In my first Vagina versus post I talked about the relationship between the vagina and the penis. However, in this post I will be comparing the vagina to the heart, which I thought was a very interesting comparison when it was brought up in the last chapter of Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. In this chapter, Ensler talks very vividly about the process of birth, beginning with a sentence and a vision not usually depicted in birthing stories, "I was there when her vagina opened" (Ensler, 121).
During this chapter, the vagina is described as a sort of life force. It moves past just a sexual organ, and transforms into a life giving, living, breathing phenomenon. Ensler very vividly, almost psychedelically, describes the pre-birthing transformation, "her vagina changed from a shy sexual hole to an archaeological tunnel, a sacred vessel, a Venetian canal, a deep well with a tiny stuck, child inside, waiting to be rescued". Ensler then goes on the describe the visual image of the birth actually taking place. The description is specific and grotesquely detailed to say the least:
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"I saw the colors of her vagina. They changed. Saw the bruised broken blue the blistering tomato red the gray pink, the dark; saw the blood like perspiration along the edges saw the yellow, white liquid, the shit, the clots pushing out all the holes, pushing harder and harder" (Ensler, 122). Wow. I felt like I was in the room even while writing that; it is so intense.
Ensler then goes on to describe the after-birth scene, and this is where she makes her comparisons between the vagina and the heart. The heart is often depicted as the true life-giving organ, a life-force in itself. However, Ensler makes the claim that the vagina is also life-force. After the birth when she is looking into the mutilated and open vagina, she observes, "her vagina suddenly became a wide pulsing red heart" (Ensler, 24). The heart is often portrayed as the source of passion and selflessness in our bodies, but Ensler argues that the vagina is similarly capable of selfless sacrifice. In one passage, Ensler describes the heart, "It can ache for us and stretch for us, die for us and bleed and bleed us into this difficult, wondrous world". She goes on to reveal, "So can the vagina" (Ensler, 125). While the differences between the heart and the vagina are obvious, Ensler draws many connections mainly based on the ability to give life. Whether it is through pumping blood throughout the body or birthing a child, both the heart and the vagina are capable of creating and sustaining life. Ensler reveals even more similarities between the two as she explains, "The heart is capable of sacrifice. So is the vagina. The heart is able to forgive and repair. It can change its shape to let us in. It can expand to let us out. So can the vagina" (Ensler, 24). In this round between the vagina and the heart, the result is a tie.
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