The Vagina Monologues

The final set of “Spotlight Monologues” continues to focus thematically on Patriarchal Systems Perpetuate Violence Against Women. In “Say It,” the narrator speaks on behalf of the 200,000 “comfort women” who were abducted from their homes and families and forced into sexual enslavement in countries where Japan held power in the 1930s and 1940s. These women did not receive a formal apology from the Japanese government until the late 1990s and have still not received any form of reparations for the brutal treatment they endured, including disease, violence, neglect, and death. The monologue calls attention to the way their history has been ignored and outright silenced, calling out the Japanese government for their continued neglect.

Systemic neglect is a key subtheme in several monologues that focus on the impacts of natural disasters and war on women and their communities. The 10-year anniversary of V-Day came after Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti that displaced millions and devastated the country, and a civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. V connects these disparate events in “For My Sisters in Portauprincebukavuneworleans,” reproducing the tension and chaos following a disaster through disjointed verse that lacks punctuation. The monologue repeats the word “carrying,” representative of both physical objects like “mini knives” and salvaged food and belongings, but also “songs,” “possibility,” and, finally, “everything.” In this way, women are depicted as the bearers of both trauma and culture.

These narratives build, thematically, toward Feminine Community and Empowerment, celebrating specific women who carried their communities. “Hey Miss Pat” is a testament to grassroots movements and the power of community to rebuild where governments refuse to. Through the language of cooking—the kind of domestic work often relegated to women and undervalued in patriarchal culture—the monologue conflates the act of cooking food and the act of building community: “I’m cooking up gumbo okra jambalaya mac and cheese roast beef and resistance” (146). In this way, the author highlights the hidden power behind the everyday activities of women, depicting them as capable of organizing communities as they nourish them.

Like the original Vagina Monologues, the “Spotlight Monologues” end with language of resistance and confrontation, bringing The Power of Art as Activism to the fore. “Over It” channels a tone of anger and frustration as the narrator speaks out against rape culture, implicating social media, governments, the military, and “the passivity of good men” in creating an environment where rape is treated not as an “international priority” but as a punchline (152). “My Revolution Begins in the Body” is a manifesto of empowerment despite patriarchal systems in the Philippines. In contrast to “Over It,” whose narrator calls for occupation and sit-ins, the narrator of this monologue takes a more confrontational step toward her oppressors, saying, “My revolution is not violent but it does not shy away from the dangerous edges where fierce displays of resistance tumble into something new” (156). Revolution arises in a more personal way in “Then We Were Jumping,” whose narrator dreams of her rapist—her father—being forced to publicly consume her pain, which takes the form of a clot. She ends the piece calling her dream “justice.”