to men everywhere.

The point of this is education is still needed on every level. This is not a product of just where I live. This is everywhere. This is the reason that I have already begun to fill my sons' toolboxes with ideas of equality and justice and the golden rule...even when it comes to girls.

In conclusion, I think everyone should, at some point, see this show. I think that the walls need to be broken down and the dialog within our communities needs to begin. Violence against women and girls is the greatest human rights tragedy of all time, according to the World Health Organization. So, tell your mama, and your sons. Tell your husbands and aunts and friends and grandma. I will tell my grandma, too. Let's conjure revolution together.