Logo image
Back
Vaginal politics: Tensions and possibilities in The Vagina Monologues
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Vaginal politics: Tensions and possibilities in The Vagina Monologues

Susan E Bell and Susan M Reverby
Women's studies international forum, v 28(5), pp 430-444
2005
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2005.05.005
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel

Abstract

We are feminists in our 50s who first became activists in the women's health movement when we were in our 20s. In 2002 we performed in The Vagina Monologues and participated in the 2002 V-Day College Campaign to end violence against women. We use our experiences “then” in the women's health movement and “now” in the College Campaign as a lens through which to introduce a “worry” about “a culture of vaginas” that the play's author, Eve Ensler does not adequately address. Our focus is the differing ways that the body, and in particular the vagina, has been politicized in these two feminist eras. Our concern relates to what we see as the unproblematized tension between a celebration of the pleasures of the body and the politics that underlie the play and the movement it has spawned. We worry whether or not our sense of disquiet and recognition signals both a recapitulation of 1970s women's health politics and their limitations and a failure to learn from critiques of this form of “globalized” feminism.

Metrics

18 Record Views
13 citations in Web of Science
16 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being
#4 Quality Education

Source: SDGs in the Output

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Women's Studies
Logo image