If the men who were trying to start their own Penis Monologues were doing so with the serious intention of celebrating their manhood and empowering themselves, then they should not have been shut down. However, I suspect that their intentions were not all that serious (especially since it says it was in parody) and that they were crudely mocking the idea of women celebrating their vaginas. In that situation, while I wouldn’t have shut them down immediately, I certainly would have asked them to either state their purpose for having a Penis Monologue or else knock it off.
It disgusts me when people make fun of people trying to empower themselves and do good things for those who don’t have voices and then cry “reverse discrimination” when people get fed up with their bad taste in bigoted humor.
Come again? I believe I said, “The men who were trying to start their own Penis Monologues…” not “the white male members of Rubicon Bojador’s family”. Same thing for “people make fun of people trying to empower themselves”. Unless the white men in your family are guilty of doing such, untwist your panties right now and get over yourself.
You can hold your own “Cotton Picking” Monologues if you want, just don’t take things so bloody personally. Empowering women and giving them voices does not mean that one needs to weaken men and silence them.
[quote=“ImaniOU”]If the men who were trying to start their own Penis Monologues were doing so with the serious intention of celebrating their manhood and empowering themselves, then they should not have been shut down. However, I suspect that their intentions were not all that serious (especially since it says it was in parody) and that they were crudely mocking the idea of women celebrating their vaginas. In that situation, while I wouldn’t have shut them down immediately, I certainly would have asked them to either state their purpose for having a Penis Monologue or else knock it off.
It disgusts me when people make fun of people trying to empower themselves and do good things for those who don’t have voices and then cry “reverse discrimination” when people get fed up with their bad taste in bigoted humor.[/quote]
Actually I think there is already a venue for the celebration of man’s magnificant manhood. It is called pornography and the working consensus seems to be that while people should be free to enjoy such materials if they choose they should also be free “from” it if they choose to be. Pornography has it’s place in other words. Many of those involved in the vagina monologues got a little carried away and started shoving the thing in people’s faces all over the place. The penis dialogues were a reaction to that but were met with an official crackdown. Considering this it is hard to see exactly what need there is for women as a group to empower themselves. There has been an awful lot of that over the last few decades.
People benefit from an opportunity to discuss their sexuality in an open, honest way so the vagina monologues is probably a positive thing generally but you will be looking long and hard for any intelligent observer of the contemporary scene who believes that women lack a voice in today’s society.
[quote=“ImaniOU”]If the men who were trying to start their own Penis Monologues were doing so with the serious intention of celebrating their manhood and empowering themselves, then they should not have been shut down. However, I suspect that their intentions were not all that serious (especially since it says it was in parody) and that they were crudely mocking the idea of women celebrating their vaginas. In that situation, while I wouldn’t have shut them down immediately, I certainly would have asked them to either state their purpose for having a Penis Monologue or else knock it off.
It disgusts me when people make fun of people trying to empower themselves and do good things for those who don’t have voices and then cry “reverse discrimination” when people get fed up with their bad taste in bigoted humor.[/quote]
I think the idea of it being in bad taste is exactly what the parodists intended.
I’m all for sexual empowerment, but such a performance as the V-Monologues is something I would find outside of decency despite its noble intentions.
If the administration allows and encourages one performance which has graphic reference to female genitalia and then shuts down another work which has almost the exact same depictions of male genitalia then it is blatantly discriminatory. Perhaps the first is a celebration of womanhood and the second is a mockery of how they are celebrating, but both are expressing their message the same way.
Shut down none or shut down both.
I say shut down both, but I’m a conservative on issues like these. I would just expect shutting down to be based on a concept of community standards of decency and not bigotry or an attempt to appear enlightened by pandering to a relatively popular ideology.
Feminism has some very good points and does good, but not everything that happens in the movement is going to be right or beyond reproach.
I can think of a few recent movies featuring older men involved with teenage girls:
Carried Away with Dennis Hopper.
Tree Lounge with Steve Buscemi.
Both were well received and did not generate the kind of hysteria and condemnation (even by female reviewers) you suggest should follow such a story.
I guess you also haven’t seen Six Feet Under. Part of Nate’s sexual history is that he lost his virginity at 15 to his aunt’s 30 year old friend while at summer camp. He remains pleased with the event into adulthood while his mother is the one who believes it was child abuse.
Oh, wasn’t there a scene in Marquez’s 100 Years of Solitude where the skinny 13 year old is fucked (no other word for it) by the rogue with the enormous dick? I can’t remember his exact age in the scene but I’m certain he was an adult. Girl falls in love with him afterwards.
Different culture to be sure but that book was feted in the US among other western countries.
What about Yi Tu Mama, Tambien? Two teenage boys go on road trip with woman in her late twenties. She has sex with them both. Universally lauded film.