The Vagina Monologues

The narrator begins this untitled monologue by telling the audience she is worried about vaginas—what people do and do not say about them. Women often go weeks without even looking at their vaginas, so the narrator talks with women about them—over 200 women, in fact. The women differ in age, profession, and socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. She finds that women love to talk about their vaginas, despite how “unsexy” the word itself is. The narrator then lists a range of terms women use to describe their vaginas, including “pussycat,” “nishi,” “cooter,” and “Mimi” (6)—and reiterates that she is worried about vaginas.

The narrator shares a story about her husband, who made her shave her vagina. She describes the discomfort of shaving yet continues to do so because she hopes that doing so will make her husband stop cheating. Her marital counselor tells her to sacrifice her needs to fulfill her husband’s and that shaving her vagina is a compromise for their marriage. She realizes that hair protects the vagina and notes that her husband cheats on her regardless of whether she keeps it.