Dad's Reaction

     Just the title of this book gives such a strong reaction to people, from what I know. When I began reading alone in my room, my dad walked in and saw the title straight away. He said in a straight face, "I'm glad you're getting your work done." He knew it was for school... I'm glad he didn't ask. But instead of letting him leave it at that, I asked if he would sit next to me and allow me to explain what it's actually about. "The Vagina Monologues," I said, "are about much more than vaginas." I stopped there and corrected myself. "Well, actually they are mostly about vaginas...but the meaning behind it is about the women." He nodded and so I proceeded. "Eve Ensler interviewed over 200 women and didn't even plan to have this book be about vaginas. [while typing it told me that the plural form of 'vagina' is 'vaginae,' funny I never heard of that].
   Thinking about how Eve Ensler had no idea she was going to write The Vagina Monologues, reminded me of how impossible it is to predict the future or tell what results are caused by your actions. Like the anonymous women who were interviewed in this book, telling their stories. The women for the most part had no idea how much they were going to tell Ensler in the interview. Ensler writes that her interviews with the older women in their sixties were the "most poignant of all, possibly because many had never had a vagina interview before" (23). Which to me is not that surprising. I would not have expected any of these women to have had vagina interviews before especially considering they were from the 'down there generation' which in the Foreword Gloria Steinem writes, "those were the words spoken rarely and in a hushed voice" (ix).