Posted on 01/14/2004 4:05:56 PM PST by gringo_in_Akita
AMHERST - Support for next month's student production of ''The Vagina Monologues'' outweighed dissent among members of the community at Tuesday's Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee meeting.
About 40 residents, parents and faculty members from the high school attended the public comment portion of the meeting. Faculty supporters of the student production advised students to avoid the meeting because of its potential for controversy.
Written by Eve Ensler, ''The Vagina Monologues'' is a series of short scenes based on her interviews with more than 200 women around the globe.
The play, to be performed Feb. 13 at the high school, will culminate a week of events educating students and faculty about women's health and reproductive rights, as well as violence against women.
Superintendent Jere Hochman, who has been a vocal supporter of the student production, did not comment during the public discussion. After the meeting, Hochman said the public spoke for him.
''We sometimes tend to forget the highly sexualized experience of teen-agers these days,'' said parent Al Sax, whose son attends the high school. ''I don't think this (play) is going to blow people's mind in terms of sexual content.''
School and community groups around the country are performing the play as part of a nationwide women's awareness day called V-Day. The V-Day organization is giving free rights to the play for groups that perform it between Feb. 1 and March 8 and give a portion of proceeds to a women's charity.
The play offers a unique perspective on female sexuality by ''taking it out of the ... pop culture and putting it into the educational context,'' said Rob Okun, whose son also attends the high school.
Speaking as both the co-interim director of the Men's Resource Center and as a parent, Okun said the school's support of the production is ''probably one of the most important steps in the gender healing ... work that we are championing.''
Still, two community members - neither of whom have children at the high school - maintained that the high school is an inappropriate setting for the production.
''To me there are certain words that basically should never be spoken, in public or in private,'' said Amherst resident Larry Kelley, adding that high school students, particularly the younger ones, should not be exposed to the sexually graphic language in the play.
''I have no problems with anatomical terms,'' Kelley said, but he disapproved of some of the terms used in lieu of ''vagina.''
Questioning the scene that recounts a relationship a teenage girl had with a 24-year-old woman, Kelley said, it ''glorifies inappropriate sex.''
Ed Cutting, a Town Meeting member and graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, said it is inappropriate for taxpayers' dollars to pay for a production that only addresses women's issues and prohibits males from performing in it.
However, because faculty members are volunteering their time, Hochman pointed out after the meeting, tax dollars are not funding the production.
In response to Cutting's concern that the district is not paying equal attention to boys, committee member Michael Hussin noted that girls at the high school initiated ''The Vagina Monologues'' production. ''I would hope boys would initiate work that they need to be doing in the schools,'' Hussin said, adding that the School Committee would support their efforts, too.
Hussin, the only committee member who spoke publicly to the issue, said, ''I'm happy to have my daughter in a school that might help prevent her from being ... part of (a) statistic'' of women who are abused.
Other community members, too, said they thought the production is a positive thing for Amherst's students - both male and female.
''I'm here to support the school and the efforts of these young women, who are incredibly courageous,'' said Ludmilla Pavlova, whose son attends Amherst Regional Middle School.
''This is one of the aspects of our community that makes me proud,'' said Okun.
Michal Lumsden can be reached at mlumsden@gazettenet.com.
Hussin, the only committee member who spoke publicly to the issue, said, ''I'm happy to have my daughter in a school that might help prevent her from being ... part of (a) statistic'' of women who are abused.
Huh? How does putting on a play that sensationalizes the use of anatomically correct (and a few crude) terms for "cooter" prevent a woman from being abused? Some things are just not meant to be talked about in public, and this is one of them...
''I'm here to support the school and the efforts of these young women, who are incredibly courageous,'' said Ludmilla Pavlova, whose son attends Amherst Regional Middle School.
What's so courageous about getting up on stage and talking about genitalia?
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