Women's Sexuality Makes Men Uncomfortable

Opinion
By Katie Deem
   Much controversy surrounds the Theatre Department’s production of The Vagina Monologues. This controversy includes the issue of whether or not men should be welcome to attend the Monologues. Many people, both male and female, feel that this play excluded men, and women’s experiences with them. Some feel it should bear a disclaimer, warning men that the material may be offensive.
   Some men felt uncomfortable, not included in the play. Perhaps they were upset that they were not the center (or near the center) of the ideas—they were barely mentioned. Women have historically been alienated from experiencing life fully, now men feel slight alienation, and it is a controversy.
   However, the real purpose of the play has been lost. It is not to unite men and women, fathers and daughters, uncles and nieces, brothers and sisters, to make men feel they are part of the world of women. It is to unite women, to have a day saved especially for a sisterhood about which men can understand little—a sisterhood from which many women draw strength to deal with violence and misunderstanding from men. The purpose is to raise awareness about what it is like to be a woman, especially a woman who owns her sexuality and sexual organ. The play intends to educate humanity about domestic violence, suffocation of sexuality, and control over personhood. The play also raised $668.25 in donations from the audience. Ten percent will go to the “V-Day Committee.” The committee donates money to worldwide events. The rest of the donation  will be given to the Family Crisis Intervention Center here in Parkersburg.
   The Monologues reveal women’s feeling that this country, this “culture” is created for men by men, tailored-made to fit their preferences. Women (or specifically, someone like Eve Ensler, the brain behind the Monologues) create plays that include the female perspective to counteract violence against women, control over female sexuality, and conceptions of how women should conduct themselves. Women create and participate in something like the Monologues to be free from the expectations of men—they defy the idea that women should be shy and lady-like, should not swear, and should not mention that they are a sexual being.
   The Monologues include the words of real women, accounts of their own experiences. It is not constructed specifically to offend men. We cannot change the words of these women to make men feel more comfortable. Women often see plays, see movies in which the cast is made up mostly of men or entirely of men, sometimes even speaking degradingly of women, and women say nothing of being left out or insulted or feeling that they should not view the material. Women create a play made up entirely of women, and some men complain of feeling alienated. This is unfair and unacceptable.