YOUR vagina is angry?!

This sign was posted as an advertisement for the Vagina Monologues at Skidmore College:



Every single time I saw it, I started feeling this hankering for homicide. So today, I took this picture, and then went up to the Vagina Monologues ticket table and said something like, "What if I am not participating in reproduction, I am not pretty, and I am not smart? Shouldn't you respect me?"

They were baffled, so I showed them the picture on my camera, and explained that this flier has been hanging in the academic building.

One of the young women asked, "Why does it say 'who cares'?"

"Oh, someone defaced the sign to say, 'Who cares? Women = human.' I guess the pen is too light to see in the picture."

This student told me she was in charge of publicity for the V-Day events, but hadn't checked every flier, and was really stunned that someone would post something like that.

Here are some other fliers:





A quote from my friend Jack at RISD: um... heterosexist what? binary enforcing what? i thought the vagina monologues was supposed to be kick-ass and open minded and empowering. i don't think being "pretty" or "warm" or "majestic" (excuse me??? that sounds like women are some inaccessable mythical creatures instead of... people maybe?) or a source of "moral support" or a source of "companionship" for men is too empowering. nope, its kind of super offensive and all makes me think of the woman's role in relation to the man. what about the woman's role in relation to herself? or the PERSON with the VAGINA'S role in relation to HIRSELF??

A quote from Kyle, a student at the University of Florida, about how these reinforce the gender binary: They are pretty and smart and you should respect them.

They. Women. Those are requirements for being a woman; they are requirements for being feminine. Equation... womanhood and femininity.

Those who don't fulfill the requirements are obviously not women. There are only feminine women.

The posters are "otherizing," creating woman as this space that is like a superhuman material form of the maternal instinct. Ever read Said's "Orientalism"? It's a favorite of mine cause it applies to just about anything where a distinction is made.

Kyle also points out that the second flier here is:

almost condescending behind the pseudo-intellectual babble . . . I mean, replace women with dogs.

"Dogs are special. They offer a unique point of view, moral support, friendship, and companionship. They should be treated with respect at all times, for a man without a dog is like a lost wanderer in a meadow of turmoil."

Women here are treated in terms of men; as if a woman, when not offering these things to other men, is nothing. They aren't part of society; they aren't your boss or your manager or somebody you look up to or...

Women don't DO important things. They support the men, who do all the cool shit.

In a less ironic display of misogyny, this flier was defaced by a non-VDay person:




See the bottom right corner, where a scrap was torn off to tape over the "WO" in "WOMAN"? (I fixed it after I took the picture.) And while this is also sick and sad, it's the first three fliers that really get me. How could anyone see those as complimentary or appropriate?

While I was publicly ranting about this tonight, another student involved with producing the monologues told me, "Well, they are whatever you make of them. They're just quotes from students, we put them up there, you can interpret them however you want. And if they make you angry, good, do something about it. You're angry about the way women are seen, come to the Vagina Monologues."

I was incredulous. I told her they were equivalent to writing, "Black people like fried chicken! Come to Ujima meetings!"

"I don't see that," she said. "Some of them are really beautiful. There's one that says, 'Women are like flowers, you should cherish every one.' There's another that says, 'I respect women because I love my mother'."

I told her I hadn't seen the flowers one, but it also made me want to kill something. I told her, there is no context for these.

There is nothing to indicate that they are satire. They are, in fact, not intended as satire, which is why they're offensive.