All of the monologues shared a common theme of addressing women's issues and celebrating them in all its glory. Eve Ensler created the show based on a series of interviews she had with several types of women. The show's objective is to get rid of the embarrassment that is associated with the vagina as well as to make women feel comfortable talking about issues including rape, sexuality, childbirth, body image and many more. My favorite monologues were Hair, The "Wear and Say" Lists, My Angry Vagina and The Vagina Workshop. Particularly, Hair and My Angry Vagina discussed how society thinks the vagina should be hairless and smell like flowers and should not be left in its natural state.
Commercials often portrayed a woman as helpless if her car broke down. Feminists went to the streets, marching, protesting, writing books and debating to change social and political views that limited women. One young lady named Betty Freidan made a list of questions while in college for women to answer and after seeing the results, she discovered that at least 200 women were unhappy with their lives. Betty Freidan tried to write an article based on her findings but was turned down, so she took it to a deeper level and took it into herself to try to change these lives to be better and change the way women were looked at. Yes, but you need a bit more specific overview.
On the other hand, the Lady in Red's tale recounts her issues with domestic violence. The end of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf" brings all of the women together for a spiritual "laying on of the hands," which allows the women to feel the power of not only womanhood, but also sisterhood. For Colored Girls is a series of 20 poems, all together they are called a "choreopoem." The author (Shange) expresses the many struggles and obstacles that African-American women face throughout their lives. The play was first performed at the Bacchanal, a woman's bar outside of Berkeley, California; it was first produced in New York City at Studio Rivbea in 1975.
Reflecting Olsen’s Life Tillie Olsen once said, “Time granted does not necessarily coincide with time that can be most fully used.” This was one of many famous quotes by Tillie Olsen. She was an American writer associated with the political chaos of the 1930s and the first wave of American feminists. Olsen’s work ties into the post modernism literature period. During her hard-working life, Tillie Olsen wrote many short stories that reflect the post modernism literary period and show connection with the feminist movement. In her work “I Stand Here Ironing” Olsen uses the theme of regret and the mother’s inner conflict to show her concern about her daughter’s life.
Colored women are seen in a different light, where they are powerful, intelligent, and independent. The new light shining on colored women is seen in the movie For Colored Girls directed by actor, producer, playwright, and director Tyler Perry in 2010. The movie is based on Ntozake Shange's 1975 play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf." Each of the women portrays one of the characters represented in the collection of twenty poems. Each of the poems deal with intense issues that particularly impact women in a thought-provoking commentary on what it means to be a female of color in the world.
Biography of Kate Chopin Kate Chopin was a famous author during the late eighteen hundreds publishing many famous short stories and novels such as The Awakening and Bayou Folks. She has often been referred to as “a pioneer in the amoral treatment of sexuality, of divorce, and of woman’s urge for an existential authenticity” (Seyersted 1). She led the way for feminism and was praised after her death once her style of writing became more accepted. Chopin wrote about the passion that other authors during her time would not dare to speak of. Her life greatly influenced literature today and the censorship that follows.
One major concern with advertising messages is the depiction of women and what this depiction implies have somehow created a “frame” for modern women to identify themselves. Alice E. Courtney and Thomas W. Whipple report in their research findings that advertising portrays the majority of female figures as passive, insubordinate wives and mothers who never leave the domestic sphere (25). Over a three decade period, women in advertising were portrayed as “…sexual object, woman as physically beautiful, and woman as dependent on man" (Courtney & Whipple, 9). Depicting women in the role of domestic servant sends the message that idealistic women should desire domestic perfection that can only be achieved with the help of the product in question. In contrast to domestic servant, women are also depicted as sexual figures with a lust
Alice Walker married in 1967 (and divorced in 1976). Her first book of poems came out in 1968 and her first novel just after her daughter's birth in 1970. Alice Walker's early poems, novels and short stories dealt with themes familiar to readers of her later works: rape, violence, isolation, troubled relationships, multi-generational perspectives, sexism and racism. When The Color Purple came out in 1982, Walker became known to an even wider audience. Her Pulitzer Prize and the movie by Steven Spielberg brought both fame and controversy.
Women over time have been the subject of judgment, critic, and ridicule, having women’s bodies parts portrayed as objects and being objectified through advertisements creates the fight for equality for women that Jean Kilbourne has devoted most of her life trying to achieve. Kilbourne a feminist herself preaches the issue of objectification of women through her writings of Killing Us Softly. Killing us softly reflects the issue at hand by raising the awareness of objectification of women through certain advertisements. Advertisements Kilbourne refers to in her essay are the ones that don’t portray women in the correct way or show the proper equality women have in present day. Women being inferior to males, having their mouths covered, or being mistreated within an add is something that should be stopped or at least being acknowledged that it is a negative message toward women.
The monologue that I thought best persuades, informs, entertains, explores, and expresses self is, My Angry Vagina. The woman that is speaking her mind in this monologue is obviously trying to express her feelings over how doctors and tampons treat her vagina. A quote from the text that describes the women informing and persuading people about tampons is, “Like tampons—what the hell is that? A wad of dry fucking cotton stuffed up there. Why can’t they find a way to subtly lubricate the tampon?