I go to a women's college. There are not many of us left in the world. Some feel that it is an outdated concept, that women are 100% equal now. So why do they still exist? First of all as much as I wish this was the case, women are not even close to 100% equality. Yes we can vote, yes we can have the same career as a man, but women still make 80 cents to the dollar every man makes. Female politicians are still meager within a patriarchal government and rape is still taking place on a massive scale. Women's colleges are relevant because they provide a space for women of all backgrounds and sexual orientations to come together and find they voice. This does that mean that we hate men or are afraid of men. In fact it makes us more confident when interacting and working with men. Women's colleges are not nunneries nor are they "lesbian factories." They inspire women to speak up, fight and demand for the rights that are still being denied to them.
The first women's college in the United States, Mount Holyoke College has been in the news a lot lately. In September, President Lynn Pasquerella officially announced the admission of transgender students to the college. This policy change came soon after Smith College came under fire for supposedly refusing to admit a student based on the fact that he, now she, was transgender. If someone wishes to become a woman or a man, they are most welcome here. This has certainly created a campus wide dialogue about identity and inclusion.
This dialogue has ultimately led to the cancellation of the Vagina Monologues, a decade long tradition. Project:Theater, the student room acting group which usually puts on the production, sent out an email stating that they would no longer be performing the play by world renowned feminist, Eve Ensler. This decisions was based on the belief that the play failed to represent people of all ethnicities and transgender people. The play, "s inherently reductionist and exscluve." Instead the group will be creating a Vagina Monologues inspired play which includes more racial and sexual diversity.
There have been mixed responses to this decision. I respect Project: Theater's decision. They seek to make sure that students on campus of all sexual orientations and backgrounds are represented. The play needs to speak to everyone. It is important to be conscious of everyone's perspective. But I also find this decision to be a bit incautious. Eve Ensler actually responded to this decision. She said, "I would like to believe that the play is outdated and irrelevant but sadly it isn;'t. I travel the planet, I've just come from many countries and the United States where 51% of the population has vaginas and aren't ab;e to have agency over those vaginas. W know that one out of every three women willl be raped or beaten in her lifetimes-so we know we have a long way to go before vaginas are liberated."
Ensure actually visited the campus last year, giving a talk about her recent memoir. She has been very much an admired figure in all of the women's colleges. She further stated that, "I think it's important to know that I never intended to write a play about what it means to be a woman, that was not what the Vagina Monologues ever intended to be. It was a play about what it means to have a vagina. It never said for example, the definition of a woman is someone who has a vagina...I think that's a really important distinction." Ensler actually writes a new monologue every year for the play. In 2005, she came out with one entitled, "They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy," which was from the perspective a a transgender person. She also commented that thousands of women of color have performed in The Vagina Monologues for the past 20 years.
In the end, Ensler respects Project: Theater's decision to make their own work. The group wants the ability to reach out to all campus perspectives. But I feel that they should have thought this decision through. No one else in campus was aware of this possibility until the decision had already been made. It is just one play that has happened to impact women who have vaginas or are without. It is play that speaks to all women. Ensler could only include so much. But she is continuing to add to it, to make it more diverse. It is an ever growing play. She is a respected and important figure within the feminist community. She believes in gender equality, racial equality, religious equality and the rights of people of all sexual orientations. She has never intended to exclude other perspectives. Project: Theater should definitely embark on the task of making their own play. But they should perform The Vagina Monologues as well. Especially for those who connect so much to the message of the play.
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