Vagina Warriors?

This news story has been sitting in my links folder for a while, but I’ve been meaning to get to it. Apparently a small group of women staged a protest outside an Oregan production of “The Vagina Monologues”.

About 10 people gathered in front of Agate Hall on Friday to protest what they called a lack of representation of different kinds of women in “The Vagina Monologues” production, which ran Thursday through Saturday at the Agate Hall auditorium.

In flyers handed out to audience members at the show, University graduate Nicole Sangsuree Barrett wrote that while there was “diversity” in the show, it was minimal. Women of “a variety of skin colors, body sizes, abilities and gender expressions” were not adequately represented, she said.

Don’t these people have something better to do with their time? If they’re concerned about the beauty myth and body image, maybe protesting a healthy, progressive expression of female sexuality isn’t the best way to go? What a laughable act of misguided political correctness.

I see that one of the protesters was in the show, but was fired after a week. So, perhaps she’s just complaining about being let go? They’re going on about race, but there is indeed still a woman of colour in the show. Seeing as 87% of Oregonians are caucasian, that’s probably appropriate representation (not that I’m a believer in colour-blind casting, anyway). And then they complain that there aren’t enough overweight or gay people in the show? Why aren’t they down at the state theatre, calling for a corpulent, bisexual Ophelia?

For those unfamiliar with this play, it’s a wildly successful (and, on Broadway, a celebrity magnet because it’s short, all monologues, and doesn’t demand much of a performance) play in the post-feminist, lady love your you-know-what school. It’s very witty, and just racey enough to be appealing without being offensive.