`Monologues' promote awareness
Kelly Komenda
senior
Editor's note: Because"The Vagina Monologues" contains some graphic content and offensive language, the letters discussing these issues will contain such language as well. In order to foster an intelligent dialogue on this matter, this language must be included. Readers who might be offended by such language are cautioned.
In response to Sean Dudley's letter on Thursday, I would first like to ask Sean if he has actually seen or read "The Vagina Monologues?" Undoubtedly, the Eve Ensler production of "The Vagina Monologues" is a far cry from a masturbation camp and at no point does it promote "lesbian sexual encounters."
Instead, "The Vagina Monologues" portrays a diversity of experiences among women, across what are often portrayed as boundaries between women (some of these boundaries being nationality, race, class, age and, yes, sexual orientation). The common denominator in all of the monologues being, of course, vaginas.
I agree with Molly McShane's statement on Feb. 15 that "The Vagina Monologues" is about empowerment. The intent of "The Vagina Monologues" is to end the many forms of violence against women by reclaiming ownership of ourselves. The intent of "The Vagina Monologues" is not to promote any one lifestyle over another. If Sean claims that "The Vagina Monologues" promotes masturbation and lesbianism, then he must also claim that it encourages Bosnian soldiers to rape women with their rifles. Your standpoint, Sean, is unqualified and one-sided.
The goal of "The Vagina Monologues" is to dispel the myths about women and their vaginas, which Sean so graciously upheld in his letter — namely, that there is something fundamentally offensive and graphic about women and their vaginas. Because various forces of women's oppression have been justified through these essentialist standpoints, it is only logical for Eve Ensler to reclaim a seemingly essential characteristic of women, such as the vagina, as a source of empowerment.
"The Vagina Monologues" does not desensitize, rather, it offers a sense of respect and awareness about the reality and diversity of women's experiences. It is necessary to realize that dogmatic Catholicism does not encompass the reality and totality of women's experiences. And even if the group of students protesting "The Vagina Monologues" is not willing to realize the existence of life beyond Catholicism, I simply ask you to remember that Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mother did, in fact, have a vagina. Perhaps, Sean, you encountered the slogan for "The Vagina Monologues," Think Inside the Box, and applied it erroneously to function within a self-serving Catholic context.
Kelly Komenda
senior
off-campus
Feb. 18, 2002
All Viewpoint Stories for Tuesday, February 19, 2002
