Sunday, May 1, 2011

V-Club

In February this year I conceived an idea to put on a production of the Vagina Monologues in English in Jerusalem as a way of raising funds for the Jerusalem Rape Crisis Centre (JRCC). The seed was taken by a friend of mine who works there, and it gestated with her for a little while. The idea slowly took form, and now is born, moving and breathing by itself, the play now being less than two months away.

My role in the production is in the behind-the-scenes side of things, and (self promoted) assistant director. This is mainly because, due to my physiological makeup in my Be’er Sheva region, I cannot perform.

This is also because a lot of the monologues include the phase ‘My Vagina’: “My vagina is angry…”, “My hairy vagina…”, “My menstruating Vagina…”, “I saw my vagina…” etc. and using a possessive pronoun with the word ‘vagina’ doesn’t work for me, and that’s okay, it’s something I came to terms with a long time ago. I have the right to a vagina, but physically I don’t have one.

Anyway! Last Friday we met with the director and the actors, this was a phenomenal inside look into the feminie sphere. The meeting took place in a small classroom the chairs were pinky-red, a fitting colour for the discussion about to take place. The room was carpeted, also fitting…

As the women entered they greeted each other, either by their vaginas or by the state of their wombs. The babies who were brought in with their strollers were greeted as “my cute little vagina”, where as a hearty “hello Mama” was directed toward the heavily pregnant woman, who walked in a swollen-ankles-aching-back kind of shuffle. There was also the ‘recently pregnant’ woman who was deciding if a C-section is the best way to go for her next birth.

And then there was me… The lone man, with no part worth mentioning him by, so they just called me by my name.

But I was happy.

At one point I was sandwiched between a middle aged woman who was breast feeding, and a woman recounting the story of finding her 4-year-old daughter discovering her “bagina”.

The meeting as you can tell was not so productive. But even though I felt a part of this newly established ‘Vagina Monologues’ community, I felt it was not my place to assert my authoritative patriarchal view of productivity onto them. It’s just too imperial. Perhaps the idle banter that went on for the two hours was what these women considered ‘productive’. Who am I to impress my view upon this clearly female forum?

So I stayed quiet, meak, and submissive.

The meeting was a wonderful, and I’m sure the next will be even better.

The Vagina Monologues will be held in Jerusalem in mid June, stay tuned for more details.

About Me

Jerusalem, Israel
A Sydney born yid whose youth movement involvment led him to take the plunge and make Aliyah (migrate to Israel). Has a keen intrest in biblical exegesis and dancing like no one's watching