Long before Notre Dame ever considered putting on "The Vagina Monologues", its neighbor across the street did. We did it amid protests and howls from the community, from women on the campus, and with little fanfare from the bigger school across the street. We did it a second year despite being explicitly banned from doing it. We did it because we thought, if you can't talk about vaginas at a school for women, where can you? We believed in academic freedom and the right to direct our own lives as students, as adults. College isn't supposed to be an extension of high school; the president of the college isn't mommy or daddy, to stop you from seeing big, bad, non-Catholic things. Learning autonomy is one reason people go away to college.
But am I surprised by this article in the Tribune this morning? No. It doesn't surprise me that the male president of Notre Dame is considering banning any further production of The Vagina Monologues, after this year. It doesn't surprise me that he won't allow money to be collected, and that he won't allow it in a theater. Notre Dame is a reactionary, conservative college. It's not a surprise.
I do hope that for their sakes, the students at Notre Dame remember that seeing the Monologues is a choice, and that everyone should have the right to exercise that choice. I hope they don't go gently. We didn't. We held an unauthorized reading, and passed a bucket around, taking in donations even though we were forbidden. It's one of the prouder moments of my college career.
Update: I talked about this issue with Tim for a little while this morning, and all I can think coming out of that discussion is that some colleges seems to be particularly out of touch with the students that enroll in them. I think our generation is more open than the generation before that, and so on, but I think many policies (official policies on controversial topics) seem to be made with the alumni in mind. I know it's a money thing, but that doesn't make it less galling.
Or do I just give my generation more credit for being liberal than they deserve?
We are doing a production of the Vagina Monologues here at Yale Divinity School, even though Yale College down the hill is also doing one, because we think its an important witness to send out there - that a seminary is supportive of women's issues, commited to ending violence against women, and that God and vaginas are not necessarily incompatible.
I'm actually doing the transgender woman monologue because, while we seek to be an inclusive community, we don't actually have any representation from that demographic in our community.
Posted by: Yalie | January 25, 2006 at 02:54 PM
Why am I not suprised the Catholics would do that? And to think I used to identify as one. You know that if it was about men, in a positive way, they would somehow find a fucking passage in the bible that says it's a good show.
That was certainly a very empowering event in my life as well.
Posted by: thepaddler | January 25, 2006 at 07:11 PM