Addleheading For Life

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Not Dirty Thoughts...Theatre, Gender and LIFE thoughts

So...I've been thinking a lot about vaginas lately.


...Um.
Perhaps I should amend that statement.
I've been thinking a lot about the content of The Vagina Monologues lately.
Ok, so y'all probably don't want to hear me talk about this more, but whatever.
I'm going to.
Deal with it.
(At this point I smile cutely and you decide to read on anyway even though you're probably sick of hearing me rant about vaginas and theatre) (And anyone...please feel free to tell me I'm stupid or disagree)
So...
This show, right? This...play. This...collection of monologues...
There's this one part of the play that is stuck in my head and won't let go.
Basically at one point in the show someone is all like, "I am my vagina" and this is supposed to be a big epiphany or whatever and very profound.
And I'm sitting there in the audience, feeling a little stupid and guilty because I'm thinking, "Dang. I am certainly not my vagina. Am I doing something wrong? Should I be my vagina? Good God, I don't wouldn't even begin to know how to be my vagina."
So after careful reflection, here's basically what I came up with:
I am not my vagina.
...nope, still not my vagina.
AND
I would no sooner say any woman is their vagina than I would say a man is his dong.
I mean...
If there were a play (I shudder to think) called "The Penis Monologues" we would probably all be kind of offended if in a monologue a man said, "I am my johnson."
Well...
I have to say, I'm a little offended at the notion that I, or any woman is their vagina.
I'm not trying to knock vaginas here. I mean...I'm a lesbian for Christ's sake. And I'm speaking from a place of love, love for myself and love for other woman.
I have to much respect for myself and other woman to think that women ARE their vaginas.
I am a woman and I refuse to be reduced to or defined by my vagina.
So there.

Vaginas are great.
Vaginas are grand.
I am most certainly a fan. (Nice poem, no?)

BUT for me at least, and this goes for all people not just women...I think there is much more to being human than a body part. No matter how great that body part is.
I'm a big "human spirit" person.
I'm a big "inner light" person.
I'm a big "soul" person.
I'm a big "how these things interact with each other and other people" person.
And I guess the big thing I'm responding to is the lack of those things in The Vagina Monologues.

...Oh man. This is opening a whole can of gender worms in my head. All right, like...cooches and dongs are body parts, yes, BUT these body parts DO in fact DEFINE our gender...I mean, at least for the birth certificate. BUT I don't think or know that they should necessarily define gender. Because there are plenty of people who come out of the womb and are told "you're a girl" or "you're a boy" based on what's between their legs but feel the opposite inside...

So this clip is part one of a 20/20 special on transgender children. The whole thing is on youtube, so you can watch it all. It's easily the most gut-wrenching thing I've ever seen. I was so affected it by it the first time I saw it and still am. I really don't like Barbara Walters at all. She sorta makes my skin crawl but this story is just so moving to me:

I don't know what the answers are to this.
What do you do as a parent? Do you start to give your kids hormones? That's irreversible. Damn. I don't know what the answers are.
And it just absolutely devastates me to see children so unhappy. And so unhappy with themselves and their body. This just gets to me and rips me apart on so many levels. Oh man-watching this puts a lump in my throat so big its hard to breath.
Whoa. Moving on...
...Ok. I'm a girl. And I know that not because I have a vagina but because of how I feel inside. I "feel" that I am a girl. I express my gender a little differently. How I look and certain traits may be described as "boyish" but than what is "boyish" anyway? The way I see it I am just being who I am. And my greatest hope for humanity and the world is that everyone should be who the are always without fear. Whatever that means to you. However that means to you. Be who you are. And we shouldn't stop anyone from being who they are.

And so it is with all that in mind that I proudly say:
I am not a vagina warrior.
I am a human spirit warrior.

Whoa. And this post got unintentially heavy.

Ok. I'm done.
I swear, I'll never talk about vaginas again.

Um. What else?

Oh yes. Now on to more important things...like TV commercials...
So, I don't have a TV-like one with television capabilities. I have a TV for watching movies but-yes, ok, you get the point.
So I miss out on stuff.
Like TV shows.
And commercials.
I don't really care. Save for the History and Travel channel (nerd) I'm not much of a TV watcher. BUT my brother showed me this commercial, and you've probably already seen it, but whatever I think it's funny and it never gets old and cracks me every time I watch it:

Sara, do you love that the cootie queen TOTALLY calls the lint licker a HO BUCKET?!
Awesome.

Um. Anything else?
I think that's all.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

DAVID ON MY FACEBOOK WALL: Um...No. BTW..thats not love youre cooking with. Thats rabies and plague.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

QUOTE
" i'm a lesbian for christ's sake"

classic

Anonymous said...

Way late to be commenting, but I agree that that is a damn funny commercial.

(And yes, I read the serious stuff, too. Can't say I sit around pondering the crack in my pants very much, either. The front one or the back one).