Thoughts a guy has at The Vagina Monologues
I am certainly envious of the female orgasm
For Valentines Day, Temple University students put on a triumphant collection of experiences called The Vagina Monologues. I attended the Friday night showing.
The showcase displayed several themes. All of it involved, in part, the experiences of womanhood, but more specifically, having a vagina. Good sex, bad sex, orgasms, pride and shame with regard to the female body, and even child birth were all elements addressed by the actresses on stage.
The show starts off with a group of young women sitting elegantly on stage. Directors Molly Driscoll and Riley MacDonald would come up to greet the audience by explaining the motivation for the showcase and introducing the actresses who would embody the women recorded for the sake of the monologues.
Like a roll call, the women on stage would respond as their identifiers were read aloud. Although the ethnic diversity on stage was vaguely apparent, the showcase did represent the complexity of racial identity and sexual fluidity that is represented in the foundations of intersectional femininity.
As a metrosexual, cis-gendered man of African descent, I could only imagine what the sexual experience is like for women. I couldn’t help but think how envious most heterosexual men must feel, knowing their sexual experience is definitely not as euphoric as their sexual partner’s. I’d say, I am certainly envious of the female orgasm, and The Vagina Monologues certainly reinforced the fact that such an experience is definitely something to be envied.
The Vagina Monologues presents other themes, darker themes. These other themes coincide with a global activist movement called V-Day, which is a campaign to stop violence against women and girls. Temple University has taken part in the movement, and you can follow #TUVDAY16 or get involved by checking out the events hosted by the university’s Wellness Resource Center.
Some of the actresses portrayed horrific truths about rape, sexual harassment, intolerance of transgender identity, and even the trauma involved with an ovarian cancer diagnosis.
I found myself smiling, laughing, sometimes feeling an uncomfortable sense of empathy, and I am so grateful for attending Temple’s Vagina Monologues showcase.
I’ll end with a quote by Black Intellectualist and Africana Womanist Alice Walker: “Sexuality is one of the ways that we become enlightened, actually, because it leads us to self-knowledge.”