News & Politics - Girls suspended for use of "Vagina" during monologues

Lain · 03-07-2007, 05:31 PM

It's a really interesting issue, especially for those who have heard/read The Vagina Monlogues.

Quote:

Girls Who Said 'Vagina' During Monologues Suspended
Defiant Stand Applauded By Play's Author

POSTED: 7:55 pm EST March 6, 2007
CROSS RIVER, N.Y. -- A public high school has suspended three 16-year-old girls who disobeyed officials by saying the word "vagina" during a reading from "The Vagina Monologues."

Their defiant stand is being applauded by the author of the well-known feminist play, who said Tuesday that the school should be celebrating, rather than punishing, the three juniors.

"Don't we want our children to resist authority when it's not appropriate and wise?" said author Eve Ensler.

The three honor students, Megan Reback, Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson, included the word because "we knew it was the right thing to do. Since we're comfortable saying it, we should make other people comfortable saying it," Levinson said.

The excerpt from "Monologues" was read Friday night, among various readings at an event sponsored by the literary magazine at John Jay High School in Cross River, a New York City suburb. Among the other readings was a student's original work and the football coach quoting Shakespeare.

The girls took turns reading the excerpt until they came to the word, then said it together.

"My short skirt is a liberation flag in the women's army," they read. "I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina's country."

The suspension has prompted allegations of censorship. But Principal Richard Leprine said Tuesday that the girls were punished not because of what they said but because they disobeyed orders not to say it.

In a statement, Leprine said that because the event was open to the community, including children, the word "vagina" was not appropriate. He said the girls had been told when they auditioned that they could not use the word.

Reback said Tuesday that no one in the audience was younger than high school age. "What did we do that was so wrong?" she asked. "We were insubordinate, but the reason we were insubordinate was that we talked about our body."

The principal said that the school respects students' right to freedom of expression. "That right, however, is not unfettered.

"When a student is told by faculty members not to present specified material because of the composition of the audience and they agree to do so, it is expected that the commitment will be honored and the directive will be followed," Leprine said. "When a student chooses not to follow the directive, consequences follow."

Bob Lichtenfeld, superintendent of the Katonah-Lewisboro school district, which includes John Jay, said, "If the high school students wanted to put on a production of 'The Vagina Monologues,' they probably wouldn't have had any opposition. As long as the intended audience knows what to expect, we don't have a problem with it."

Ensler said the girls were right for "standing up for art and against censorship."
Eve Ensler, author of 'The Vagina Monologues'
AP Image
Eve Ensler, author of 'The Vagina Monologues'

"The school's position is absurd, a throwback to the Dark Ages," she said. "So what, if children were to hear the word? Would that be terrible? We're not talking about plutonium here, or acid rain, a word that destroys lives. It's a body part!"

She said she called the girls to support them because "the school put them in an impossible position."

The girls said they had the support of their parents. "To me, they were reciting literature in an educational forum and they did it with grace and dignity," said Dana Stahl, Elan Stahl's mother.

The girls will all serve one-day, in-school suspensions, beginning Wednesday.

"The Vagina Monologues," presented as various women's thoughts about sexual subjects, has become a phenomenon since its Off-Broadway opening in 1996. All-star readings are common and on "V-Day" each year, usually Feb. 14, local volunteers, college students and a few high schools produce benefit performances of the play to raise funds to battle violence against women. The "V-Day" Internet site says there were more than 2,700 such events last year.

Performances occasionally provoke controversy.

Conservative Catholics criticized the University of Notre Dame's decision to allow a performance on campus last April. This year, student planners couldn't get an academic sponsor.

Last month, a board member of a central Kentucky historic theater quit after objecting to the theater's marquee advertising "The Vagina Monologues."

From this site: Link

If this was in elementary or junior high, then I completely understand but I'm still weighing on this debate. The play itself does cause a lot of controversy in the title itself and people have gone as far as to attempt to remove the word from being shown (although the attempts eventually do fail).

elisheva · 03-07-2007, 06:16 PM

I saw this today and I thought it was totally ridiculous

Oh my god, vagina. Big deal. They're in high school - they have biology and sex ed anyway.

A theatre in Florida put on the Monologues as well and had to take down its sign and replace it with "The Hoohaa Monologues" because of complaints. I don't get it.

Lain · 03-07-2007, 06:40 PM

Quote:

A theatre in Florida put on the Monologues as well and had to take down its sign and replace it with "The Hoohaa Monologues" because of complaints. I don't get it.

I remember reading that a while back

Jeez...vagina! There, I said it!

I suppose it might be an uproar if it was called The Cocky Monologues

(Sorry, I couldn't help myself

)

migamoo · 03-07-2007, 07:15 PM

What? Were they not supposed to say it, it's part of the play! Hell, the teachers teach what a vagina is in sex-ed, are we supposed to censor them as well?

rose parade · 03-07-2007, 08:13 PM

Wtf? When we were in 5th grade in 'family life' when we had to say those words everyone would get embarassed so the teacher would have everyone clap for us. Heh, it actually sounds pretty bizzare.

GhostWriter · 03-07-2007, 08:53 PM

All these would be nice arguments if it weren't for the play being open to the community. That is the only concern that they cared about. Otherwise, I'm sure they wouldn't have cared about it. They didn't want to have young children (and I mean 2nd grade and lower) to hear that and then go home and ask their parents to explain it. Also, they did make an agreement upon being admitted into the show that they had to leave that word out. While it may be cool to use that word around middle school age and up, it's not good for young kids to hear it. Let them worry about Barney and the Power Rangers...

elisheva · 03-07-2007, 09:07 PM

Actually, the article I read (in my paper at home) mentioned specifically that everyone in attendance was high school age and above. However, I'm afraid I don;t believe that it being open to the community was "the only concern that they cared about" - I think it has a lot to do with a feeling that there's something dirty or wrong with the word vagina (or with female sexuality in general, given the discomfort Western society has almost always had with that idea - which was the reason Eve Ensler wrote the play in the first place). Plus, IMO, it's no big deal for parents to explain to their kids the proper words for body parts - even if they keep on using cute/kiddy terms more regularly. It's not like they're going to say all sorts of NC-17 things when explaining.

Anyway, in my experience of young kids, they'd either be falling asleep or falling off their parents' laps trying to go play on the floor, not listening carefully for unfamiliar words.

CBC.ca Arts - U.S. school suspends students over Vagina Monologues reading

Quote:

Reback said there were no children in the audience when they went ahead with the reading.

I'm not saying all the Vagina Monologues are necessarily appropriate for all ages, or even that I would agree with everything written in it. I haven't read the whole thing, just tiny tiny excerpts. But the word "vagina"? Not a huge deal.

-Kelly- · 03-07-2007, 09:26 PM

If the book is in school, then don't blame the kids for reading it

migamoo · 03-07-2007, 11:08 PM

There is nothing wrong with the word vagina. A lot of younger children ask where babies come from and a lot of parents use the word vagina when telling their children. It's a part of a woman's body. It's not like it's a slang word that could offend someone.

**TheAngel** · 03-08-2007, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhostWriter (View Post)

All these would be nice arguments if it weren't for the play being open to the community. That is the only concern that they cared about. Otherwise, I'm sure they wouldn't have cared about it. They didn't want to have young children (and I mean 2nd grade and lower) to hear that and then go home and ask their parents to explain it. Also, they did make an agreement upon being admitted into the show that they had to leave that word out. While it may be cool to use that word around middle school age and up, it's not good for young kids to hear it. Let them worry about Barney and the Power Rangers...

Why shouldn't they worry about it. A vagina and a penis are both parts of the human body and its society that has turned that into a shameful thing, which is very stupid. There's nothing wrong with saying those words and by not being allowed to they're creating an environment of taboo which is stupid. What's the difference between saying,

"I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina's country."
or
I declare these streets, any streets, my left big toe's country.

Not a single thing, other than social perception of the vagina as a sexual organ and the use of that word as pornographic. That disgusts me.

**sunnykerr** · 03-08-2007, 10:32 AM

This is why we have teenage pregnancies, I swear.

Okay, so that's a huge exageration. But the point is that if we're going to be all coy and offended when talking about the vagina, then how are we ever going to have an honest discussion of sexuality and reproductive responsibility down the road? Bleh.

And is it so wrong for young girls to use the right word for the actual sexual organ? I mean, it is what it is.

chicah · 03-12-2007, 09:22 AM

Americans... *rolls her eyes*

This is just ridicolous. If I was one of the girls parents, I would support my daughter against the shcool. I'm 15 and if you find one single 15-year old who doesn't know the word vagina I'll be surprised. Lots of people have already had their sexual debute at this age.
Vagina is the actual word, it would've been far worse if they'd said some other version of the word.

2nd year olds go home and ask what it is, well, what's the problem? They all know we need something to pee with.
BTW, I knew perfectly well what sex was and how to make kids when I was in 2nd grade.

JRon · 03-15-2007, 01:20 PM

If they are reading the darn thing they should be able to say the word. If they wouldn't want them to, then pick something else! Its a part of the human body, what else are they supposed to call it besides its name? They should reprimand them if they used a slang term, but not the proper name!

Lain · 03-15-2007, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JRon (View Post)

If they are reading the darn thing they should be able to say the word. If they wouldn't want them to, then pick something else! Its a part of the human body, what else are they supposed to call it besides its name? They should reprimand them if they used a slang term, but not the proper name!

Exactly! Just imagine if they used the C word on this...which I'm not getting into

-res cogitans- · 06-10-2007, 09:39 PM

thats fkin ridiculous!


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