Sex, Lies and the Vagina Monologues

Young America's Foundation ^ | August 25, 2004 | Christina Hoff Sommers

[nosofar]

The following lecture by Christina Hoff Sommers was delivered on August 3, 2004 at the Young America's Foundation 26th Annual National Conservative Student Conference in Washington, DC.

(The text that follows contains adult language and themes and is intended for mature audiences only. Reader discretion is advised).

Several years ago, a radical feminist philosopher visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she gave a lecture attacking what she called “male science.” This theorist confidently explained that science was part of a discredited oppressive, patriarchal, white-male, bourgeois legacy. It was tainted to the core by sexism, classicism, and racism. Women, she concluded, must “reinvent knowledge.”

A well-respected British philosopher of science attended her lecture. Later, I asked him what he thought of it. He just shook his head and looked pained. I asked him whether he had raised any objections in the question and answer period. “No," he said, "I am just hoping it will all go away."

That’s exactly how I felt when I saw the award-winning off-Broadway play The Vagina Monologues in New York City four years ago. I did not want to argue with anyone. I did not want to raise objections. I just wanted it to go away. But whereas my British colleague has had his wish granted (for the most part anyway – the feminist attack on science has faded away), my wish certainly has not been granted. Far from going away, The Monologues (written by Eve Ensler) has become a worldwide phenomenon, and is enjoying unprecedented and growing success on college campuses.

[Restorer]

Excellent article.

Caution: the "explicit language" warning isn't kidding.

Yikes. My mother would arise from her grave to wash out my mouth.

[pissant]

Hoff-Summers wrote a great book a few years back "WHo Stole Feminism". The only "chick" book I ever read (Ann Coulter does't count). She exposed the charlatans in the feminist movement for the radical commies that they are.

[odoso]

In America, all anyone needs to do to get attention in the MSM is to be Freak. The greater the Freak you are, the more attention they give you.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

I read a great deal about the play, then saw it on HBO a few years ago. I think I sat there, slack jawed, unable to believe that I was seeing this. Ensler is mentally ill, and broadcasting it far and wide.

[N. Theknow]

Two sets of lips - to piss and moan at the same time.

[Red Badger]

These silly soliloquies should be countered by a Men's version: ANY NAMES?............

[Jaysun]

This is ludicrous. Men did not become powerful in this world by gathering in stadiums shouting out vulgar four-letter words......You don’t hear of men gathering in little workshops taking turns looking at their private parts in mirrors. Men who did that would be ridiculed -- not valorized. But somehow when the self-described “vagina warriors” do these things they see themselves as heroines, intrepid freedom fighters combating prejudice and injustice –- modern-day Rosa Parkses."

True. Strangely, I also found this humorous.

[Mr. Jeeves]

The young man who ushered me to my seat wore a nametag that read, “Hi, I am Vagina Larry.”

Obviously, a much slicker character than his cousin, Leisure Suit Larry. ;)

[elbucko]

"It was better than the Grand Canyon,....

But just not as deep. The "Monologues" are merely the shallow discovery of a biological ubiquity. The gutter contemplates itself.

[Apercu]

VM is unadulterated crap! ...and feminists/"academentia" want to know why they are not taken seriously by everyday Americans?

[Jaysun]

You mean stuff like this, or something in which our dignity remains intact?

"ballock ballet"

"curtain-raising cullion"

"testicle tragedy"

"penis pageant"

"dong drama"

[Sergio]

You know, a while back, after seeing the Monologues on TV, I thought, what's good for the gander is good for the goose. I spent about two months shouting "pen!$" about 24 times a day. You know what? It was empowering. That is until the folks form mental health services paid me a visit. </sarcasm>

Best Regards

Sergio

[BenLurkin]

"The woman invites the young girl (minor) into her car, takes her to her house, plies her with vodka, and seduces her. What might seem to be a scene from a public service kidnapping prevention video shown to schoolchildren becomes, in Ensler’s play, a love story."

Why doesn't AL Qaeda bomb one of these "performances"? It would make just as much sense -- in fact more sense -- than killing people who are simply working at their desks.

[HassanBenSobar]

ROFLOL!

[Alouette]

Earth to Ensler:

The V-thing is not a woman's most important sexual organ. The U-thing is.

"G-D gave me a brain and a uterus and I make use of both." -- Shirley Chisholm, later plagiarized by Pat Schroeder.

[Aquinasfan]

The publisher of The Vagina Monologues says that it has become the “Bible of a new generation of young women.”

I don't doubt it. These so-called institutions of higher education won't be getting my girls. The list of colleges that I'll shell out tuition money for is down to 6: Magdalene, Thomas More, Thomas Aquinas, Christendom, Steubenville, and Ave Maria.

[Awestruck]

"These silly soliloquies should be countered by a Men's version: ANY NAMES?"

Unfortunately there is a sort of male version called "Puppetry of the Penis" where the naked men onstage twist their genitalia into silly shapes..

A pox on both of these obscenities! These were both shown in a city where the mayor banned Marilyn Manson from performing... alrighty then.

[Red Badger]

Oh......I was thinking of a little more dignifed title like

The Penile Papers, or The Peter Principles.....

[Red Badger]

Uh....what city was that? SF?.....

[sonofatpatcher2]

I am temped to write "The Talleywacker Tales" in protest...

[ManHunter]

Cut it out, you're killin' me!

[Monterrosa-24]

This type of "thinking" is not just found in the Women's Studies Departments. English classes serve this up too.

I saw the teen lifeguard at the pool reading the Bell Jar and asked her about it. It was assigned for English class. I've read it too and it seems far more literate than the Vagina Monologues but it is not great literature. In the Bell Jar Sylvia Plath writes of the edge of sanity, mental illness, and attempted suicide. She later committed suicide. It might be book that a psych class might read but to read it in English class?

Now the worship of the insane has worsened and spread with such works as The Vagina Monologues.

[L98Fiero]

"Now the worship of the insane..."

Well put.

[BenLurkin]

Kids would be better off reading "The Bell Curve".

[fortunecookie]

ROFLMAO!

[N. Theknow]

Christina Hoff Sommers

Somewhere a cat is missing its hairball.

[JillValentine]

I'll stop the tape with the vagina salad. I don't even want to know what the dressing was supposed to be.

LOL! This just shows that women like Sommers have a much better sense of humor than the angry feminists.

[Ignatz]

The young man who ushered me to my seat wore a nametag that read, “Hi, I am Vagina Larry.”

Lol! I'm guessing that "Vagina Larry" has never actually seen one!

[Monterrosa-24]

Oh now Mr. Citadel, I think she is cute, conservative, funny, and unlike the feminists that the grills.

[all4one]

"...most importantly, it claims to empower women, when in fact it makes us seem desperate and pathetic."

Well written article. Although there were parts where the only thought in my head was AAAAKKKKK!

The above sentence pretty much sums up some of the women in college who are falling for this drivel. They will soon grow up to be morose, unhappy, desperate and pathetic women who vote for sHillery and the Dumbocrats. These are the same type who were pictured weeping when sKerry lost. What a bunch of dopes!

[Jaysun]

Oh......I was thinking of a little more dignifed title like The Penile Papers, or The Peter Principles.....

Oh, I see. The problem is that I keep thinking about a liberating event. If we listened to our souls the title might be, "Penis, I love you - a dissertation" but I know that's not "snazzy" enough. It's a problem but we'll work on it.

[Jaysun]

Kids would be better off reading "The Bell Curve".

What did you think of "The Bell Curve"?

[N. Theknow]

Cute?

I saw cute like that only once before. Fortunately she rolled over and I was able to save my arm as I escaped.

[yarddog]

One of my teenage dreams was officially destroyed when I recently learned Dawn Wells aka Mary Ann, had done the VM.

Not sweet little Mary Ann!

It probably also means her acting career is officially over although it has probably been unofficially over for thirty years or more.

[CTOCS]

RE: #12

"Circle Jerk" also comes to mind...

[CTOCS]

RE: #17

You could safely add Patrick Henry College in Purcerville, VA to your list.

Also the one Paul Harvey talks about on his radio show. They have a free subscription newsletter called Imprimus. Can't remember the name but it's in the upper mid-west. They accept zero federal or state dollars and therefore don't have to put up with this kind of nonsense.

[Jaysun]

"Circle Jerk" also comes to mind...

LOL! We could stand on stage and masturbate. We'd become famous, rich, win lots of awards...LOL!

[pettifogger]

Somewhere a cat is missing its hairball.

Charming and insightful.

I, on the other hand, found Sommers' piece an illuminating and humorous take on this ridiculous and vulgar "V" mania sweeping college campuses and the Hollywood Left these days. You might want to actually read the commentary before making snide comments about the writer.

You are, my friend, at least in this case, not at all "N. Theknow."

[CTOCS]

And we could have "in depth" discussions and and audience debates such as:

Q: Why do all men name their penis's?

A: Because they don't like being led around by a perfect stranger!!

[MoochPooch]

"I saw the teen lifeguard at the pool reading the Bell Jar and asked her about it."


You're right about THE BELL JAR. It is a highly overrated work. Seeing it through more adult eyes, I realize that the author, Sylvia Plath, was the ur-feminist -- depressive obviously, & suicidal to boot. Since the novel is autobiographical, I also believe, judging by the main character, that she was a sociopath.

[N. Theknow]

Actually, I did read the article. I too found it very well done. However, it didn't make the author any more attractive.

[Coleus]

Another St. Valentine’s Day "Massacre" (V***** Monologues to be viewed on Catholic Campuses

"The Vagina Monologues is congruent with the mission of John Carroll University."

Catholic Schools showing the Vagina Monologues

[Jaysun]

And we could have "in depth" discussions and and audience debates such as:
Q: Why do all men name their penis's?
A: Because they don't like being led around by a perfect stranger!!

More importantly, we could get "Penis Molly" to stare at our genitalia for hours at a time.
These trollops are nuts.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

I couldn't read the whole thing.

I so dislike these "women".

I do have something to say. Not all women who get abused by men deserve the abuse..... BUT I say this carefully and I have thought it out, perhaps there wouldn't be so much abuse of women if radical feminists were not out to demasculate the world-starting with very young boys.

There is not much these lesbian losers can do about human nature.

It is what it is.

Males do not like to be called horrible things, and it is not fair to hold any man accountable for things which they have not done.

People will act out under those conditions- it creates a terrible stigma for innocent men to carry around, to label them as some sort of agenda to hurt women.

I say we have the radical feminists to blame, in large part, for creating the environment in which many men feel they must act out and abuse women.

[Monterrosa-24]

I liike to compare THE BELL JAR with CANCER WARD. The author of one was a spoiled upper-middle-class brat who eventually committed suicide. The author of the other was a man who loved life, a mathematician, Red Army soldier on the front in WWII, was arrested and served in Stalin's camps, a cancer victim who miraculously survived, a Nobel prize winner, an exile, and one who predicted the demise of the USSR and his eventual return to Russia..

I find it difficult to believe that anyone could think that the BELL JAR is a better piece of lit than CANCER WARD. Yet I would bet money that it is assigned in college classes at least ten times more often than CANCER WARD. The fact that Alexander Solzhenitsyn experienced life in a big way does not cut it with University profs.

[Studebaker Hawk]

How 'bout Towel Hanger.

[MoochPooch]

I work at a women's college, so I can verify your comment with 100% authority.

Half the English department is raving feminist. THE BELL JAR is frequently on the syllabus, along with other such "literary" works. Even the male professors have had to adapt their courses to fit a feminist agenda.

Ironically, this is a religious college, and the girls themselves are either irritated or bored stiff by the left-wing pap they're forced to read. There must be a terrible kulturkampf going on at other religious colleges as well (usually in the liberal arts department).

By the way, you're right -- CANCER WARD was a great book. I read that on my own, whereas THE BELL JAR I was forced to read for college English.

[CTOCS]

We could also do a parody of the VM's.

Get a bunch of guys to dress up like women and perform "The Bearded Clam Chronicles"

Maybe if enough people (women & men) ridiculed this whole feminazi, militant lesbian "V" thing, they'd see themselves for what they are and leave the rest of the normal people alone.

I can't believe that all modern day coeds actually buy in to this nonsense.

[Jaysun]

Maybe if enough people (women & men) ridiculed this whole feminazi, militant lesbian "V" thing, they'd see themselves for what they are and leave the rest of the normal people alone. I can't believe that all modern day coeds actually buy in to this nonsense.

That reminds me of something. Have you ever seen one of these tramps protesting in a vagina costume?