Allan Hurwit

Photos by Jorge Mujica & Allan Hurwit

"Talking about my vagina makes me a little nervous…"
"I was worried about what we think about vaginas…that we don't think about them."
"If it could talk it would say, "Slow down…use me well…go girl."
"My vagina wants to talk…to relax…to breathe… to have adventures…have great sex."

The vagina, a female body part from which I emerged and have spent a significant part of my adult life trying to get back into, was not a normal, usual or "politically correct" topic of conversation during my adolescence, college days or young adulthood.
Among my male adolescent and young adult friends and acquaintances the vagina was sometimes spoken of obliquely as in, " have you gotten any lately?" or "got a hot date tonight - maybe I'll get lucky."

Sometimes when males were or are angry or frustrated over something a woman did or said they would refer to her as a "cunt". Why a female body part, from which new human life emerges, that is instrumental in giving and receiving a great deal of love and pleasure during sex, and is often beautiful, is used as a term of denigration is something I have never completely understood and have never liked.
During my college days, even though we considered ourselves "liberal" and "enlightened", the creation, production and presentation of a performance like "The Vagina Monologues" on a college campus would not have been tolerated by the administration. Even though the term "politically correct" was not in vogue those days the ideas behind the term were very much in force.

In "The Vagina Monologues" we see women looking at who they are and how they feel about themselves and their vaginas. "Shrinks" call it walking around inside your head to see who you are and what's really going on. "The Vagina Monologues" have great value for both men and women. Women can see they are not alone in trying to sort out how they feel and how they see themselves. Men can gain great insight into the fact that women are not an "alien species" but fellow humans with similar strong feelings about "who am I?" and "how do I deal with our sometimes crazy, mixed up society?".

For me, "The Vagina Monologues" is an outstanding example of the major changes that have taken place in our society during the last fifty years. Some of these changes are simple and subtle. For instance, during my youth, in a social situation involving both men and women, the women did not simply "go the bathroom". They would say, "I have to powder my nose" or "I have to freshen up". Some changes are major. I recently overheard a young woman telling a male acquaintance that she had kicked her boyfriend out of her apartment because he was selfish, self-centered and a lousy lay. Women in my youth did not usually talk to men acquaintances in such an open and forthright manner.

Young people of today frequently do not realize the force and social impact that World War 2 had on our society. Many thousands of men were in military service and women took their places in factories and businesses. The women soon realized that the role of women in America was changed forever. They could work, be independent, have sex on their terms, and run their lives as they saw fit to a greater degree than ever before; and the men who had been to other countries learned that there were other ways to think and do and be. They also found that some of these ways were better than ours.

This is not to say that these changes are in any way complete, in our American society, or that the treatment of women is always fair and equitable. It is, unfortunately, not. However, let us not lose sight of the fact that even though we have a long way to go we have also come a long way.

As "The Vagina Monologues" pointed out there are still many countries and places where women are treated as second-class people or, worse, brutalized, mistreated or raped. Countries and societies that mistreat women also mistreat people of different races, religions, or ethnic groups simply because they think human difference justifies this unfair treatment.

Unfortunately, unless it happens here in our own backyard as it did in New York on 9/11/01, all too often, nothing is done about the various atrocities committed against women and other racial, religious, or ethnic groups.

Because all types of equality are connected, equitable treatment for women will inspire fair and equitable treatment for all people. So, events like the Vagina Monologues that promote equality for women also reduce prejudice towards religious, racial, or ethnic groups of people.

When I was young, it was hard for me, and people in my age group, to accept that social change is a lot slower than technological change. Now that I'm somewhat older (never mind how much) I have realized that there are certain realities we have to accept. The slowness of social change, probably to avoid severe culture shock, is one of them. To change a whole society that is in a constant state of flux takes time and patience.

However, even though my intellect tells me this is true, my emotions tell me that I don't have to like it, and that by actively working at the process of social change it will happen, and perhaps sooner than we think. The creation, production, presentation and, most important, the acceptance of "The Vagina Monologues" is proof of this.

Perhaps I can sum up my feelings about "The Vagina Monologues" and today's women with a poem I once wrote.

Women Today
Direct - forthright - not afraid to be intelligent
Dealing with you Person to Person
instead of "Woman" to "Man"
Abhorring "game" playing
Rejecting the foolish ideas
Men are like this and Women are like that
because they are not
I am glad this is finally coming to pass
I enjoy it a lot
I fervently wish, however,
that
it had happened much much sooner

Allan Hurwit is an instructor for the Extension Division of Santa Monica College.