What are we to make of this? Anyone?
[quote]College administrators have been enthusiastic supporters Eve Ensler
God I wish I could say that story was a surprise in any way, but it’s not. Not in the least.
V-Day is a consciousness raising event designed to end violence against girls.
Obviously, it’s one of Jimmy Carter’s evil plots.
If it’s not good for the goose it’s not good for the gander.
No, if it’s got a penis, it’s not allowed to be proud of itself. We’re all oppressors and rapists in waiting, remember?
Some of us aren’t waiting any longer!
Watching a penis talking to itself is just sad. It’s kind of like reading a debate between Fred Smith and Tigerman on the IP forum.
I see that there is no “outrage” that a 24 year old woman seduces a 13 year old girl. That was in the original Vagina Monologues. Who here would like to suggest that the Penis Monologues include a scene where a 24 year old male enjoys the sweet lovely delicious treat of a 13 year old girl or boy? Same difference? really?
Stifler? Is that you?
I think that’s mostly out of a sense of futility. There’s no point being outraged because you’ll just get kicked down and stomped for being a male oppressor and sexist and misogynist and all that other shit, so why even bother?
I think a 24 year old man raping a 13 year old girl is much worse than a 24 year old woman raping a 13 year old girl. But neither is good.
Huh? Why is one “much worse” than the other?
Huh? Why is one “much worse” than the other?[/quote]
It’s my opinion okay?
Sure, fine. Whatever.
I was just wondering why you held that opinion.
Pardon me for asking… 
Why should there be outrage? First, although neither you or any of the others who commented above have ever seen the VM, you completely mischaracterized it in order to stir up shit. I’ve never seen it either, but you make it sound as though the playwright created a work intended to glorify child abuse, but that clearly doesn’t seem to be the case.
The play is based on interviews with hundreds of women. The incident you described was apparently an experience of an actual woman. Are you outraged that the woman “was abused” by an older woman when she was 13, or outraged that the incident affected her in the way that it did, or outraged that the playwright dared to publicize that woman’s experience?
Below are excerpts from a few reviews that weren’t written by angry puerile male republicans, as yours was:
[quote]“I say vagina because I want people to respond,” says playwright Eve Ensler, creator of the hilarious, disturbing soliloquies in The Vagina Monologues, a book based on her one-woman play. And respond they do–with horror, anger, censure, and sparks of wonder and pleasure. Ensler . . . asked hundreds of women of all ages a series of questions about their vaginas (What do you call it? How would you dress it?) that prompt some wondrous answers. . . Two of the most powerful pieces include a jagged poem stitched together from the memories of a Bosnian woman raped by soldiers and an American woman sexually abused as a child . . ."
“An adaptation of performance pieces from Ensler’s Obie Awardwinning one-woman show, inspired by several hundred interviews the playwright had with women about their genitals. The work, Ensler says, is intended to free women from the shame many have been taught to feel regarding their vaginas and, by extension, their sexuality. It’s crucial, she says, ``for women to tell their stories, to share them with other people . . . Our survival as women depnds on this dialogue.‘’ The monologues (which range from a painful account of rape to a droll record of a woman learning to really see her vagina for the first time . . .”
– Kirkus
“The monologues are part of Eve Ensler’s crusade to wipe out the shame and embarrassment that many women still associate with their bodies or their sexuality. . . . They are both a celebration of women’s sexuality and a condemnation of its violation.”
– The New York Times
“Frank, humorous and moving . . . a compelling rhapsody of the female essence. Ultimately, Ensler achieves something extraordinary.”
– Chicago Tribune[/quote]
amazon.com/gp/product/produc … 8&n=283155
Second, after the fact that what you described was just a woman explaining an incident that happened to her and how it affected her, is the fact that plenty of great (and not so great) artistic works exist concerning sexual relationships between adults and children, including Romeo and Juliet and Lolita, to name just a couple. Does Nabokov’s classic novel (and movie) outrage you? Should Lolita be taken out of the libraries and burned? I say no – I prefer to believe that good art can sometimes concern troublesome subject matter.
Third, there’s nothing worse than a critic of a book, movie or other work of art who has never actually seen the work. You haven’t seen VM, have you? Then why would you feel comfortable forming such a critical opinion of the work based on an internet posting by some guy you’ve never met? Recall how you previously ranted about how Che Guevara never fought in a battle, based on some guy’s Internet posting to that effect, only to learn later that he actually fought heroically in many battles and you were forced to concede that you were wrong. Isn’t it possible the source you rely on now is equally wrong? I would bet your source is wrong and place my money on all the reputable reviewers who have actually seen the work and liked it. Better yet, I’d go see the play myself before criticizing it.
Just because it happens doesn’t mean a) we should glorify it or b) we shouldn’t be outraged. That’s utter bullshit and you know it. And as for Romeo and Juliet, that’s totally different, in that that was written four hundred years ago. I don’t see why the fact that it happens and people write about it should justify the glorification of it. And as had been said repeatedly, do you really think anyone - including yourself - would have that sort of reaction to it if it were telling of a 24 year old man raping a 13 year old boy (or girl, for that matter)? No, it’d be condemned across the board, the author would be pilloried, and no-one would be making bullshit “but it’s art” arguments.
First, I don
I don’t really care what any reviewers have to say about it - nothing especially negative was going to be said about it by any mainstream reviewer anyway, because they’d be run out of town for it. That said though, it’s none of those three in particular that pisses me off about it - it’s the fact that something like this is perfectly acceptable - even lauded - when it’s written by and about women, but if a man did exactly the same thing in exactly the same fashion, he’d be hunted down like a dog. It’s the double standard that gets me more than anything. Seriously, if all this had been dealing with our gender, do you think critics would fawn over it, no matter how good it might’ve been? Do you think it’d be getting performed on university campuses? Do you think people would be justifying it as “art” and “cathartic”? No, they wouldn’t. I guarantee you. I’d put money on it.
[quote=“Frank Zappa”]Do you worry?
Do you worry a lot?
No!
Do you worry?
Do you worry and moan …
That the size of your cock is not monsrtous enough?
It’s your penis dimension!
Penis dimension!
[/quote]
It’s all been done already.