Bishops Move Seminar from Notre Dame to Protest Planned Campus Performance of Offensive Monologues - Catholic Online
Even though I look back on my time at Notre Dame as one of the most depressing (and overtly sexist) times and places of my life, I'm still glad to see The Vagina Monologues continue at ND. Kudos to them for realizing that a Catholic education doesn't mean denying the existence of things you don't like. I hope the Queer Film Festival still survives as well. The spirit of inclusion page mentions sexual orientation (more than once in the first paragraph, in fact), but the non-discrimination clause does not. Baby steps, baby steps.
Not sure how many Domers read this, but does anyone remember funny stories about controversy around vaginas at Notre Dame? Like when the lights went out during the first performance, and someone shouted "Oh no, it's the Knights of Columbus!" or when someone wrote in to The Observer complaining that his ten year old brother had to see fliers with the word vagina on them?
I don't remember either of those, but I just recently read some crazily conservative letter to the Pope, and they were urging him to reform Catholic education and mentioned the vagina monologues as the best example of the "evil" that pervades our Catholic education. *sigh* Seriously people, read JPII's Theology of the Body, URGING US TO GET AWAY FROM all the puritanical body-bad, spirit-good stuff, to CALL BODY PARTS BY THEIR NAMES and not make it this taboo thing that causes scandal. This is why we have all these sexual issues in our time: because parents won't talk to their kids about their bodies, and the importance of respecting them!!
ReplyDelete*ahem* Sorry ;-) Happy V-Day!!
I'm gonna go ahead and do what I do best and disagree with you on this one. There's absolutely no reason that the Vagina Monologues should be performed annually on campus. Once every 4 years so students can view it and form their own opinion, sure. Aside from the Passion of Christ, I don't recall any other annual performances and I think that therein lies the problem. An annual performance suggests endorsement, which is not in line with the University's Catholic mission. I can only hope they clean this mess up relatively soon.
ReplyDelete