College Cancels “Vagina Monologues” for Prejudice Against Transgenders
It’s apparently not a parody; Reason is writing about it:
Mount Holyoke College, an all-women’s college in Massachusetts, is retiring its annual production of the Vagina Monologues this year because the play is not inclusive of transgender students.
The annual production of the play is part of a country-wide tradition to perform Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues on Valentine’s Day to raise awareness about gender-based violence and usually coincides with the V-Day campaign. The proceeds are donated to sexual assault prevention organizations or women’s rights organizations.
This year, however, Mount Holyoke’s Project Theatre Board is defying tradition by permanently retiring the play. In a school-wide email from the Theatre Board, a representative from the group, Erin Murphy, explained the problems with the play and the reasoning behind its discontinuation.
“At its core, the show offers an extremely narrow perspective on what it means to be a woman…Gender is a wide and varied experience, one that cannot simply be reduced to biological or anatomical distinctions, and many of us who have participated in the show have grown increasingly uncomfortable presenting material that is inherently reductionist and exclusive,” the email, obtained by Campus Reform, said.
. . . .
“[W]e can’t present a show that is blatantly transphobic and treats race and homosexuality questionably, when one of the conditions of getting the rights to the show is that you can’t critique it or alter it,” another student said.
It’s transphobic, you see, because it assumes that women have vaginas, and excludes those who don’t. (And, I guess, includes men who do.)
That’s racist!
Campuses are evidently awash in this kind of nonsense these days.
Really!
Patterico (9c670f) — 1/15/2015 @ 9:20 pmListen, whatever it takes to get rid of that stupid, stupid play once and for all. For once, I’m on the side of the victim martyrs. Wish they would have thought of this several years ago.
JVW (60ca93) — 1/15/2015 @ 9:26 pmEve Ensler should be made to acknowledge her gyno privilege and apologize to those whom she has so callously hurt.
JVW (60ca93) — 1/15/2015 @ 9:27 pmI got no dog in that hunt. Let the fur fly, both literally and figuratively.
Colonel Haiku (b5e7fd) — 1/15/2015 @ 9:33 pmIt’s getting to the point where if the Nidal Hasans of America eventually do win out, well, tough ta-tas. We reap what we sow. Or a reaction closely related to why I don’t sympathize with or feel pity towards the city of Detroit, and all its variations throughout the US, or a country like Venezuela, and all its variations throughout the world.
Mark (c160ec) — 1/15/2015 @ 9:54 pmWomen that don’t have vaginas are men. These men may identify as women, should they so choose, but that doesn’t change the biological fact that they are men.
JD (86a5eb) — 1/15/2015 @ 10:10 pmI’m with ya there, Haiku. We really must sit back and watch it all unfold–a “serious” discussion of the Vagina Monologues as anti- transgender art. Also, I cannot think of anything more utterly sweet and romantic than Valentine’s Day rape and gender violence awareness programs.
elissa (749b7f) — 1/15/2015 @ 10:17 pmOnly you can figure a way to insert Detroit and Nadal Hassan and Venezuela into to Eve Ensler. I am in awe.
elissa (749b7f) — 1/15/2015 @ 10:21 pmThe science is settled on this. OK, it is wikipedia, but still.
Ag80 (eb6ffa) — 1/15/2015 @ 10:30 pmWhy is a womens only college legal?
seeRpea (3cc998) — 1/15/2015 @ 11:18 pmColonel Haiku #4 – In the spirit of the times, I can just hear the writer of the email obtained by Campus Reform saying “Je suis merkin !” …
Alastor (2e7f9f) — 1/15/2015 @ 11:40 pmThe stoopid play went on because of stoopid PC. Then the stoopid play did not go on because of even stoopider PC. You cannot make this stuff up.
Ken in Camarillo (2c0dee) — 1/15/2015 @ 11:49 pmWe are a nation of cowards if we cannot have a national conversation about vagina monologues.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/16/2015 @ 12:06 am“Gender is a wide and varied experience, one that cannot simply be reduced to biological or anatomical distinctions”
You need to go to college to learn how to say something that gosh darn stupid.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/16/2015 @ 12:08 amYou need to go to college to learn how to say something that gosh darn stupid.
Are we still really keen on having Scott Walker finish his degree? This should serve as a good reason for him to stay unlettered.
JVW (60ca93) — 1/16/2015 @ 12:16 amEvolution deniers AND creation deniers.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/16/2015 @ 12:31 amWhy is a womens only college legal?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/opinion/sunday/who-are-womens-colleges-for.html?_r=0
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/16/2015 @ 12:38 amI keep hoping all the diversity grievance hustlers will self-destruct by continuing to fracture into smaller and smaller ‘special needs’ splinter groups, ever-receding on the euphemism treadmill, and end up decimating one another as they find fault in their own sister-organizations for not being “inclusive enough” or demonstrating “privilege” and “micro-aggression” tendencies, at least when I read stories like this. Once it was ‘gay rights’ then it had to become LGBT, next what, add F for fuzzies and B for bestiality? (Sorry, IS for interspecies, so as to avoid sounding prejudicial?) Think of the way that the non-melanin-heavy protesters were reportedly treated at some of the hands-up rallies, the NAACP shrieking at lefty Hollywood for only white best director nominations, and the like.
But while dreaming that these groups will continue to splinter down to the individual level and take themselves out of our misery in some sort of circular firing squad like that, I wake up and realize not one of them knows anything about ‘gun control’ in the sense of targeting, and the rest of us who just want to follow the basic golden rule, not carve out all these special snowflakey categories who all need affirmative action and social protection, will just be the collateral damage.
Was it really the barbarians who took down Rome?
rtrski (2e2489) — 1/16/2015 @ 4:11 amSee, this is the part that the victicrats don’t get: there are always more aggrieved groups looking for recognition!
Simon Jester (ae55d6) — 1/16/2015 @ 4:28 amA vagina is a fundamental human right. Disconnecting people from vaginas is a human rights violation and against international law.
Cf. http://www.wired.com/2011/06/internet-a-human-right/
nk (dbc370) — 1/16/2015 @ 4:55 amMaybe those “women” who don’t have a vagina should go see the Wizard of Oz? It worked for a brainless scarecrow and a robot without a heart.
But I don’t mean to disparage anyone who lost her vagina to disease, accident, or theft. I’ve never had a vagina, but if I had one and lost it, I’d feel pretty darned bad about that.
Still, one wonders about the goals of these “trans” people-who-would-be-female. They aren’t true transsexuals, because the operation creates a vagina. So they are men who “identify” as women and feel bad when real women mention their vaginas. And they especially are hurt when the vaginas begin a monologue.
But how do you have a vagina dialogue if you don’t have a vagina? So aren’t you just telling the vaginas to STFU?
Not that I’m saying it’s a bad idea; I was just unaware it was even allowed.
Estragon (ada867) — 1/16/2015 @ 5:08 amGotta say that this specific play is the reason I will not give to my Alma Mater. They used to call all the time, and I often did donate but when I saw that they were presenting this piece of garbage then I said…well, if there’s enough money to do that, you certainly don’t need MY hard earned money.
A total piece of trash (but the reason they aren’t producing it totally cracks me up) I think eventually these idiots will just eat their own tails. Honestly.
Charlotte (fc15f6) — 1/16/2015 @ 5:14 amAn all women’s college? Isn’t that discriminatory and sexist?
William Teach (b80289) — 1/16/2015 @ 5:23 amYou can can it with the mystery,
You don’t have to be so vague.
Give your vagina some history,
All the reasons you’re a…
Rotten egg.
It’s not enough just to show it your device,
You’ve got to tell it what it does.
I think you’ll be surprised that its attention span,
It’s the only one that’s gonna understand,
You gotta tell it all of your evil plans, because…
You’ve got to…
Talk to it
Tell it…
Every twisted scheme that’s in your head
Talk to it
You’ve got to…
Give it some specifics it can dread.
Talk to it.
Don’t just…
Stand there like a rock.
It’s got two furry ears, so use them
I know you really want to bruise them
But I think you’re gonna lose ’em if you don’t talk
If you don’t talk
Communication is the key,
If you just open up, you’ll see,
And maybe it’ll stop thwarting …
If you just talk!
Apologies to Phineas and Ferb.
nk (dbc370) — 1/16/2015 @ 5:25 amTransphobes
Patterico (9c670f) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:05 ami take trannies and their issues very seriously
happyfeet (a037ad) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:06 amhah jk
happyfeet (a037ad) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:06 amRacists
Patterico (9c670f) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:30 amIt is beyond surreal
JD (86a5eb) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:33 amReminds me of that piece you linked (wasn’t that you, JD?) about the terrible irreversible decision parents make for their children when they are born, which could warp them for life: putting a gender on their birth certificate.
Patterico (9c670f) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:36 amThe Left is filled with an odd self-absorption. I mean, on campus, I hear faculty talking all the time about how they are underpaid. Adjuncts are underpaid. Most faculty here make substantially more than the average wage-earner. It’s a #humblebrag kind of life.
Anyway, the point with victimology, like class warfare, is that there is always another group vying for “most aggrieved” status.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:37 amHere is the school’s policy for Admission of Transgender Students
Icy (46ce85) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:42 amCuriously, if you were born male, but identify as female, you’re in — because lady parts are not required in order to define you as ‘female’.
However, if you were born female, but identify as male, then . . . you’re in — because having lady parts does define you as ‘female’, even when you personally reject that classification.
So, you CANNOT call a man a man when he self-identifies as a woman, but you CAN call a woman a woman even when she self-identifies as a man.
Could anything possibly be more fair?
I think the irreplaceable Iowahawk said it best when he said, “You can only marvel at this steaming pile of PC garbage.” Of course, he said it about different PC crap. But when you start to think things just can’t get any stupider, the liberals squeeze out another pile of PC garbage that proves you wrong.
Steve57 (f1883e) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:43 amre: #32: hey, we can have a modern reboot of ‘Bosom Buddies’
seeRpea (3cc998) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:56 amps: Peter and Donna were very good.
What I enjoy telling my SJW students (I don’t argue with them) is how awful the anti-Asian bias is regarding admissions at Berkeley and other “top schools.” I do this by having them look at admittance rates of people with a given set of SATs versus ethnicity.
I remind them that it is pretty similar to the “Jewish Quota” issue prior to the 1950s.
Their heads explode.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:57 amre: #32: hey, we can have a modern reboot of ‘Bosom Buddies ps: Peter and Donna were very good.
seeRpea (3cc998) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:56 am
— What would be the title, “Nuts Optional”?
Icy (46ce85) — 1/16/2015 @ 8:48 amThis type of ideological drill-down is nothing new. Competition for the fringiest view happens all the time in third parties. My favorite is the LP guy who argued in favor of 3-year-olds as legal sex workers.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/16/2015 @ 9:07 amAny reason to cancel that thing is a good reason.
Georganne (e37667) — 1/16/2015 @ 9:07 amI guess Mount Holyoke now objects to being called one of the “Seven Sisters”
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/16/2015 @ 9:09 amNow all we need is Reverend Al to denounce the Oscars for not nominating any females for Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor.
kishnevi (3719b7) — 1/16/2015 @ 9:23 am“i take trannies and their issues very seriously”
Mr. Feets – So seriously you give them a special name as I recall – category errors.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/16/2015 @ 9:35 amCharlotte #22 – given the topic of this post, did you *really* intend to type ” I think eventually these idiots will just eat their own tails. ” ???
(innocent grin)
Alastor (2e7f9f) — 1/16/2015 @ 11:06 amhappyfeet #26 – growing up, as a kid in Scotland, many people listened to trannies with respect …
Where *did* we go so far wrong in the recent past so as to lose that respectful practice ?
Alastor (2e7f9f) — 1/16/2015 @ 11:09 ami dunno Mr. Alastor
trannies are great to listen to with respect but it’s also great when they just hang out in trannyville and do their own thing
happyfeet (a037ad) — 1/16/2015 @ 12:15 pmhey when does the new season of drag race start anyways
happyfeet (a037ad) — 1/16/2015 @ 12:17 pmwikipedia says it’s still TBA
happyfeet (a037ad) — 1/16/2015 @ 12:18 pmI know a tranny
mg (31009b) — 1/16/2015 @ 12:39 pmhe was a good drummer
know she is a good drummer
mg – Nobody like an untalented tranny according to Mr. Feets.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/16/2015 @ 12:53 pmI think that’s supposed to be grannies, Alastor. Although the confusion is understandable. http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/scottish-women-in-reality-3.jpg
nk (dbc370) — 1/16/2015 @ 1:16 pmA step in the right direction for all the wrong reasons
steveg (794291) — 1/16/2015 @ 1:28 pmThe school didn’t have the balls to stand up to this nonsense.
Hal Dall (46259c) — 1/16/2015 @ 1:32 pmit’s a three day weekend coming up so I’ll have oodles of extra time to learn more about trannies, about their plight, and about how I can help
then I’ll come back and share everything I’ve learned with you guys
this is what they call a “pivot point”
happyfeet (a037ad) — 1/16/2015 @ 1:33 pmdaleyrocks-
mg (31009b) — 1/16/2015 @ 2:02 pmAlterations seem crazy to me.
The Anchoress has written her own vagina monologue. It is priceless. And hilarious. You must go to her site and read every.single.word.of.it.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress/2015/01/16/twilight-of-the-vaginas/
elissa (a1d5f3) — 1/16/2015 @ 3:20 pmnk #49 … trannie …
Alastor (2e7f9f) — 1/16/2015 @ 11:35 pm54-elissa
mg (31009b) — 1/17/2015 @ 2:46 amwow!!
Cinnamon rolls??
Alastor, I see. You were speaking British. https://www.google.com/#q=tranny+definition
nk (dbc370) — 1/17/2015 @ 3:21 am