The Vagina Monologues (2002) watch online HD

I have a strong suspicion the comments below were written by a man. This show definately isn't for everyone, but to call it revolting only makes Ms. Ensler's point--that there is such a ridiculous stigma and mystery attached to a woman's sexuality. Men talk freely and frequently about their equipment, I find it amusing that the idea of a woman discussing hers is considered so tasteless.

It didn't leave me wanting to start a revolution--I didn't feel like marching in a parade after seeing this, I didn't want to shout VAGINA from the rooftops...instead, I enjoyed some often hysterical, sometimes tragic and overall witty dialogue.

And it is funny, there's no way around that. The list of different moans is worth the price of admission alone. It's educational as well--did you know the clitoris is the only organ that serves no purpose other than to give please and contains twice as many nerve endings as the penis? As Ms. Ensler says, "Why want a handgun when you can have a semiautomatic?"

I've always been a fan of The Vagina Monologues, and even did a few for a speech competition in high school, but I don't think that Eve does the greatest job with some of the monologues. The film version didn't match up to a live production that I saw in my hometown. See The Vagina Monologues live to get the full effect. It feels more universal with 20 women onstage, rather than one.

The Vagina Monologues, both in book and visual form, is one of the most moving experiences of our times. An attempt to enlighten, entertain and to bring a "taboo" out of the shadows. Why women talking about their sexuality should be considered taboo in the first place escapes me but some of the comments here (especially the ones labelling it "disgusting") seem to be written by people still trapped in the 1950s. The Vagina Monologues is a heartfelt celebration of female sexuality and a condemnation of those who attempt to supress it. Alternating between humor (the list of slang names for the vagina) and more disturbing material (the rape material) the film attempts to take in all aspects and attitudes. A compelling achievement.

Ok, so I'll admit I thought it sounded a little 'out there' when I heard about the Vagina Monologues. I've now seen three showings and each time I love it more! Eve Ensler's own renditions of the interviews and monologues are touching, heart wrenching, and hilarious! She interviewed hundreds of women about their vaginas because she was, 'worried about vaginas.'

I have to say, though, that the most touching thing is that this has turned into a act against violence toward women (V-Day is the actual name of the event). One of the monologues is about Bosnian women in rape camps and I'll admit that I have cried every time I saw it performed. These women are empowered and learn to love themselves more through Ensler's work. That alone gives it a 10/10.

I recently saw this show performed locally, and I was amazed. Of course, people thought that I, being "a bit young" for this show, wouldn't understand it. This is completely wrong. It has to do with maturity, not age. I thought this show was extremely well done, and it was very empowering. Some of the monologues made me laugh, others made me cry. There were actually a good number of men there, and most of them cried too. It was very emotional, humorous, moving, and an overall great experience. I highly reccommend this show to all mature people of either sex.

Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues has had a lot of press, good and bad, since she first compiled her interviews into an entertaining, celebratory, moving, and thoughtful show. What's wrong with talking about something half the population have? What's the stigma here? Ou of this became V-day, against domestic violence and for the protection of women. If it takes a few monologues that make the sensitive uncomfortable to put women on the agenda again in a world where violence against women is often ignored or regarded as trivial, then it is all for the good. And what woman hasn't thought about most of the issues in Ensler's work, even if she's never said it? The film version is a good record of a brave piece of theatre, but to get the full effect see a mixed cast, see a local performance, just don't dismiss it.

I am shocked that a third of the reviews written were negative. The Vagina Monologues, while overtly from a feminist viewpoint, are anything but abrasive to men. In fact, I've known more than one male who has been converted to thinking "maybe there might be something to this whole feminism thing after all" from seeing this play. From my not-so-limited experience, the Vagina Monologues has been one of the most moving pieces of literature for feminism, simply because it is not abrasive to masculinity as other "gyno-centric" pieces may be-- also because it mixes joy and pain to give an accurate depiction of womanhood. To make the entire play funny-- and, yes, very witty and clever-- would be to give a glossed-over version that panders to a certain audience and is no better than it should be. To make it completely serious would alienate the audience and betray the play's purpose, which is to open eyes that might have been shut from lingering fingers of "penile-centric" society.

In all, the Vagina Monologues is one of the best-written and well-performed plays I've ever seen, a classic of feminist literature, one that every adult of the 21st century should see. For those readers who are considering seeing the Vagina Monologues for the first time, you will enjoy it, male or female. Unless, of course, you are already prejudiced against the female gender and those working for its equality.

Very funny, witty, uplifting, and empowering without being overbearing, depressing, or militant. I've recommended it to almost all my friends. I was told that it was nothing but "feminazi man bashing" by someone who obviously wasn't paying attention to the message the monologues are trying to send, before I saw this. This is about women having pride in their womanhood, not being a feminist and hating men and blaming men for all the problems in the world. I felt very good after viewing The Vagina Monologues.

This movie is incredibly important. After reading bad reviews given by mostly men, I was a little reluctant to watch it. Now I'm glad that I didn't let these other people's opinions make up my mind for me. This movie touches on subject matter so untouched, taboo, and personal that it is seriously important. I would advise that those with vaginas will probably enjoy and understand this film much more than those without. This film made me laugh really hard and also cry really hard. It makes you wonder why this subject matter is so taboo and untouched. Eve Ensler is a remarkable woman.

Please don't think that you need to be a 'riot grrl' or 'womyn' to enjoy this film, you just need to be someone who cares about the issues going on with women today as well as in the past. I highly recommend this movie to those strong in heart and soul.

Until I first experienced The Vagina Monologues one very late night on HBO, I was mostly indifferent to my role as a woman on this planet. Being 16 and plagued by the preoccupations of boys and school I never really took the time to understand the meaning and beauty of being a member of such a wonderful sex.

My views on the symbolic meaning of my vagina changed when I saw Eve Ensler perform the monologue "I Was In The Room." The monologue describes Ensler's witness of the birth of her granddaughter. Towards the end of the monologue Ensler compares the wonders of the vagina to the heart, "It can live for us, it can bleed for us, it can die for us." I was moved to tears and was motivated to see the rest of the play. It was beautiful and empowering and made me really appreciate my sex. It gave me a new definition of feminism.

Every woman should see this play. It's somewhat educational and easy to relate to and most importantly, it will move you to truly love yourself.

This was one of the most difficult things I ever had to sit through. For the first fifteen minutes all I did was squirm in my seat and read my program. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Then, after awhile, I started to pay more attention to what was being said rather than the words that were being spoken. This play is not about feminism or man-hating; it is about being a woman, embracing what makes women different from men. Many of the points made are very heavy handed, many others are sappy and sentimental, others are strange and a little scary. Eve Ensler used these delivery methods to get through our 'conservative Americanism'. She had to. This country, despite its lack-luster efforts, is still one of the most sexually repressed places in the developed world. We don't like to talk about sex in any serious context; we won't let safe sex be taught and promoted in schools, we still have double standards on promiscuity, the list goes on and on. Sex in the US is kept in the bedroom, the Legislative Branch of the State Government, the Executive Branch of the National Government, and in dirty jokes and sitcom cliches. This play aims to change all that. It is a small step, but a step none the less.

See this play. If you can't see it, read it. It will make you uncomfortable. It will probably gross you out in places. And, most importantly, it will make you think about things you didn't know you could.

I'd like to get a group of sensitive new age men and begin a play...I think I call it the Testicle Diatribes. And we can talk about our testicles and we can define ourselves by our testicles and all the funny names we give them...and then we rant about how oppressed our testicles are and that they need light and air.

Funny how not one of these women seemed straight. Just another exclusive 'girls' club thing, rant and screed oh our poor reproductive organs blah blah wish I had a penis instead.

And the whole 'unitl the violence stops' thing, noble enough but I dont meet any pro-violence against women types.

For Grrls and Womynn only, you know the ones who have a lot of free time on thier hands, dateless with mustaches who listen to ani didyko

One of the many questions that came to my mind while watching Eve Ensler deliver her often-abrasive performance in The Vagina Monologues was - Did those people sitting in the audience really pay good money to listen to Ensler rant & rave as she did about vaginas?

And another question that came to mind was - Is Ensler really that much of a deluded hypocrite that she condemns men who sexually abuse underage girls, while in the next breath, condones lesbian women who do the same thing?

If you ask me - I thought Ensler came across as being annoyingly anal about discussing the taboo subject of vaginas. This totally one-note presentation of hers often struck me as being very heavy-handed.

And the fact that she never once interviewed any men to get their opinions of a vagina gave me the clear indication of just how frigid and rigid and sexually biased Ensler was about her precious vagina.

At times, Ensler struck me as being such a man-hater at heart. I mean, she appeared absolutely hellbent on placing the full-blame on men as being the sole reason why so many women are of a negative-mind about their vaginas.

Yes. Perhaps I was in the wrong frame of mind when I sat down to watch The Vagina Monologues, but, from the perspective of a man, Ensler's verbal spewing out did nothing to de-stigmatize the vagina, nor did it lift the curse from anyone who (whether they like it or not) may have been born with a vagina.

Long, tedious, and boring. This is how I (a man) found it. I do not consider myself a prude in any way, nevertheless, I found myself staring at the countdown timer on the DVD player, waiting for it to end. My original reason for watching it was because of all the hype. While some men may find it entertaining, and even humorous, be warned, most will be ejecting the DVD within the first two minutes unless your curiosity gets the better of you.

Normally, I try to have an open mind to alternative/cutting edge forms of "entertainment", however this goes beyond the limits of the typical male. Overall, this is simply feminine ranting with a comic twist. Call it a hunch, but only women would understand most of the jokes, since men do not have a frame of reference to compare to.

(Men:) Simply put, if you have not gotten into it within the first ten minutes, eject the DVD! It does not get any better. The only good(?) thing about this is that you will find out more about women than you thought possible (or probably wanted to know!)

From a man's point of view - I thought Eve Ensler (posing as a comedienne) was clearly a Feminist-Nazi seething with total penis-envy.

As I patiently sat through Ensler's endless rantings & ravings in "The Vagina Monologues", I couldn't believe how annoyingly anal this woman was about her chosen subject of discussion.

Since Ensler never once (in all of her 200 hundred interviews) asked even one, single man his honest opinion about a vagina, I'm quite convinced that this abrasive woman was a total man-hater with a venomous ax to grind against my specific gender.

More than once Ensler made it crystal clear that she blamed men (of course) as being the #1 reason why so many woman have a dysfunctional attitude about sex, orgasm and their vaginas.

In conclusion - I think that it's about time for some really sharp-witted dude to create a live show called "The Penis Monologues" in order to gloat over his pecker the same way that Ensler has gloated over her vagina. And, hopefully, that would be sufficient enough to counter the barbed-wire sting of Ensler's politically incorrect "Vagina Monologues".

Saw Vagina Monlologues @ Venice Little Theatre, Venice Florida in May 2006. Only thing I was disappointed in was not hearing anything about how brutally painful the loss of a female's sexuality is. It somehow would have been comforting to hear how a female with dwindling hormones tries desperately for years to maintain and retain those warm, delicious desires that were "her" so completely for so very long; only to see them slipping out of reach.. something like losing the grip of a hand of a loved one and watching her scramble, grope and try to claw her way back up only to finally feel the strength dwindle from her fingers and then witness her fall to her death into a bottomless, black pit never to see her again.

I am 68 years old.

This movie was excellent. I love Eve Ensler, she is my favorite female playwright. This is an important movie, it reminded me of the importance of my own "vagina". It shows how us women are just as important as men and that we can do just as many things as them. Even though there were those moments of sad traumatic stories about abuse and rape, there are more happy stories of pleasure and good, thank God. Those critics out there who call it trash need to wake up and give people and things a chance. "You can't judge a book by it's cover". Kudos to Eve Ensler. Two Thumbs Way Up!

Note: I saw this play and after I saw it I felt stronger not only as a woman but also as an individual.

I've always wanted to see and I got my chance on VDay- thanks to HBO. I sat for little over an hour, and during that hour I was moved. I was so moved that at one point I couldn't tell if I was laughing or crying. The stories are so compelling that it feels that you know- that you can understand just what she's talking about.

Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" tears down the walls of disillusionment that plagues the American cultures' view of women and sex. Her stories of rape, lesbianism, and self-discovery clearly illuminate what we all have been taught to view as ill-mannered and dirty.

Finally something that the female race can hold up and shout out as "MINE!" and feel connected.

I really don't quite know what to make of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES. On the one hand I admire actor Eve Ensler for her versatility in performing so many different monologues embodying the experiences of her interviewees - all of them of different ages, backgrounds, and social experiences. She communicates the thoughts of a prostitute, a New York Jew, a woman experiencing the embarrassing sight of a man staring at her vagina, another person who has never had sexual intercourse, and - most interestingly - the experiences of Bosnian women kept as sex slaves during the civil war of the mid-Nineties.

All of these monologues reflect the desire to bring out into the open a subject normally hidden under the wraps of civilized societies - the significance of the vagina, both personally and socially. Customarily perceived as an object of titillation by men, Ensler shows how it means different things to different people - there are those who would quite happily use the c-word to describe it, even though for many people that would be considered thoroughly offensive.

Ensler is an accomplished performer; we see her backstage in this film, as well as hearing extracts from some of her interviewees who are brave enough to recall their experiences on camera. Ensler herself enjoys keeping an audience amused, and can readily adopt different personae.

On the other hand, there is something almost too controlled about her stage persona. We can admire her technique, but we never feel that she inhabits the roles she plays. Consequently there is a strong sense of mimicry about THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES; rather like a western colonialist, Ensler speaks for her interviewees rather than encouraging them to speak for themselves. This is especially true of her monologue when she impersonates the Bosnian women, which is mediated through Ensler's western consciousness rather than making an attempt to empathize with a culturally distinct experience.

THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES is an entertaining piece, but we can't help but think that it is has been deliberately cleaned, sanitized, and oriented towards the tastes of middle-class Broadway audiences rather than embodying the experiences of socially diverse people.

I saw one of the stage performances in Denver and have never been less impressed. The word "vagina" says it all. A body part. Nothing shocking here. I could say to my doctor, "My left arm has been hurting a bit after tennis" or "My vagina hurts after cycling" with equal or more social commentary. It could be the "Tricep Monologues" for all the entertainment or radical comment I heard. The monologues were dull but delivered with drama, the topics were outdated, and I was alternately bored and annoyed. Once I think I laughed but apparently it wasn't when I was supposed to. Surely this isn't really a hit. Oh, and spoilers: there was a LESBIAN! - oh, wait, maybe not, come to think of it. And Inappropriate Fondling! And a Crack Mama! That about covers it.

Hearing such praise about this play, I decided to watch it when I stumbled across it on cable. I don't see how this "elivates" women and their "struggles" by focusing on the topic at hand. I guess if you have an interest in stories about women's private parts and how it affects their lives, then this is for you. Otherwise, it's rather dull and boring. If anything, I found it a bit degrading.

I inquired with a female friend who also watched this and she thought it was horrible as well. So, it's not just a guy "not getting it".

I hated this film. It infuriated me, to be honest.

I'm a feminist, I'm comfortable with my body, my sexuality and my gender, and I despised this film. I think it ironically detached women from their vaginas instead of uniting them. My vagina is not some separate entity from me, wandering around with a hat and a catchphrase. It's a part of me, we're a team, we're inseparable.

Watching the actress reclaim the word "cunt" made me alternately angry and horrified. It was like watching a three year old throw a tantrum while turning inside out-- it was that graphically gross and irritating. The message isn't my issue-- it was HER.

All in all, I'm deeply disappointed by this movie, this message, and especially the presumptuous and conceited and horrifying way it was presented. I don't recommend anyone-- women or men-- to see it.

Not for everyone. Obviously gyno-centric, this film deals with how women "can" feel about themselves or about their sexuality. The juxtaposition of older women with younger women through their answers to the questions is its most interesting feature, both by the differences in attitudes and the similarities. This is a film for women, by women, about women, without much reference to men. The film may serve to induce more confusion and self doubt in males than there already is. It leaves more questions than it answers. This is pure monologue with no real intention to facilitate better communication between the sexes. Very blunt, it can be as abrasive for men as it is romantic for women. This is by no means a clinical study and should be seen for the simple entertainment value that it has. I am a little concerned about the dialogue dismembering and objectifying the female anatomy, because that has been a long standing and common complaint by women against men.

...and probably a good idea for most of the females as well. Playwright/actress Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" is a solid piece of theater that forces its audience to confront the realities of our culture's tyrannical attitude toward female sexuality, and the deep, underlying fear and loathing that culture inculcates toward the elemental female biological power. No doubt, our patriarchal Judeo-Christian heritage is a dominant factor, but the reins of influence have been as equally taken up by voracious, capitalist consumerism as well, along with the entertainment/infotainment estate and other societal institutions. This country wields two overwhelmingly powerful whips of coercion in the service of bigotry and oppression, and can be identified by the two words most closely associated with them: one is racism and the attendant demonization of the 'N word;' the other is sexism and the scandalous 'C word.' Ms. Ensler's work is, of course, devoted to the latter.

Even the densest among us would recognize that had this piece been titled "The C--- Monologues," it would have gotten nowhere. For a troublingly large number of Americans (and millions of other English-speaking people worldwide; I'm not letting them off the hook), even the word "vagina"--a simple, sterile medical term derived from Latin, meaning 'sheath')--engenders feelings of discomfort and unease. Small wonder that so many of the paltry number of reviews on this site are negative.

Oh, yeah, this is supposed to be a review, isn't it? Suffice to say, the film is actually a mix of backstage documentary and onstage performance, with the backstage material aptly reinforcing the messages of the work itself. Ensler's performance is skilled and passionate; you know without a doubt that the subject is close to her heart, as well as her vagina. Yes, it's entertainment with lessons attached; that's the point. Virtually all documentaries are, and truthfully, most theater is as well. Do yourself a favor and seek this one out; I found it, somewhat surprisingly, at my public library. I'd already seen a live performance of the show a number of years ago, with a cast of a dozen or so women (including a local newscaster and, iirc, the daughter of Diana Ross), and was impressed with its sincerity, its emotional resonance, and its core humanity; I wanted to see what Ensler, herself, did with the material. I was not disappointed. You won't be, either, unless your preconceptions or ingrained biases drag you down.

It really is regrettable that so few people on this site have bothered with this film. Crap like "Transformers" movies gets rated by tens if not hundreds of thousands of people, and "reviewed" by hundreds upon hundreds, while thought-provoking pieces like "The Vagina Monologues" draw less attention than third-tier direct-to-video trash. That's a sad commentary on the IMDb audience, to say the least.

The Vagina Monologues is a great concept, but ultimately it just bites off way more than it can chew. On one hand, it tries to be relatable to Western audiences by discussing issues such as tampons, Pap smears, and run-of-the-mill bad sex, which is great. On the other, it goes a little heavy-handed and discusses issues like rape in the developing world and female genital mutilation, which are fine as topics, but can't be addressed so briefly or in conjunction with tampon humour.

The major problem with The Vagina Monologues is really that it tries to force a concept of "global sisterhood" that isn't really organic to its content. Just because female genital mutilation and Pap smears both involve a vagina does not mean the connection between them isn't utterly tenuous, and doesn't mean they should be in the same play.

I wrote more about this here:

http://toohardtofindaurl.blogspot.com/2011/02/vagina-monologues.html