Stop Acting Like a Pussy

New at Reason: Should Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues be performed in high schools? Is Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues teaching women to feel sorry for themselves? When is Eve Ensler going to come out with the sequel, The Penis/Vagina Dialogues? Cathy Young has all the answers.

Comments

[Shultz]

If we could find another way to squander tax money, a way that doesn't necessarily violate the religous convictions of millions of Americans, it would be better.

Maybe it could be performed in private high schools?

[Critic]

If they had cancelled the production,
would the headline read SHAVED PUSSY?

[Kevin Carson]

What a stupid title for a play, anyway. Can you imagine a real vagina monologue?

"Not much happened today. Dick came by, but he was in a hurry--just had time to poke his head in...."

[dhex]

i was always biased towards "the vagina ideologues" myself.

one day i'm going to finish that EP. but i've been so bushed lately.

[alkali]

[I]n the world of The Vagina Monologues, any positive depiction of a male-female relationship, regardless of age, is pretty rare. With one or two exceptions, men are depicted as oafish at best and abusive at worst.

Oh my stars. How will men recover from this blow. Perhaps they will have to settle for owning and running pretty much everything.

Call me naive, but I thought one of feminism's basic ideas was that women are not defined by their anatomy.

Uh, no. Feminists are aware that there are anatomical differences between men and women. The feminist idea (or one of them, anyway) is that women's capacities are generally not defined by their anatomy, and so they should be able to vote, go to school, practice a trade, etc.

The play's focus on male violence and abuse toward women is even more troubling than its focus on female bodies.

Is its focus on female bodies all that troubling?

Of course male abuse of women is a real and serious problem; but in modern-day America, relations between the sexes are far more complex and far more balanced than that.

So stop mentioning rape of Bosnian women! No one wants to hear about it! Icky! Yuck!

Buncha whining. If you don't want to hear about vaginas, stay out of the Amherst high school auditorium for the next couple of weeks. If not, pfft.

[nobody]

I hear they rejected "The Penis Protocols."

[dhex]

heh, yessss...all men own everything...all women own nothing...

does anyone care to contest that a story about statutory rape between a 26 year old man and a 13 year old girl would receive a massively different reaction from people than having an older woman and a younger girl involved?

i know people can explain away the difference, and i admire their skill in and cunning in doing so, but i still think they're full of it.

personally, i hope to see a play about women gunfighters in the old west... "the cooter shooters"

[Pavel]

Cathy wrote:
Call me naive, but I thought one of feminism's basic ideas was that women are not defined by their anatomy...I would hope that our educational system would encourage them, first and foremost, to understand the world through their minds.

Feminism is more often defined by what it rails against at a particular moment than by a single coherent view. I think some feminists might argue that the whole "understand the world through their minds" comment is male-centric and falls in line with a historical association (rooted in early Christianity) of the the bodily, womanly and the impure.

On the other hand, many feminists also love to hate Freud and his famous "biology is destiny" line of thinking.

I see where the spirit of the Monologues comes from. Unfortunately, it seems like much of feminism is still in this adolescent stage.

Historically so much of female self-consciousness has been informed by dependence on men. It should be hardly surprising that so much if it revolves around "we don't need men or male institutions define us, we don't need a man to enjoy ourselves, or be fulfilled or complete beings."

It's like teen rebellion.

My entire life has been defined by mom and dad, now I'm going to reject everything in my life tainted by them, realize that some of it wasn't bad, and then come back around as an idependent but connected and related being.

[TWC]

How about a rewrite of Monologues where the 24 year old womyn prays with, rather than plays with the 16 year old chick?

(collective gasp ensues)

Didn't think that would fly, 1st Amendment seperation and all that.

As for Alkalai and Amherst? Shit Howdy, there's a pair of exemplary reasons to add to the laundry list of reasons why we need to abolish public schools.

A pox on all their houses.

[Bill]

"Not much happened today. Dick came by, but he was in a hurry--just had time to poke his head in...."

He had a couple of his friends along. Man are those guys nuts.

[Joe Majsterski]

alkali said:
"So stop mentioning rape of Bosnian women! No one wants to hear about it! Icky! Yuck!"

Notice that Cathy Young said:
"Of course male abuse of women is a real and serious problem; but in modern-day America, relations between the sexes are far more complex and far more balanced than that."

America

The Vagina Monologues, in the context of American culture, is off-base. This play has nothing to do with the horrible treatment women receive in different cultures, which is a serious issue that no one here, I would guess, thinks should be swept under the rug.

[alkali]

The Vagina Monologues, in the context of American culture, is off-base. This play has nothing to do with the horrible treatment women receive in different cultures. ...

It's nothing to do with culture, really. The rapists in question were Westerners. And why can't Eve Ensler be worried about Bosnian women if she wants to be?

[Geotech]

Maybe the point is that divisive crap like this that alienates men isn't the best way to promote more understanding between the sexes.

[D Anghelone]

... Ensler talked about women's special "vagina intelligence" in which "understanding of the world comes through the body."...

Formerly known as "women's intuition."

[Jennifer]

Vagina intelligence? How is that not the female equivalent of "Thay guy does his thinking with his dick?"

I am a high-school teacher and I have no problem with the thought of sexual content in school plays. However, I do oppose the Vagina Monologues because I don't think public schools should put on plays with the message "Watch out, girls, all men are scum!" Likewise, I'd oppose a play that says, "Watch out, boys, all women are cockteasing bitches who files false rape claims for fun!"

Eve Ensler needs to get her head out of her twat.

[Don]

"By the way, when did lesbian sex become a "pure and innocent" form of relationship?

I mean, doesn't this view of lesbianism just fall into the role that male fantasy created for it?"

My understanding is that lesbianism has historically not usually been the mortal crime that male homosexuality often has. I'm not arguing that it was viewed as "pure & innocent", but it was generally seen as a lesser crime.

[Don]

"It's nothing to do with culture, really. The rapists in question were Westerners. And why can't Eve Ensler be worried about Bosnian women if she wants to be?"

Since when are Serbs Westerners?

The worst instances of rape in the last century were comitted by the Imperial Japanese Army and the Red Army, the victims being primarly Chinese and German women respectively. In many cases, the victims were raped to death.

By contrast, in American history the rape rate has been very low. During the Civil War, there are no documented cases or rape of Southern women by Union soldiers, Gone With the Wind to the contrary (there were rapes committed by some ragtag militias of freed slaves led by radical abolitionists, but these militias were quickly disbanded by the North). Also, in Gold Rush California, the rape rate was about 1/30th of what it is today. Underreporting? Perhaps, but this would likely be cancelled out by the fact that women were a statistical minority, so the rape rate of the time should be exaggerated.

[Xmas]

By the way, when did lesbian sex become a "pure and innocent" form of relationship?

I mean, doesn't this view of lesbianism just fall into the role that male fantasy created for it?

[Douglas Fletcher]

I really must start going to theatre more often...

[Tommy_Grand]

Right On, Jennifer!

[Jimmy Antley]

Right on, Jennifer. I don't agree with you on "global warming", but you've got it right about Eve Ensler. You may be wrong about which hole, though. Funny, a lot of those feminists are into that Hole-istic medicine like what you describe.

[Jimmy Antley]

Oops, Tommy, stepped on your comment. That was weird....

[Ladadi ladada]

Unfortunately Eve doesn't hold the answers for all of us, and her rendition of dick dialoging may only be with her cat. Honestly, when was the last time she saw a penis?

For those of you who are interested, there is a book that will be released by this fall called "The Cock Catalogues," the sequel to "The Pussy Dialogues" which addreses the absurdity of "The Vagina Monologues".

Personally, I'm sticking with "The Pussy Dialogues" becuase it made more sense, and I could care less what Eve thinks about the Penis. It takes one to know one...