Clearly we're not going to find common ground here and I'm not going to respond in kind to your personal attacks.
All the best,
Dennis Moore
Feb. 13, 2002`The Vagina Monologues' violate Notre Dame
Sean Dudley freshman
A few years ago, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed a painting of the Blessed Virgin with elephant dung thrown and smeared all over it. When the art museum received widespread criticism for showing such a tasteless and horrifically offensive piece, the museum spokesmen defended it in the name of "art."
"The Vagina Monologues" is very likely the most offensive play in modern theater. Describing in graphic detail women's most private body parts and encouraging females of all ages to get to know their vaginas by masturbating often and engaging in lesbian sexual encounters, this production flies like elephant dung in the face of all that the most chaste, most holy Virgin stands for at the top of the Golden Dome and in our hearts. That such a play should be allowed on Our Lady's campus makes me want to vomit, weep, scream and pull my hair out all at once. Why have we allowed — and even welcomed — this vile desecration of our school, our faith and Our Lady?
"Any theater is nonetheless the highest form of art," some might claim. Or, regarding any art form, "How can you censor true, heartfelt expression, no matter what the content?" Give me a break. The University buys into that? What if a student were to write and direct a play in which the actors have oral sex on stage in front of everyone in the audience? Or what if someone were to erect a new statue of Mary for the Grotto, except this time with elephant feces smeared all over it? Or what if someone were to take a bunch of pictures of vaginas and make an artsy collage to display at the Snite? Would you put it up? "The Vagina Monologues" is not art; it is desensitizing, morally repugnant trash.
How about the argument that this play should be allowed because it promotes greater understanding and appreciation of women? After all, it is being put on as part of the celebration of V-Day (Vagina Day) — a day to demonstrate against violence toward women. There are a few serious problems with this argument. One, the desensitization that occurs when such absolute immodesty is displayed and applauded can only decrease the modesty and reverence men should show all women. Rapes are proven to increase in frequency when men lose all respect for women and their bodies. Two, Vagina Day is proudly sponsored by and donates proceeds to Planned Parenthood, an organization that fights for the right to destroy innocent female life. If V-Day is about ending violence against women, what about the roughly 2,300 women killed every day by abortions in the U.S.? Three, the play itself applauds the molestation of a 13-year-old girl by a 24-year-old woman, justifying the violent sexual invasion because of its lesbian nature.
By allowing "The Vagina Monologues" to be performed at Notre Dame, we are throwing dung in the face of our Virgin Mother, supporting abortion and stripping modesty from everyone involved. (One scene has a chorus of actors repeatedly yelling in unison, "Cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt.") Most newspapers probably wouldn't allow that word to be printed. So why are we allowing it to be shouted from a stage in DeBartolo Hall?
In the name of our Virgin Mother, Notre Dame, I beg the administration to disallow the production of this foul play immediately. In G.K. Chesterton's book, "The Ball and the Cross," a Catholic Scotsman breaks a store window and challenges a blaspheming atheist to a mortal duel, all because the atheist wrote an article tying Mary to ancient pagan goddesses. "The Vagina Monologues" openly flips the bird at modesty, chastity and virginity, and in fact at all women who consider their private parts private. What is Notre Dame's administration willing to do to defend the honor of the Blessed Virgin and all her daughters? Roll over and die in the face of modernistic calls for "open-mindedness" and "academic freedom?" Or stand up and stop this travesty?
I urge all students to write letters to Provost Nathan Hatch calling for an immediate cessation of this production. I also invite everyone to join us as we pray the Rosary at 9 a.m. and at 5 p.m. every day outside Washington Hall, asking for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin to defeat this horrendous attack on modesty.
Sean Dudley
freshman
Carroll Hall