Erhu: I never said shouting cunt enlightened me. I said that it was ONE thing out of several that made VM so great for me.
I loved being in that safe space where I could shout cunt with hundreds of other people - in celebration of the word, for once. Re reclaiming the word. Well, ofcourse if you don’t see it, then it really doesn’t matter you does it. When you hear cunt you hear it like you’ve always heard it. Fair enough.
But it doesn’t mean that the word hasn’t changed for me or for many others. Just like zoubetty’s examples if you get enough people using the word, taking the word for themselves, then it offers another meaning for the word, a powerful positive one and perhaps it’ll start taking power away from the negative conn that it’s usually used.
American or not, in American society it is a word dthat it taboo and to call someone this is very rude. And how sad is this when the word also means vagina. The point that Eve ensler makes with that monologue is to reclaim the word. She is american. I guess if she was british, she wouldn’t be reclaiming the word, but that’s beside the point so why bring it up.
Not quite. Those who didn’t use it before the era of the curse of gansta rap still don’t use it, while those who did, still do.
Same goes for queer. Just because a certain segment of gay people might chant “We’re here and we’re queer” doesn’t mean that homophobes no longer refer to “queers” or that the word to the general public has lost ANY of its negative connotations.
As for “cunt,” you can use it all you like. You might like to think its positive and “vagina affirming” or whatever, but like my anology of the doctor’s office, using it simply makes you appear uneducated, just as it makes people like me, who use it all the time instead of “bloke,” appear uneducated.
I never said that the negative connotations would go away. They won’t. We just add a layer of protection for positive thought and positive attitude. It’s all in context. It doesn’t mean that some jerk who walks by and say, “You are such a CUNT”, I’m gonna be like oh he’s giving me a compliment. However, we can add new meanings to it. Like Bitch. I think some ladies out there would agree, that we’ve already attributed positive meanings to the title Bitch, as someone who takes control, is strong and independent.
Let me take it back to the relevancy of the play in Taiwan. It is ABSOLUTELY relevant here in Taipei. It definately recieved mixed reactions in the Chinese crowd. There are still many ladies who are very traditional. And my coworker along with another audience member walked out before intermission. They couldn’t take it anymore. However, it doesn’t mean that they totally rejected the thought because she was totally open to discussion with me the next day. So in Taipei, it is still a very shocking and powerful work of art.
In Afghanistan or Iran? I’d say not irrelevant, but unworkable. It is so shocking and so radical that it would actually lose meaning and effect in the process.
I’m really thinking there is a place for this play in Taipei, sorry I sniggered. I’m thinking 30 something year old virgins, a total lack of comprehension about the alternative use of yoghurt, that sort of thing.
But are 30-something Taipei virgins the people going to see it? Or do the audiences mostly comprise “hip” Taiwanese females? Taiwanses females who go to see stage plays?
I just did an impromptu survey here in the office (mostly, I have to admit, just so’s I could say “vagina” to them) full of nice, well-educated, mostly young to middle-aged ladies, probably including a disproportionate number of virgins, asking if they’d seen it or would consider going to see it. While most of them had in fact heard of it, the overwhelming response can be roughly translated as “Oh for god’s sake! ”
So based on that, admittedly unscientific, survey, I’d say my argument still stands – its irrelevant if you’re preaching to the converted.
It’s similar to my feelings about Rent. I saw it. I shrugged, I yawned, I slept. One great big “SO WHAT” for the theatre. You wanna reclaim the word and challenge audiences, I suggest staging Howard Barker’s The Castle. We staged this epic in Uni and had the audience drifting out in droves (a true sign of a successful production, imo). Some of it was due to the liberal sprinkling of “cunt” in the dialogue, and some of it was due to the script’s challenging of mainstream religion…I loved the scene that began with our hero shouting “Christ’s cock” as he appeared in the makeshift aisles of The Reeve Theatre.
Sorry Ol’ Gobbo, yes, between you and Cunt twitch (Oops, but I’m allowed to say that here aren’t I?) something happened.
I think there is room for the shock (which we clearly dont find) among others. Let’s let 'em have their day.) It’s what we might call a paternalistic position, but maybe that’s the right one?
Ultimately if there are any people that needed converting to notions that fiddling with their gentle bits is good, and that exploring the unexplored is a good thing, well, c’mon, that is our bent, right?
We’ve had our seventies, but so many haven’t. Every dog has their day. Long live the elightenment, bollocks to the dark forces.
I’m sorry but I’ve heard far too many cunts in my time to actually pay to go and listen to some more! Just got to any bar, anywhere in the world, and it will have its fair share of vagina monologues
Honestly there were so many things I hated about VM, which is a shame because I really had expected to like it. The performers were outstanding and the causes that VM support are generally very worthwhile. But what I really hated about the play itself, was that out of the 17 or so monologues NONE of them were relatable to women who are:
Heterosexual
Have had positive experiences with men
Overall feel pretty comfortable with their bodies
In the first monologue, a woman shaves herself to try and keep her husband from cheating. Her husband hates hairy vaginas. Not surprisingly shaving wasn
And about relevance to Taiwan? What about the Comfort Woman monologue that Jun did so movingly?
My Vagina was my Village is a powerful message about rape. Even if the victims were not Taiwanese, there are Taiwanese women who have been raped as well.
Shit too much cold medicine… I can’t even remember which ones are which right now…
Maybe in smalltown Taiwan but surely not in Taipei or even Taichung. I know my wife and several of her friends have been to it in the past, and their reactions were pretty much like Erhu’s.[/quote]
I don’t get out much. This was my first theater experience. Maybe your wife and her friends, and Erhu, are just more sophisticated than I am.
The Cunt, short skirts, dominatrix and a couple others were NOT relevant to me. However, the rape monologues moved me. I’m a survivor of child rape and molestation, and I think I’m one of the lucky ones. On the way home I was thinking about how lucky I am, and how I could possibly help child victims someday either with time or money.
Even the parts that aren’t relevant to me were good to see if only to be able to empathize.
Now I’m beginning to see where Erhu is coming from.
I was thinking along the lines of The cockcheese soliloquy 
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