Are ‘The Monologues’ Transphobic?
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THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES is certainly not a “gay” play; nor does its author, Eve Ensler, market it as such. It is considered primarily a “feminist” play, but ever since its première in the late 1990s, a number of lesbian and trans-identified scholars and activists have criticized Ensler and the V-Day organization—a worldwide movement inspired by the play—which upholds a set of production policies, among them a disparagement of casting male-bodied or transgender men to perform the play.

Helen Deborah Lewis, PhD, is a member of the theater faculty at the Boston Conservatory.