Sex, Lies and the Vagina Monologues

Young America's Foundation ^ | August 25, 2004 | Christina Hoff Sommers

[nosofar]

The following lecture by Christina Hoff Sommers was delivered on August 3, 2004 at the Young America's Foundation 26th Annual National Conservative Student Conference in Washington, DC.

(The text that follows contains adult language and themes and is intended for mature audiences only. Reader discretion is advised).

Several years ago, a radical feminist philosopher visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she gave a lecture attacking what she called “male science.” This theorist confidently explained that science was part of a discredited oppressive, patriarchal, white-male, bourgeois legacy. It was tainted to the core by sexism, classicism, and racism. Women, she concluded, must “reinvent knowledge.”

A well-respected British philosopher of science attended her lecture. Later, I asked him what he thought of it. He just shook his head and looked pained. I asked him whether he had raised any objections in the question and answer period. “No," he said, "I am just hoping it will all go away."

That’s exactly how I felt when I saw the award-winning off-Broadway play The Vagina Monologues in New York City four years ago. I did not want to argue with anyone. I did not want to raise objections. I just wanted it to go away. But whereas my British colleague has had his wish granted (for the most part anyway – the feminist attack on science has faded away), my wish certainly has not been granted. Far from going away, The Monologues (written by Eve Ensler) has become a worldwide phenomenon, and is enjoying unprecedented and growing success on college campuses.

[Restorer]

Excellent article.

Caution: the "explicit language" warning isn't kidding.

Yikes. My mother would arise from her grave to wash out my mouth.

[pissant]

Hoff-Summers wrote a great book a few years back "WHo Stole Feminism". The only "chick" book I ever read (Ann Coulter does't count). She exposed the charlatans in the feminist movement for the radical commies that they are.

[odoso]

In America, all anyone needs to do to get attention in the MSM is to be Freak. The greater the Freak you are, the more attention they give you.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

I read a great deal about the play, then saw it on HBO a few years ago. I think I sat there, slack jawed, unable to believe that I was seeing this. Ensler is mentally ill, and broadcasting it far and wide.

[N. Theknow]

Two sets of lips - to piss and moan at the same time.

[Red Badger]

These silly soliloquies should be countered by a Men's version: ANY NAMES?............

[Jaysun]

This is ludicrous. Men did not become powerful in this world by gathering in stadiums shouting out vulgar four-letter words......You don’t hear of men gathering in little workshops taking turns looking at their private parts in mirrors. Men who did that would be ridiculed -- not valorized. But somehow when the self-described “vagina warriors” do these things they see themselves as heroines, intrepid freedom fighters combating prejudice and injustice –- modern-day Rosa Parkses."

True. Strangely, I also found this humorous.

[Mr. Jeeves]

The young man who ushered me to my seat wore a nametag that read, “Hi, I am Vagina Larry.”

Obviously, a much slicker character than his cousin, Leisure Suit Larry. ;)

[elbucko]

"It was better than the Grand Canyon,....

But just not as deep. The "Monologues" are merely the shallow discovery of a biological ubiquity. The gutter contemplates itself.

[Apercu]

VM is unadulterated crap! ...and feminists/"academentia" want to know why they are not taken seriously by everyday Americans?

[Jaysun]

You mean stuff like this, or something in which our dignity remains intact?

"ballock ballet"

"curtain-raising cullion"

"testicle tragedy"

"penis pageant"

"dong drama"

[Sergio]

You know, a while back, after seeing the Monologues on TV, I thought, what's good for the gander is good for the goose. I spent about two months shouting "pen!$" about 24 times a day. You know what? It was empowering. That is until the folks form mental health services paid me a visit. </sarcasm>

Best Regards

Sergio

[BenLurkin]

"The woman invites the young girl (minor) into her car, takes her to her house, plies her with vodka, and seduces her. What might seem to be a scene from a public service kidnapping prevention video shown to schoolchildren becomes, in Ensler’s play, a love story."

Why doesn't AL Qaeda bomb one of these "performances"? It would make just as much sense -- in fact more sense -- than killing people who are simply working at their desks.

[HassanBenSobar]

ROFLOL!

[Alouette]

Earth to Ensler:

The V-thing is not a woman's most important sexual organ. The U-thing is.

"G-D gave me a brain and a uterus and I make use of both." -- Shirley Chisholm, later plagiarized by Pat Schroeder.

[Aquinasfan]

The publisher of The Vagina Monologues says that it has become the “Bible of a new generation of young women.”

I don't doubt it. These so-called institutions of higher education won't be getting my girls. The list of colleges that I'll shell out tuition money for is down to 6: Magdalene, Thomas More, Thomas Aquinas, Christendom, Steubenville, and Ave Maria.

[Awestruck]

"These silly soliloquies should be countered by a Men's version: ANY NAMES?"

Unfortunately there is a sort of male version called "Puppetry of the Penis" where the naked men onstage twist their genitalia into silly shapes..

A pox on both of these obscenities! These were both shown in a city where the mayor banned Marilyn Manson from performing... alrighty then.

[Red Badger]

Oh......I was thinking of a little more dignifed title like

The Penile Papers, or The Peter Principles.....

[Red Badger]

Uh....what city was that? SF?.....