The Vagina Dialogues
Eight years after hearing about it for the first time, I finally watched The Vagina Monologues. Wish me a happy birthday since I’m being reborn. On second thoughts, don’t say a word. Just listen as we speak – my vagina and I.
I hated being a woman. The restrictions, the rules, and the fears of my mother, made me angry.
I hated being a woman. Being smaller built than the boys, slower than them at games, lagging behind them on my bicycle, my scrawny legs pedalling furiously to keep up. I never could.
I hated being a woman. It took me a long time to get used to my curves. I walked like my flat-chested 12-year-old self till I was 17. Till a classmate told me that it wasn’t the right thing for a girl to walk with such a straight back. Till, a boy said, “You walk with your boobs thrust right out at the world.” And when I did get used to them, I took them on with a vengeance and used them as lethal weapons. Bait? Hah! Call them Venus fly-traps! I loved their power and I hated them for the compromise they were.
I hated being a woman. Bleeding every month, feeling pukey and giddy-headed and sticky and smelly.
I hated being a woman. 10 years old and being told, “Boys can do whatever they like. But a girl’s reputation is like glass.” Twelve and my tuition teacher’s voice, “What a horrible laugh, so loud and monstrous! Look at Sonya, how prettily she covers her mouth when she laughs. And she doesn’t make a sound.” Thirteen and being admonished, “Sit with your legs together. Only a slut sits with her legs apart.” Yes, I really and truly hated being a woman.
But I didn’t always. I didn’t know I was a woman for some time. And then suddenly I did. Or more accurately, I suddenly knew he was a man. He introduced me to his manhood and asked me to pat it, hold it, and feel it.
Oh, stop! I wanted to scream. But I didn’t. I held myself back. And I held myself in. Realizing suddenly that if I didn’t, everything inside me would fall out of the hole. And in that moment, I separated my vagina from me.
Sometime later, I summoned up the courage to tell my parents. I said he had tried to kiss me once. ‘Tried to’, not did. ‘Once’, not many times. ‘Kiss me’, not…
My classes were stopped and we didn’t speak about it again. I gave up trust that day as well as faith in men. I even stopped hugging my father. I assumed a genderless identity. And later, sexuality was paraded as an accessory, not experienced from within.
As the years passed, I built armour upon armour. The strongest of them was the decision that when I was uncomfortable or hurt or unsure or unwell, no one would know, least of all the person who caused me pain. I banished the fears. I suppressed the blushing and giggles. I stifled innocence and wonder. I held back pain. I shut down tears. I sent them all to the dungeon to keep my shameful prisoner company.
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I didn’t speak of it for ten years. One day a neighbor asked my mother about the guitar lessons I’d taken since she wanted to send her 8-year-old daughter to them too. When my mother told me, I asked her to tell our neighbour what had happened. She admitted that she was too embarrassed to. I said, “If someone had told us the truth a decade ago…” and I left the room. There was nothing more to say.
Four years later, I was playing a silly game with my boyfriend, slapping and giggling. Then in a dramatic flourish, he pinned me down and held my wrists. That’s the last thing I remembered. The next thing I knew, he was shaking me very gently and asking, “What happened? I was only playing.” I didn’t say a word. Apparently, I’d gone all stiff and began whimpering.
My vagina was locked away into a dungeon when I was nine and went into silence after that.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~
As I watched the monologues and the vaginas of women around me sing and squeal and laugh and moan, I asked myself,
If my vagina could speak, what would she say?
And I heard her stammering, painfully shy reply so clear it made me cry.
She said,
I AM SORRY.
I’m sorry I disappointed you.
I’m sorry I hurt you.
I’m sorry you are in pain.
I’m sorry that I remind you of my existance.
I’m sorry I exist.
I’m so very sorry that I didn’t make you happy.
I’m really sorry that I don’t make you proud.
I’m sorry that you’re ashamed of me.
I’m so, so very sorry.
And as she spoke, her fellow prisoners stepped free from two decades of confinement. I had scratched off the worst I’d seen in my life and sent them down to my vagina, keeping the best bits for the part of me on show to the world.
My poor vagina, surrounded by my shame,
my guilt,
my pain,
my bad memories,
my nightmares,
my anguish,
my betrayal,
my agony,
my frustration,
my sorrow
…and my tears.
She cried, my vagina cried. And for the first time in years, I did too, with her.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~
Small wonder then that my relationships failed. Such a hellish place it had turned into that I’d only send those I wanted to banish down there. No wonder the very worst of men appealed to me and the very worst in them turned me on. And even they were petrified by what they found there.
I hated doing it in the dark.
I hated doing it on my back.
I hated doing it in bed. Or a couch. Or a car. Or in the open.
In fact, I hated doing it so much that I never did.
Those who came to visit were offered a gracious cup of tea and then lulled into a battery of tests – a moat, a dragon, an army of defences. And those that got past, walked up to the gates to find them locked. No entry into this love lane, we’re shut, you’re unwelcome, go home. They did.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~
My new friend calls me a child and tells me that there’s a little girl he sees when he looks at me. Now I understand. At long last, I’m in the throes of an emotion nearly long-forgotten – TRUST. I banished it to my basement along with the other more tender emotions. If other people trust with their hearts, mine has made its home in the hovel downstairs. I trust from deep down there, like a slender creeper growing out of the ground. And what do you know? He’s right after all. My vagina thinks she’s only nine years old. That’s the last time she breathed free. Sweet child of mine indeed.
I used to be a sweet child. Warm, affectionate, trusting and open and always getting into scrapes. All of that went away with the confinement, right down into my vagina which is everything I am not. Sweet, pure, soft and warm. And it stayed that way for twenty years despite the confinement.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~
The book was wonderful. But the play brought it to life. It made me laugh (not smirk) and cry (not scowl). It gave my vagina her freedom and her voice too.
This is for Mahabanoo, Dolly Thakore, Avantika, Jayati (the moaner!) and Sonal Sachdev, the wonderful, spirited ladies who made last night come alive at Prithvi Theatre. You made me whole again. You brought me back to life.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~
If my vagina were to dress up, what would it wear?
Well, it’s worn iron shackles for two decades. Now, if she could, she’d like something light and airy – preferably nothing at all. 😀
~O~O~O~O~O~O~
I read Lolita when I was eighteen. It was a revelation. One more step in what turns out to be a long journey. A journey of healing. A lot of people I’ve discussed the book with say that it is a sick book, making excuses for paedophilic behaviour. But I think, they just don’t know. Of all the people, I can hardly be an advocate for child abuse.
But reading Lolita gave me some perspective on what happened to me. I suddenly saw my abuser as a human being – a very bad and flawed human being, a sick human being but a human being nevertheless. Not a monster, but a human. And human beings can be overcome, overpowered and even forgotten. Almost.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~
About 5 years ago I was at a doctor’s clinic when I suddenly realised that the man sitting across me was my former guitar teacher. I was shocked that it had taken me that long to recognize him. Even more shocked at what I felt – nothing at all.
In my memories, he was a big-built man. But in person, after all these years he just looked so tired, so small, so weak, so obscure and so old. I can’t change what happened and it would be a lie to say that I’ve forgiven. This is a wound that cut me so deep, that it bled me right out of the right to be angry and seek revenge. Seeing him again was like someone smoothing over the scars of the wound.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~
I didn’t have the courage to put this up online immediately. I had to ask a few friends about it. Two of them told me that it was deeply moving and should be shared. One cautioned me that I should remember to ignore any weird reactions. Finally, two others told me about their own personal accounts of horror. And in the end, that’s really what gave me the courage to share this.
Happy birthday to my vagina. And welcome to the world of the living again.
i just want you to know that you are not alone in this world. i draw solace from the fact that I will not be as conservative as my mom was when i bear a child. and if it is a girl child, the least i will do is to ensure that she knows how to differentiate a wrong touch from the right and speak up irrespective of the consequences.
Growing up in the NCR region, I have lived these horrors every day of my life.
very rarely have blog posts moved me emotionally.And this one just did.I appricate your honesty.Respect.
I don’t want to say more,than that it was beautifully written.
@Meher: Thank you. I do know what you mean and I can’t say anything other than…thank you for reading and listening.
Balls on Honesty. Enough said. You faced what you faced and lived to tell the tale. That’s a bigger deal than most know. Much love and respect.
@Ashwini: This matters more than I can say. But I guess you know already that.
When a string is broken,if you try to tie it back,the knot still remains..till you realize at least it held your packet together till you reached home… .similarly in life when you experience a difficult situation,those memories never go away, you just choose to look at it differently ..and it shapes your persona,gives it a new meaning..a new voice…
Wow!!! I have no words for your courage. To deal with the demons of the past and to come out of it takes a lot. I’m glad I read your post. You are an inspiration to many people out there. Kudos!!!
@Milana: Thank you very much. I was very lucky and I had a lot of support from my family and friends. I’m sorry I have nothing more to say than that but it’s the truth.
I couldn’t hold back the tears while reading this. I may be a man, but one would have to be a corpse to not empathize with your experience. For every woman who speaks out, many remain silent, and many more are silenced. It especially bad in the more conservative patriarchal cultures, where people are more concerned about reputation than justice. Thanks to this veil of silence, we never know how much our own mothers, sisters, wives and daughters are suffering, having been culturally brainwashed or “counseled” to hold their tongues and preserve the “peace” of the family and “honor” of the men. May you find *personal* peace and thereby once again honor *yourself* … and your vagina.
Dear Ms Taggarts,
Linking both the images of the pedophiles and the other sex perverts it seems certain that they are unfit for marriage and raising their own kids. How can they hold them and love them with dirt in their minds? Behind the skirt or a simple hole in the wall, these men will never outgrow their feelings once they develop them. TC
Biju Mathewss last idea: The "Traditional" Shiv Ram Sena Theory
Dear IdeaSmith,
I’m glad to hear that you have overcome all that. This is the curse of our (worldwide) society. I really fail to understand how a pervert is born. You take care!
Biju Mathewss last idea: The "Traditional" Shiv Ram Sena Theory
@ Biju Mathews: Don’t be. I know well enough now that not all men are the same.
This is a very bold literary outcry. I’m ashamed to be called a man. A wolf. A kaleidoscope of deception, perversion and egoistic manhood. God Bless!
Biju Mathewss last idea: Passing Time – The illusion
@ Ms Taggart: Try it. It helps. Really. I would know, I do know.
respect
Amazing jus amazing
I am deeply touched by the honesty and courageousness of this incredible post. I am so sorry for what you endured and I sincerely moved by your path to healing. Your post is a testament to the power of literature and theater and how the arts can indeed be transformative.
Congratulations on receiving the Avant Garde Blogger Award, you absolutely deserve this award. I so hope that the winning of this award brings more people to this post who might find healing and understanding through your beautiful piece. You are a strong woman and an inspiration.
Hey, your this post has won Most courageous post award in Avant Garde Bloggies Awards. Check here: http://alchemistpoonam.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/avant-garde-bloggies-awards-winners/
This award was given out after someone nominated your post, judges scored it and then polls happened. Congratulations! 🙂
can we please talk sometime? email me if you can.
As the famous quote goes, “never let the hand you hold, hold you down”
It is one of the bravest narratives I have read on a blog.
Amazing post. It may be looked upon as a courageous post w.r.t the prevalent social conditions. but it is a courageous attempt more so because, i see what i read as the outcome of a war between ur outer self which reminds you of The Bad Thing every time and ur inner self which wants to rediscover life.
Sus last blog post..(Let) Live Happily
Mahabanoo mentioned your blog post and poem when I was doing a magazine interview with her on the play. she LOVES ur poem, and i liked it too…
bravo to u for such an honest post about the childhood incident. i experienced something similar as a naive 10-year-old and had a reaction not very different from yours….
kass last blog post..’This is what Simon Cowell would dismiss as karaoke’
Thanks for leaving the comment. U got a sea of comments. I did my best to refer to your notes. 🙂
Keep up the great work. (and thanks for the feedback. I shall keep it in mind.)
Kannans last blog post..How is this for a name?
Hi….I held my breath until the very end and I didn’t know what to feel. As many others it touched me deeply and I am so amazed that you were able to put that up there.
There’s a quote I saw on a friend’s blog which I have always found to ring true…
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, “Its a girl.” – Shirly Chisholm
You’re very brave 🙂
That was haunting… I’ve written a similar one.. long ago, buried somewhere in my archives… now i want to see the play too, after hearing so much about it.
I was checking out Indian blogs as part of my work when I stumbled upon your post. As I read it, it’s like time stood still and none of the daily office grind mattered anymore. Thanks for sharing such compelling thoughts and reminding of the things in life I take for granted!
When I read or come to know about these, my respect for girls and women goes up a notch higher. I am not sure if it is true if I say “I understand”, but yes I get it.
Cheers for the ladies’ courage to trust again, to love again, to smile through the memories of haunted past.
Cheers, and more strength to you.
I just want to say thank you, every one of you for reading my post and commenting. Some of you have shared your own experiences, some of you have offered comfort. I’m so touched, so very touched. I wrote this post as a rant – to throw something off my mind. I never expected to get something back. I’ve been moved by everything that all of you have said. It seems just too superficial to say you’ve changed my life by speaking up. All I will say and hope that you understand is – Thank you. Deeply.
just landed up on ur blog a few minutes back….love ur posts and ur articulation / expression of feelings… as for this post… i hv no words.. it was very moving…
Hi,
Stumbled upon this article of yours and I though it was extremely well written:
http://xxfactor.wordpress.com/2007/02/14/reasons-a-woman-should-stay-single/
As I loved your writing stlye, I explored further to reach your blog and this was the first post that I read.
I’m speechless ! No words to appreciate the way you express yourself so beautifully.
Just two words – Keep ROCKING 😀
God bless,
Aparna
Your writing makes me feel like I know you — You are an amazing person. By far the dominating emotion evoked in me as I realized what your post was about was anger — I can’t see how such acts can be forgotten and forgiven. I have lived a life very shielded from such harsh realities of life until very recently — Is is my naivete, that I badly want to see that guy (and others like him) punished?
You know my thoughts on this…all I can say is…Happy Birthday and enjoy the feeling!
The university here celebrates Women’s Day every year with a performance of the Vagina Monologues. Each year they have a different cast – women students, faculty and staff. As part of the selection process you have to fill out a form – and you may choose to share an experience/thought which has motivated you to sign up for the play.
Once you are selected, everyone gets to read out loud different excerpts and then choose which one you want to be. Before the rehearsals begin, there is a bonding exercise – and women are encouraged to share what they feel on reading it. And NOT surprisingly, there is an outpouring of emotions, experiences, stories – some sad, some brave, some ugly, some hopeful. Each of which would have created a new revised edition of Vagina Monologue. The beauty is- it is now a DIALOGUE, instead of a monologue, getting past the trauma and the shame and having a conversation that frees you up immensely from the burdens you have been carrying for so long.
I had signed up for it in 2005. I had shared with women of all colors, shapes , sizes, occupations, ages MY STORY. My fiance expressed his DISGUST and DISPLEASURE. I didnt make it to the play. He is no longer my fiance (for many reasons along with this one). And I think it is time to audition for it once more. Something tells me he was SCARED. And I would like to find out exactly why. 🙂
No words…you’re very strong…I feel like I know you infintely more now after reading this post than I did in all the years I’ve known you…hugs
Thank you for that. Have read the book, and watched it performed as well. Been abused too, though I don’t think it was as traumatic for me as it seems to have been in your case. Maybe boys get over it better since the shame and guilt aren’t piled on quite as much.
I hope writing about it helped.
D
I’ve been wondering what to comment on something so intense. Its not possible for anyone except the one suffering to really fathom what the pain, the anguish can be like. Its been said many times already, but you deserve to hear it more… you have been amazingly brave.
Letting your demons out is like completing a circle… it will always be there, but there wont be sharp edges constantly hurting you anymore….
Regards to your courage and best wishes.
‘nonnymouss last blog post..This Shitty City
Hi! I was in your site for the first time. I started skimming through this post…then stopped…then started reading it in detail…I could sense the pain you must felt. It must have taken great guts to overcome it and write about it. I wish such things didn’t happen…but then that’s such a long list of things. Take care
Kalyans last blog post..Mr Chow’s – Chinese food delivered home
I can understand the seething pain and havocking emotions you must have gone through. All, I can say is that I too faced something like this at an early age and sadly the wrong doer was someone who was a close family member.
He is no more now. Died at an early age of say 20 or so. I don’t know if I should be glad that he’s dead or not…but I am. Realizing that I never have to face him again.
Whatever happened has been locked inside me for years. For the first time in my life I have shared this and it has to be through this platform.
But, I have moved on…burying everything as deep and as far as possible. And I am proud of myself.
Withering Willows last blog post..Funny Toilet Signs
Ronak I do know about the people..and may be none of us would have come hear searching for that word..but I was just talking about the anonymous visitors who find a way to your blog by searching for some really disturbing things.
ramblers last blog post..blink
Your experience reminds me of a girl in my school, whom we envied then for getting too much attention from our school’s music teacher. The music teacher with a beautiful wife and a daughter 2 years younger than us and I remember all their names. The student, a pretty South Indian girl, who wore a red bindi and flowers in her hair. She was not a good singer but a quiet girl. She was also an average student so she was not very confident. She was a bit more physically developed than we all were, a fact that I only understood later, in context.
Years later, I realised it was no blessing for her to be a favoured student; it was something that may have blighted her sense of confidence for years later. Who knows?
Now reading your post, I wonder how she felt then. I still remember her face, the place where she boarded the school vehicle, the music teacher coming to school on his bicycle with his daughter on the front bar and a lunch box packed by his wife in the basket in front, the red eyes the girl had sometimes in the school vehicle back.
I wish more women would speak for others and for themselves. I wish more men were truly as concerned as some of the men who have commented here.
Good on you for having courage, Ideasmithy.
Shefalys last blog post..More random thoughts
I know of a person (very very dear to me) who had a similar experience. And somehow I was more unforgiving and hurt about it than the person who had the disgusting experience. It took me ten years to come to terms with it. I’m truly sorry about what you’ve been through and proud of the strength you’ve demonstrated.
I had always wondered what a woman’s reaction to the play/book would be… Liberation? Trust? Frustration that comes with realization?… Being a male, I went through a lot of emotions as I watched the play..
and you are right.. it takes a lot of courage to come out in the open and share your deepest darkest and often the most hurting thoughts.. but then, as long as it makes you feel free, I think its worth it! Great post.. and cheers!! to a new life!!
Amits last blog post..The Power of (Right) Training
Dear Ideasmithy…
I thought A Thousand Splendid Suns taught me a lot about what being a woman was all about… before I read your post…
And to have met that man and to have felt nothing at all.. is courageous of you.. but to imagine how many lives he would have ruined anyway… it becomes really hard not to feel anything about him.. he is far from forgiven..
Here’s wishing that nobody else goes through similar pain.. and those who have gone through this, discover courage and a chance to spit out the pain, like you did…
Regards.
wow!
jammys last blog post..Group dynamics in a married man’s house
hats of to u dear Ideasmithy!
Kudos to your daring bare it all post…It takes courage for a femme in our country to cum out so boldly against d orthodox mindset n crappy individuals of my gender.
Here’s wishing that the Braveness reaches still unfathomable highs…Keep up d good work,lady!
Hi …
Ur post does evoke more respect for women and does make me proud to be born with the essence of a woman . Ur thoughts and experience have been penned very sensitvely . I saw the play too this time at Prithvi and I was very touched , I m glad u were inspired, and released urself to write about it . U certainly did justice to all the Vaginas:) All the best !
girl! i was really moved reading what u have gone through. i am assuming it must have been a real pain, an even bigger pain must have been seeing ur old Guitar Teacher! the frail and old person that he had aged into.
i am sure u must be a relieved and a new person after watching the play! Dolly Thakore is a wonderful actress! she has been around for ages now! 🙂 i hope that this new you would continue to live always now, i am sure the old you is dead for good. 🙂
Ciao and take care! 🙂
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