It’s the standard Valentine’s Day dilemma: your partner is dying to see “American Sniper,” while you have your heart set on taking in an amateur college production of “The Vagina Monologues.” If you live near Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, the decision has been made for you; Campus Reform reports that the all-women’s college will not perform Eve Ensler’s play because it is no longer “inclusive” enough to those who identify as women but do not have vaginas.
A representative from the school’s theater board explained the decision in a campus-wide email:
Gender is a wide and varied experience, one that cannot simply be reduced to biological or anatomical distinctions, and many of us who have participated in the show have grown increasingly uncomfortable presenting material that is inherently reductionist and exclusive.
Instead, students will present their own trans-inclusive version of the play alongside another student-led group “that provides education and workshops for students, including a workshop on how to use sex toys properly.”
https://twitter.com/cl_kitchens/status/555766464721203201
The "Vagina Monologues" is now considered racist &transphobic: http://t.co/uCUjQkaOzK
— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) January 16, 2015
Academia is sillier than you are capable of imagining. http://t.co/a1v9tDjAlg
— David Freddoso (@freddoso) January 15, 2015
Good grief. “@freddoso: Academia is sillier than you are capable of imagining. http://t.co/DwxF5vDy57”
— Brit Hume (@brithume) January 15, 2015
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More PC than this, you implode. Vagina Monologues dropped at Mt. Holyoke–it's "inherently reductionist & exclusive." http://t.co/p20W6QS641
— Christina Sommers ? (@CHSommers) January 15, 2015
Revolution eats its own: RT Mount Holyoke scrapping “Vagina Monologues” b/c " inherently reductionist and exclusive." http://t.co/2ZmZLg5p7C
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) January 15, 2015
https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/555859842946965504
It is literally impossible for the #vaginamonologues to be exclusive, considering the majority of human beings have vaginas.
— Mayor Watermelon (@MayorWatermelon) January 16, 2015
https://twitter.com/armsofmoss/status/556201210215030784
Seriously, though. When the "Vagina Monologues" aren't feminist enough, you know the movement has jumped the shark.
— RBe (@RBPundit) January 15, 2015
One student criticized the theater’s dropping of “The Vagina Monologues” on a campus message board:
I love how people who have never been able to discuss or embrace their vaj-wahs aren’t going to find an avenue here, either, since female-validating talk about vaginas is now forbidden. That’s so misogynistic under the guise of “progress.”
Don’t fret, Canadian readers; the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus has a human-friendly production just for you.
This years trans* inclusive Vagina Monologues is a safe space where womyn and trans* folks can express… http://t.co/LD26xIbG5K
— jess kirk (@JessicaPKirk) January 13, 2015
http://instagram.com/p/xx2MgJsPQS/
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