An Open Letter to Eve Ensler
Dear Eve,
I've not only enjoyed seeing a specific, theatrical manifestation of your Vagina Monologues (years ago in Amsterdam, the Netherlands), but I also appreciate what you've done this way for humanity at large - and what you continue to do with your more recent publication of the Vagina Warriors.
However, the one truly unfortunate error you made (and still make) is to perpetuate and enforce the notion that the
female genitals listen to the name vagina - because they don't.
In fact, although the vagina is a superbly evolved and important part of the female genital and reproductive
system, it is simply one small part of the whole; and the least visible one at that.
The thing is, if I'd say to you or anyone else "Please show me your vagina", we'd need medical equipment to do so; just like dear Annie Sprinkle goes around showing off her cervix and uterus - aided with a speculum.
On the other hand, if I'd be more clear about what I mean and would say "Please show me your vulva (or pussy, cunt, yoni)",
all that would have to be done is to hitch up a skirt, take off a G-string and spread the legs just enough so I can see
whether or not she is shaved or naturally hairy, and how small or big the lips are. In this case, I wouldn't be able -
at all - to catch a single glimpse, not even to see a millimeter of any vagina ... because she's completely inside the body,
not hidden but rather protected by two sets of lips.
Now perhaps you skipped class one day, or perhaps in the US they don't teach people well - but as an "international expert" you sure should have checked some dictionaries first; or read some books before you wrote your own. Since you haven't been able to do that, let me help you out - from one human being to another and free of charge.
Just look at it this way. You have a mouth with lips. You open these lips and the mouth, for example,
when you want to drink a glass of milk. Doing so, the milk then disappears through the throat into the
gullet (what your doctor calls esophagus) and finally ends up in your stomach.
Now to make the analogy perfectly clear, the mouth and the lips are comparable to the vulva (yoni, pussy, cunt), while the gullet perfectly compares with the vagina (a Latin word originally meaning "sheath").
But have you ever heard someone call the mouth a gullet? Does your medic say "Open your gullet, please" when he wants to check your tonsils? Is a French kiss a meeting of tongues in the mutual gullets?
So why should anyone call the vulva a vagina?
Now I'm far from blaming you if you perhaps have problems with a part of your anatomy. Like so many women, you appear to
be a victim of a male-chauvinist and misogynist society - powered by Judeo-Christian misconceptions and hidden agendas.
Now that's perfectly excusable, understandable! But to keep hundreds of thousand of similar victims from recognizing
and justly naming the most creative, powerful, mysterious and beautiful part of their anatomy - that's just not good.
So just like a variety of others (among which women, authors, educators), I would very much appreciate if you would once (soon) give a lecture during which you explain to the world just how this happened and that you did not mean it and that you perfectly well know that what you called vagina should be called vulva ... but that you just couldn't help yourself.
Just see it like a regular speech many people give at an AA meeting - baring their soul. It will be difficult, most likely, but a lot of women and men will applaud you ...
It's the right thing to do!
Just remember the famous sentence: A woman 's got to do what a woman 's got to do.
Let this be your guiding light and I'm sure you'll come through just fine - and even more liberated than now.
With Agape and Respect,