Vagina Jones

I've had a lot of stagenames in the past, Mary Magdelane on a Stretcher, Flying Jesus, King Leah. In 1998 I ed the Church of the Subgenius (if you aren't already familiar with it, it's probably not what you think) and needed a new one. I wanted something that was tough and cool like Cleopatra Jones and something that was feminist, sexy and silly. A friend suggested the name and it fit. I thought it was so perfect as my aim in those days was to make awkwardness sexy and sexy awkward. I wore my underwear over my clothes and used props like a dildo harness with a three headed plastic hypodermic needle, duct tape, giant metal boots, plastic hands and funny hats. I wanted people to say vagina when they saw me and feel strange about what they thought it was before. I'm a woman, so it fits, but what does what I do have anything to do with this organ? Vagina means everything you think it means, but it also has connotations to it I like to explore: sex, blood, birth, pleasure, pain, etc When I do performances on stage or with video I purposely go in unexpected directions, ones that appear to have absolutely nothing to do with it. By doing so I create new meanings and question again and again how I define Vagina. It's not just a hole to pee from or have sex with, it's not just something I protect and pamper and it's not the only thing that makes me a woman. (That said, I don't believe all women have them.) If I am redefining it's connotations, I hope that the audience will do the same.
Viva La Vagina! VAGINA JONES
(From artist's website)