Content Warning: The source text and this study guide feature graphic depictions and discussion of rape, sexual assault, and domestic and systemic violence against women.

The vagina, as a word and an anatomical attribute, operates as both a symbol and motif in The Vagina Monologues. The author establishes in the Preface that while the vagina is only one part of the anatomy, she specifically chose the word “vagina” because she’s “not supposed to say it […] a word that stirs up anxiety, awkwardness, contempt, and disgust” (xxi), thus symbolizing resistance to social repression. The vagina symbolizes more than womanhood; is a locus of both erasure and empowerment, a site of pain and of pleasure—of life, agency, and death.

As a motif in the text, the vagina is a recurring means of connection and political empowerment for women. V uses the vagina as an entry point through which women eventually discuss sexual violence, orgasm, birth, abuse, and personal discovery. Vaginas come to represent a site of community and political and personal action, which carries into the real world in tangible ways.

The vagina acts as a symbol for Bosnian villages decimated during the war: “My vagina a live wet water village. They invaded it.