The Vagina Monologues is a great concept, but ultimately it just bites off way more than it can chew. On one hand, it tries to be relatable to Western audiences by discussing issues such as tampons, Pap smears, and run-of-the-mill bad sex, which is great. On the other, it goes a little heavy-handed and discusses issues like rape in the developing world and female genital mutilation, which are fine as topics, but can't be addressed so briefly or in conjunction with tampon humour.

The major problem with The Vagina Monologues is really that it tries to force a concept of "global sisterhood" that isn't really organic to its content. Just because female genital mutilation and Pap smears both involve a vagina does not mean the connection between them isn't utterly tenuous, and doesn't mean they should be in the same play.

I wrote more about this here:

http://toohardtofindaurl.blogspot.com/2011/02/vagina-monologues.html