Eric Langborgh

At hundreds of campuses across the country, Valentine's Day has taken on a whole new meaning. Feminists have convinced school administrations that the day should instead be known as "V-Day," short for "Vagina-Day."

Eve Ensler's controversial off-Broadway play, The Vagina Monologues, is the impetus behind V-Day. Ostensibly a play to raise awareness about violence against women (the "V" also stands for Victory over Violence), the performance instead glorifies and promotes sado-masochism (S&M), uninhibited lesbian sex, and even statutory rape. Far from meeting the educational criteria of public institutions of higher learning, critics say, this production descends into political proselytization and mindless eroticism.

"My main thought was that it didn't accomplish what it set out to do," offered Truth in Politics' Peter Shipley, "and that was to prevent rape."

According to Monologues author Eve Ensler, "You are your vagina." V-Day began in 1998 as a one-day event in New York City, and in 1999 the event went international with a shift to London. The Vagina Monologues also appeared on 65 campuses in the U.S. in 1999. With the completion of the V-Day 2000 College Initiative, the show has now reached over 200 campuses in North America. Both large and small schools have hosted the event, including Duke University, Dartmouth College, the University of Mississippi, and the City College of San Francisco. Some schools, like Brown University, have devoted more than a month to V-Day 2000. Brown will have hosted over 16 performances of the Monologues, as well as a masturbation workshop called "Sex for One," so that women may achieve sexual fulfillment free of the danger supposedly inherent in male-female relationships, by the time their festivities end in early April.

But rather than provide educational tools to fight violence against women, the play "actually promoted the treating of women as mere sex objects," Shipley informed Campus Report following his attendance of the play at the State University of New York in New Paltz (SUNY-New Paltz).

Indeed, of the 107 pages of the actual monologues, a generous count yields only 15 which truly deal with violence against women. Much of the "oppression" of the vagina depicted in The Vagina Monologues was actually embarrassment over entering puberty, a topic that consumed a whole skit in the play.

According to many attendees of these plays across America, the message men in particular received from watching The Vagina Monologues was not one of increased concern for the dignity of women, but one of pornographic pleasure in the treating of women as sex objects.

"The men were just eating it up," Shipley noted. "These guys were hooting and hollering and the women were saying these things. To me it promotes rape."

These "things" the women actors in the play were saying are quite controversial, to say the least. Even during the skit on menstruation, the theme of sexual deviancy was very evident. Said one of the respondents in Ensler's play regarding her physical advancement to womanhood, "[I] used OB [tampons] and liked putting my fingers up there."

An Appropriate Use of Tax Funds?

In at least one place, the backlash over the performance of The Vagina Monologues has been pronounced. Already disturbed by sex conferences held at SUNY-New Paltz in previous years, this latest event has finally sparked one college council member to call for the heads of those responsible. At least one member is also considering retiring from the board in protest.

On February 13, in a three-page letter addressed to SUNY Chancellor Robert King and also sent to New York Governor George Pataki, Ithaca College Senior Stacey Branscum illustrates an orgasm during the Monologues. George Morton of the SUNY-New Paltz College Council not only called for the review process for SUNY-New Paltz President Roger Bowen to be reopened, but suggested he resign, as well.

Bowen, who authorized and endorsed two sex conferences in 1997, "plainly misrepresented the controversial content" of The Vagina Monologues in a January 27 meeting, comparing it with "other plays students have performed such as Peter Pan," charged Morton. At that meeting, Bowen assured the Council that "the most sensational thing about the performance was the name itself" and that it was a relatively unshocking, conventional play.

Morton went on to ask, "Do employees at SUNY-New Paltz who promote lewd, obscene, vulgar, intimidating, or threatening behaviors of self-expression [all activities forbidden in the "Campus Regulations and Judicial Procedures" for students to engage in] have any place within the academic environment?"

A spokesman for Bowen refused to answer specific questions, but did release an official statement from Bowen saying: "I find it very regrettable that George Morton has chosen to express his views in a way that attempts to detract from the enormous achievements of the institution we both have been called to serve."

Chancellor King was out of the office for the week and was unavailable for comment, though his office stated that a review of Bowen has just been completed and a report will be out shortly. Calls for the review process to be reopened in light of the recent controversy have gone unanswered.

Morton is not alone in his criticism of the New Paltz president. "This should be an item in his review, alongside the rest of his record," SUNY Board of Trustees member Candace DeRussy told Campus Report. "At a time when the budget is always being discussed—and it's obvious that funds are precious—what a thing to be doing with public funds."

Tom Conway of the College Council at SUNY-New Paltz agreed that "the issues Mr. Morton raised definitely call for fair and careful consideration."

Conway expressed to Campus Report a sense of betrayal by Bowen, who Conway thought would give a straight account after the confrontation a few years ago over two misrepresented sex conferences. "It is not a fair characterization whatsoever that the most sensational part of the play is the title," he asserted. "It is a direct assault upon the most fundamental of moral values."

Added Tom Carroll of the public interest group CHANGE-New York, "Questionable campus events such as these only serve to divert attention and resources from the legitimate academic reforms underway, apparently with little purpose other than to shock and inflame the taxpaying public."

And these "questionable campus events" are taking place at a time when trustees and chancellors "are in the midst of very serious efforts to raise academic standards throughout their systems," he continued. Conway charged, "[SUNY employees] speak for the people of the State of New York, and they should not be sponsoring that kind of junk."

A Springboard to Promote Lesbianism

The Vagina Monologues has been performed by a variety of actresses and noted female personalities at its off-Broadway locale, including Winona Ryder, Barbara Walters, Alanis Morissette, and Whoopi Goldberg. On the campuses the play is being performed by college students, sometimes with only one student reading the parts, other times with a huge cast of characters acting them out. Proceeds raised during V-Day 2000 are divided evenly between local, national, and international feminist groups, including Equality Now and Human Rights Watch. The fund is administered by the Ms. Foundation for Women.

The V-Day 2000 College Initiative was made possible through its sponsor, Self magazine, which quite regularly features stories on health and fitness issues and uninhibited sex, like "Put Libido Lies to Bed" and "How Sexually Satisfied Are You?" in the recent March issue. In addition, corporations like ABC and Sony have provided financial assistance, and Eve Ensler has given blanket permission for anyone to perform The Vagina Monologues during the V-Day initiative to "raise awareness about sexual violence against women." Feminist.com, which hosts the V-Day website, is supported by the Feminist Majority and is affiliated with the Ms. Foundation for Women and Planned Parenthood.

At Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, sophomore Erica Brookhyser found an opportunity to "talk about things that aren't usually discussed" in her portrayal of Eve Ensler in her school's performance of The Vagina Monologues. "Female sexuality has been in the closet for a long time," she said.

Brookhyser said the play affected her views about feminism. "It went beyond feminism as a political stance and was more about feminism in everyday life," she told the Bradley Scout.

Senior Patricia Linwood agreed. "You don't have to be a part of sexual violence," stated Linwood, who depicted a woman who dislikes her vagina in a skit called "Because He Liked to Look at It." "If you know your body, if you love your body, you're more likely not to be a part of [sexual violence]."

As Christina Hoff Sommers of the American Enterprise Institute wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, "There are no admirable men in the ‘Monologues.'" The men who do appear in the play include "a callous unfaithful spouse, a rapist child molester, a 16th-century lawyer who tormented and convicted a ‘witch,' 19th-century doctors who mutilate girls to prevent them from masturbating, two vile boys and Serbian gang rapists."

So the play does address violence against women, but in less then 15 pages of so-called "Vagina Facts." The remedy for sexual violence lies The remedy for sexual violence, according to the book, includes ample promotion of lesbian sex, female masturbation, and, ironically, sado-masochism. in the rest of the book, apparently, which includes ample promotion of lesbian sex, female masturbation, and, ironically, S&M.

Most graphic was the depiction of the statutory rape of a 13-year old girl by a 24-year old lesbian. Expressed the lesbian rapist to the girl, "Your vagina, untouched by man, smells so nice, so fresh, wish I could keep it that way forever." She later tells the girl's mom over the phone, who was worried about sexual harassment of her daughter by boys, "Trust me, there's [sic] no boys around here."

The girl then confides to the audience, "She gently and slowly lays me out on the bed and just our bodies rubbing together makes me come. Then she does everything to me and my coochi snorcher that I had always thought was nasty before, and wow." The lesson the little girl learns from this encounter? "I'll never need to rely on a man," she concludes.

Supporters of the play, though, say that the passage is taken out of context and that critics are missing the point. "The idea that Eve Ensler is promoting statutory rape is outrageous," denied Bob Fennell, press agent for the play at New York City's West Side Theater.

Irene Byrnes, a philosophy professor at Broome Community College in Binghamton, New York, claimed that any interpretation of the monologue as an endorsement of statutory rape is a complete misrepresentation. Instead, it is a "political statement" about sexual politics, gender identity and the female body, she said.

However, a quick glance at the script shows just how far Ensler has gone in promoting this type of rape. The 13 year-old girl's part in the play reads: "Now people say that it was a kind of rape…. Well, I say, if it was rape, it was a good rape then, a rape that turned my sorry-ass coochi snorcher into a kind of heaven."

That the play is a "political statement," one that goes beyond feminism as ballot box politics to "feminism in everyday life," as Brookhyser said, is not disputed by anyone. The lifestyle of a true feminist, then, is laid out extensively in extremely off-color language throughout The Vagina Monologues:
• "I love vaginas. I love women. I do not see them as separate things." pg. 89
• "As a lesbian, I need you to start from a lesbian-centered place, not framed within a heterosexual context." pg. 99
• "As lesbians, we know about vaginas. We touch them. We lick them. We play with them. We tease them. We notice the clitoris swell. We notice our own." pg. 100
• "I wore outrageous outfits when I dominated women—lace and silk and leather—and I used props: whips, handcuffs, rope, dildos." pg. 90
• "Sometimes I used force, but not violent, oppressing force, more like dominating…. Sometimes I used props—I loved props—sometimes I made the woman find her moan in front of me" pg. 93-94
• "My vagina amazed me. I couldn't speak when it came my turn in the workshop... I had awakened to what the woman who ran the workshop called ‘vaginal wonder.' I just wanted to lie there on the mat, my legs spread, examining my vagina forever." pg. 46
• "To love women, to love our vaginas, to know them and touch them and be familiar with who we are and what we need…. ‘You have to talk about entering vaginas,' she said. ‘Come on,' I say, ‘Come in.'" pg. 102

Pornography For Credit

With the V-Day commemorations nearing completion for the year 2000, pornography and homosexuality "As a lesbian, I need you to start from a lesbian-centered place, not framed within a heterosexual context." —The Vagina Monologues has become even more entrenched in academia. While certain professors at SUNY-New Paltz and other schools demanded their students attend and report on The Vagina Monologues or get a bad grade, other courses and conferences devoted to the subjects abound throughout academia.

SUNY-New Paltz hosted two such conferences in 1997. Over two successive weekends, the school hosted "Revolting Behavior: The Challenges of Women's Sexual Freedom" and "Subject to Desire: Refiguring the Body." Conference topics included "How to Get What You Want in Bed " (an "interactive group workshop"), "Sex Toys for Women," "Safe, Sane, and Consensual S/M: An Alternative Way of Loving," and "Vulva's School." The latter was staged by Carol Schneemann, a "performance artist" best known for an act in which she slowly unravels a scroll from her vagina while reading it aloud to the audience. Workshop leaders throughout the conferences several times invited the audience to see them privately after the sessions to learn more, including how to join S&M clubs.

President Bowen referred to such conferences at the time as "business as usual," and indeed, they are.

The following year saw pornography and homosexual activism officially recognized as "scholarly" activities at many schools:
• Dartmouth entertained self-described performance artist Holly Hughes, who served as a scholar in residence over a five-day period. Hughes' works include Lady Dick, Clit Notes, and Well of Horniness.
• Cheryl Dunye, the writer, director, and star of Watermelon Woman, popped-up at the University of Cincinnati. Dunye's appearance highlighted the school's Fourth Annual Women's Film Festival, which featured Our Mom's a Dyke and Girls Like Us.
• The Fifth Annual Emory University Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film Festival appeared on campus to the consternation of many. Among the films shown were Badass Supermama, Hermaphrodites with Attitude, and Chained Girls. Also playing was the "ever popular classic," Liquid Sky, a film "in which space aliens, drug addicts, and lesbians cavort in high style until a UFO ends it all."
• UC-Santa Cruz played host to Exposed! The University of California Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Annual Conference and General Assembly. The conference featured screenings of Blood Sisters: Leather Dykes & Sadomasochism and Daddy and the Muscle Academy. Workshops at the gathering included "Latex Lovers: A Workshop on Queer Womyn Safe-Sex," "Transgender Workplace Issues," and "Town, Gown, and T-Rooms: the University and Public Homosexual Sex."

Credit-bearing courses in pornography abound in academia, as well. Ironically, it is women—and not "dirty old men"—who teach most of these classes.

At UC-Berkeley, Linda Williams teaches a graduate course called "Pornographies On/scene." Movies viewed in class include Deep Throat, The Opening of Misty Beethoven, Suburban Dykes, and John Wayne Bobbitt: Uncut. Williams is also the author of the book, Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the ‘Frenzy of the Visible.' Hard Core has gained a wide readership among academics and is now available in a revised, illustrated edition.

Said Williams of her stint of teaching pornography to undergraduates while at UC-Irvine, "They used to have trouble with gay-oriented films: when it came to anal penetration, they just couldn't watch." Williams also delivered the keynote address at last August's World Pornography Conference at UC-Northridge.

Other books taught from on campus include Bound and Gagged: Pornography and the Politics of Pornography in America by Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis, and Chris Straaner's (New York University) Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Sexual Reorientation in Film and Video. Joanna Frueh, an art historian at the University of Nevada-Reno, has written a book called Erotic Faculties, in which she shares nude photographs and her sexual fantasies with her readers.

In addition to the above several schools, Columbia University offers courses in "porn studies," and porn star Annie Sprinkle is a regular lecturer on college campuses.

The list is nearly endless, all under the guise of free speech and academic freedom. But as critics point out, free speech and academic freedom have nothing to do with it. Instead, it has everything to do with academic responsibility and the improper use of public funds. There is a difference, after all, between academic freedom and academic anarchy.