The Vagina Monologues

[Admin]

Has anyone seen the "The Vagina Monologues" play?
I'm interested in watching this play. The Vagina Monologues play is played at many universities besides Cal Poly Pomona.

You can read more about at http://www.thepolypost.com/story.php?story=1687

[JPWRana]

what is it anyways?!?!

[Admin]

Originally Posted by JPWRana

what is it anyways?!?!

Name of Event: Vagina Monologues
Date: February 13-14
Location: Bronco Student Center, Ursa Major Suite
Brief Description: Celebrating Vagina Warriors is the 2004 theme for this year's V-Day. Participate in the Vagina Faire. Tickets for the award-winning "The Vagina Monologues" are available for $15 general admission and $10 for students through the Pride Center. All benefits from these performances will directly fund programs that work to end violence against women. Contact Jonnie Owens at (909) 869-3064 or jjowens @ csupomona.edu.


I saw it. I'll write an article about it by Monday, February 16.

[Puffguts]

Is it still playing? I couldn't go because last week's midterms and projects.

[Admin]

Originally Posted by Puffguts

Is it still playing? I couldn't go because last week's midterms and projects.

Vagina Monologues is over.
I'll try to post a good article about the play.

[Admin]

The program and information is up, except the article: The Vagina Monologues.

[Puffguts]

The program information itself is a powerful read. The play must be quite on the frontier of sexual equality movement, as it seems to be very frank and puts a human face on the inequalities that exist today. I will try to google a script to read.

I am going to see it the next time it plays. How were our school's performers? Was the play professionally acted?

[Admin]

The play was powerful indeed. It covered domestic violence, rapes and a lot more points on how women are depicted today in our society. The V-Day organization is worldwide IIRC and good to know that such organization exists to let the world know that women can unite. I believe rape is a terrible crime upon women as it traumatically changes that woman's life in one day. What we can do, the entire media (radio, televisions, magazines and the internet) is controlling millions of people of what to buy, how to think and what is cool.

Without further ado, the article is up. (View the article on Internet Explorer. The top and bottom gets cut off when using Mozilla browsers.)

[Puffguts]

Very nice article, Kaycee. It surprised me as being more progressive than I had anticipated, and that makes it really unique. I've seen other anti-sexual abuse / sexual assault and anti-rape oriented shows and education films, but most of them avoided the controversy of advocating sexual liberation and opposition to sexual assualt at the same time.

I am not sure if anyone had seen one of the ads aired by the AD Council and a national women anti-rape group. It goes like this: an attractive woman wearing a short skirt walked by two men and gave them a wink. When I was watching it I was expecting a perfume ad or some designer clothing chain sales pitch. Then as the woman walked by, the men stared at her with smiles on their face. The screen went dark then a line of text appeared: "Invitation to rape?" It appears to me that some anti-rape advocacy groups are against sexual liberation (ala. Sex and the City life styles).

National Organization for Women advocates sexual liberation / empowerment and against sexual crimes against women, while some others drop the empowerment and liberation part out, or go against it in the reason of protecting women against unnecessary risk.

What are your opinions on this issue? Is The Vagina Monologues advocating against sexual and gender-oriented crimes against women while at the same time promoting sexual liberation of women (in short, to promote the equality on women pursuing their own independent sex life as men are already doing).

[Admin]

Originally Posted by Puffguts

I am not sure if anyone had seen one of the ads aired by the AD Council and a national women anti-rape group. It goes like this: an attractive woman wearing a short skirt walked by two men and gave them a wink. When I was watching it I was expecting a perfume ad or some designer clothing chain sales pitch. Then as the woman walked by, the men stared at her with smiles on their face. The screen went dark then a line of text appeared: "Invitation to rape?" It appears to me that some anti-rape advocacy groups are against sexual liberation (ala. Sex and the City life styles).

Those commercials would be quite effective if it is shown during the nighttime, let's say between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the main broadcast (Fox, ABC and other public channels). Imagine the message it would send out to millions of viewer when such ad is played in between the "reality TV shows" and other new date shows. But due to the cost of getting airtime, the organizations are finding other method to spread the word (i.e. Vagina Monologues).

Originally Posted by Puffugts

What are your opinions on this issue? Is The Vagina Monologues advocating against sexual and gender-oriented crimes against women while at the same time promoting sexual liberation of women (in short, to promote the equality on women pursuing their own independent sex life as men are already doing).

The Vagina Monologues play is very straightforward and a direct message to all men. The V-Day organization exists for many reasons. Women shouldn't be sexually abused, beaten and cursed at by their husband or by any male. Many women live with their abusive husband because they don't have much choice. There have been many cases where women can not escape from their husbands/step father/kidnappers and they are trapped inside the house, living like a slave or being sold as a sex slave.


The Vagina Monologues also shares what women want in their life; happiness, pleasure and to express themselves. Women does not always want to be submissive to their husbands/boyfriend wants. When women are wearing a short skirt, it is not a sign for a male to rape them but the short skirt is to express their fashion, style, personality, characteristics and their happiness.

The topic is very broad as a whole and my opinion is only a small input.
These kinds of matters are occuring every single day. Everyone is busy to make a living of their own. Why would people care if "others" are getting abused in their households. Albert Einstein once said, "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."

Edited...grammatical errors.

[Puffguts]

"The short skirt is expressing their fashion, style, personality, characteristics and their happiness."

That is one of the reasons I find that "invitation to rape" ad offensive (even more offensive of it being made by the Ad Council, isn't it an organization receiving public funding?). It clearly sends women the message:"If you are wearing a short skirt and not shy on expressing yourself, you are then inviting rapists." That is a very wrong message to send to both men and women - "good girls don't dress like that."

On the other hand, that kind of ads further fuel the sexual predator's motive and give them excuses for commiting their crime, that their victims are "wanting it anyways." Very often in the courtroom, not-guilty or less serious verdicts were handed out to sexual offenders on the basis of "inappropriate attire" that the victim wore which "being sexually suggestive." If we have more juriors who've seen the play, who are tolerant to one's freedom to express, then those verdicts would be made appropriately instead of just another froms of "slaping in the hand."

Vagina Monologues promotes sexual liberation, but like you said, clearly tries to educate the public that women should have the freedom to express their sexuality without being harrassed or assaulted. That is the way the message should be sent, instead of in the form of that "invitation to rape?" ad.

I am glad that ad is not being aired anymore (I've only seen it twice, both in basic broadcast channels at New York, in 1998).

[Admin]

"Sex sells." Everyday in our lives, we are confronted with ads and commercials that expose sexual manners in one way or another.
Often, these tv programs that are on 24/7 can (or is) manipulate and embed inappropriate messages to young boys, such as girls are sexual objects and can be treated in certain manners, leading to date rape. Online pornography can be a factor to today's rape crime. TV is a large factor to today's rape crime. I think the U.S. should create a more strict punishment to rape crimes. Anybody know the average year you need to serve in confinement? Bet there are cases where the rape offender wins the court case and the victim goes home receiving no justice. Her life will never be the same and the horrible memory will only be an unforgettable memory in her life. Does the rape offender care what the female has to go through? Absolutely not. They got what they wanted and they don't care to risk their life in confinement because they don't have much to lose. (<--Speaking in general)

I really want to thank my high school senior english teacher for choosing "Brave New World" for the class discussion. The author does a great job on the storyline. I enjoyed every chapter of that novel. The good ol high school days - To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, Shakespeare, Adventure of Huckleberry Finns(?) and etc.

[Puffguts]

I agree that tougher punishment need to be legislated to combat sexual assualt, and TV shows designed to capitalize on objectifying women (and increasingly, men) in sexual ways should be penalized for doing so.

However I am still against that "Invitation to Rape" Ad. It does not try to stop the men (and women) from committing crimes. Instead it puts the blame on the victims, on how they dress, on how they behave, and how they live their lives, as "the factors" on how sex offenders choose their victims.

The "Invitation to Rape" ad is like telling a rape victim after he or she was raped: "It is not the rapist's fault, but the way you dress made them / temped them into raping you. If you dressed like a good girl / behaved like a good boy, you would not been raped."

That is the reason I was disappointed about that ad when it first released. The society tries to put blame on the victims and their behaviors, instead of the sex offenders that commit the crime.

Similarly for the Kobe trial. I don't care if that hotel service employee had 1, 2, 3, or one million lovers the night before, but IF she reported of being raped by Kobe, then this is a case to be looked into regardless of how the potential victim lived her life. The people who says "She probably temped Kobe into doing wrong things" are probably the ones supporting that "Invitation to Rape" ad, that "Sex offenders only prey on bad girls / bad boys."