The Vagina Monologues

The third “Vagina Fact” is again excerpted from The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets and describes attempts to curb the “medical problem” of masturbation among women in the 19th century. Women who could bring themselves to orgasm through masturbation were medically tortured via clitoridectomy or having their labia sewn together. The last medical procedure to curb female masturbation in the United States was performed in 1948 on a five-year old. Medical literature does not indicate similar procedures among boys to stop masturbation.

The fourth “Vagina Fact” quotes a 1996 New York Times article about female genital mutilation (FGM) and includes figures from a 2013 UNICEF report regarding FGM. Over 200 million women had undergone FGM as of 2013, and 30 million more women could expect to experience this practice, which takes place predominantly in African countries. The short-term consequences of the procedure range from tetanus to hemorrhages, and the long-term consequences include chronic uterine infections, dangerous and agonizing childbirth, and early death.

A narrator speaks on behalf of her “pissed off” vagina, which is angry at the products and services meant for vaginas that do not work with the vagina. She says that gynecological exams and douches, for example, are not proper ways to treat a vagina.