Blog #5: Adrienne Rich & The Vagina Monologues

Why am I  in love with Adrienne Rich? Well its simple really...she makes so many meaningful points in "Notes towards a Politics of Location" about identity, women's bodies and so much  more. Her writing is very down to earth, and it logical. She identifies herself as white, Jewish, and a lesbian. This is important because she is proud of her identity, but she also doesn't marginalized others. In fact she mentions how we marginalize other women because our experiences have been of white privilege. Our feminist theory is made up of white western women's ideas. As a gender we have to remember that just because we are all women doesn't mean we know exactly how the other is feeling. For instance just because  white western women believes that the vale is something to oppresses women in the middle east, doesn't mean those women feel that way. That is apart of their identity.

Things that I have her people say when referring to race, "I don't see color"! Well lets just come out and say it. That right their is a lie. Of course we see color. By saying that we are marginlizing the whole population. Peoples identities are important to them. Thats why we have to acknowledge them but not always assume the extremes of them. Like the loud African American woman or the intellectual Asian woman. We are women with layers, its not just black and white. Hence why I am in love with Adrienne Rich. She does a nice job of pointing out the differences in women's identity in a respectful manor.

After reading this it reminded me of the show our campus does every year called the Vagina Monologues. I am currently in the show this year, and I wanted to point out the debate about how the monologues come off. The show is very important because it brings light to women's topics that are not usually touched upon. For instance rape, abusive relationships, periods, orgasms, and or coarse the vagina. It has been such a positive experience for me so far, but there is the question of representation. In the past the shows have been made up of a primarily white woman's group of feminists. Some of these monologues come from women of different ethnicity. So is the white western woman right in trying to portray this monologue. I've had some conflict with this myself. Because my personal monologue called "The Memory of Her Face" takes place in Baghdad. The monologue is about this woman's father disowning her because of the bombs that have melted off her face. My job is to act like I'm this woman going through this horrific experience. Except there is know way I could ever know the pain this woman must be feeling. It's fine line of marginalizing her identity because I am white or bringing her story out into the open for people to listen too. In the past few year though our cast has become more diverse. It definitely helps to give us a different point of view for a lot of the monologues.

Two links of two different ways "The Memory of Her Face"  can be acted out

 http://youtu.be/J6aRX0-SKt0

http://youtu.be/qi3DUt2X09Q