"Don't Pretty Up My Vagina"

Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, goes far beyond contributing to stopping violence against women. In the chapter, “My Angry Vagina” the interviewee, speaks of what her vagina ‘wants’ and ‘needs’. The lady says, “It smells good already. Not like rose petals. Don’t try to decorate it” (70). I think this is important because it touches with the points made in Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth, in that nature is nature and women don’t need to be trying to impress anyone. “That’s what they’re doing–trying to clean it up, make it smell like bathroom spray or a garden” (70). I understand that this is an important lesson to teach because it’s true that our society should keep natural things natural. Instead of trying to change it into something aesthetically pleasing.
However, this chapter’s message gets lost because of certain disgusting parts. She talks about underwear such as thongs and how sometimes it gets uncomfortable to wear. For example she says it, “moves around all the time, gets stuck in the back of your vagina, real crusty butt” (72). The issue of this chapter is somewhat clear, that we put ourselves through discomfort for someone else’s pleasure. This description of the thong sounds very unsexy which I think is exactly what Ensler wants us to think, but you also just end up being grossed out instead of focusing on the issue. Especially if after saying that, she continues to put disgusting images in the reader’s mind. She says, “women would be coming all day long, coming in the supermarket, coming on the subway, happy vaginas” (72). I could not read this with a straight face, by the end of it I was laughing, but I could not look at other women the same way again.
I found it weirdly interesting how she personifies the vagina. She starts by bringing up birth, which is an important event for a vagina. Yet, she then talks about the other things that it wants. She says, “it wants to travel…read…sex…chocolate” (73). It just seems that this has lost the plot. I just think that she took it too far and I got confused by what point she was trying to make by the end of it. I feel that if she went beyond just underwear that woman wear then I would have been able to relate it to other things. Since she didn’t, I as the reader am just confused.