Vagina Monologues' divide Catholic schools
By Tom Coyne, The Associated Press
February 11, 2006
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Kerry Walsh knew there'd be talk when a group of
students proposed putting on The Vagina Monologues at the University of
Notre Dame.
The Eve Ensler play, based on discussions with 200 girls and women
about their feelings for their anatomy, includes sections about
homosexuality, orgasms and rape.
"I knew from the get-go there was going to be some point where the
university or someone would put their foot down and say, 'We really
need to talk about this,'" said Walsh, who was a senior English major
when she directed the play.
Four years later, that time has come.
The Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, announced last month he
was scaling back the play this year — limiting it to a classroom
setting and barring ticket sales. He is seeking input from students,
faculty and alumni on whether it and another controversial event,
previously called The Queer Film Festival, should be allowed at all.
It's a discussion more Catholic universities are having as The Vagina
Monologues becomes a kind of unsolvable riddle for the schools. Allow
the performance and they are criticized for going against church
teachings. Ban the play and they're accused of stifling academic
freedom.
"When you put Catholic university in your title and your website looks
like the Bells of St. Mary's, you set up an image that students
expect," said Malcolm Kline, executive director of Accuracy in
Academia, a non-profit watchdog group based in Washington. "What I get
from parents and students is, 'I thought I was going to a Catholic
school and they're showing the V Monologues."
The play, usually performed around Valentine's Day, is being put on by
students from about 20 Roman Catholic schools this year, including
DePaul and Georgetown universities and Boston College. But several
schools — including Providence College — have banned it, saying it
sends the wrong message.
"A Catholic university that sponsors a production of The Vagina
Monologues would be running at odds with its Catholic mission by
promoting and providing time, space and money ... to a production that
is so deeply anti-thetical to the way Catholics think about sex," said
the Rev. Brian Shanley, Providence College's president.
Walsh, now a civil rights lawyer in Chicago, said she understands the
dilemma the universities face. "They do have a responsibility to follow
the values of the morality of Catholicism," she said. "That is
incredibly important."
At the same time, she said, Catholic schools are still "100% a
university. And a university is meant to be a place of learning, a
place of ideas, a place where you can say what you want and learn from
what others say and what others think."
Shanley said the play has little redeeming value.
"There's really not much you can work with in the play from a Catholic
point of view," he said. "All the sex in the play is immoral. It's
same-sex, it's autoerotic and extramarital. So it's not like it's a
work of art that has the voice of the Catholic woman and her experience
in sexuality."
Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a
conservative group that wants the play removed from Catholic campuses,
agreed.
"If we're going to discuss homosexual activity, why don't we have a
display of it on stage and then we can discuss it," he said. "At what
point does that stop?"
"The question here is, 'What are the limits?' At a Catholic
institution, when it comes to moral issues, the limits are probably
going to be more strict than at another institution that has no
understanding of moral truths."
Regina Bannan, an assistant professor of women studies at Temple
University who has researched Catholic women, said the play helps spark
important dialogue about women's sexuality. "It takes a woman from an
object position to a subject position, where the woman is actually
expressing her own ideas about sexual experiences," she said.
"If the church hasn't learned anything the last three years about
stifling discussion about sexuality, that's a shame," she added,
referring to the clerical sex abuse crisis.
Jenkins, who became Notre Dame's president July 1, said he doesn't want
the university viewed as endorsing a play that goes against its
Catholic teachings. He also has ordered the three-year-old Queer Film
Festival renamed to clear up any perception that the event is meant to
"celebrate and promote homosexual activity."
Liam Dacey, a co-founder of the event, which takes place this weekend,
said the new name — Gay & Lesbian Film: Filmmakers, Narratives,
Spectatorships — makes the event appear less academic because "queer"
is the term more accepted in academia. His bigger concern, though, is
that Jenkins will decide not to allow the event — which this year
includes Brokeback Mountain— back on campus again.
A newly formed group called United for Free Speech has started a
petition drive encouraging Jenkins to allow the programs to remain at
Notre Dame unrestricted. Organizer Kaitlyn Redfield, a senior involved
in past performances of the play, said most of the people the group
asks to sign the petition do so, estimating they have gathered more
than 1,000 signatures.
"But people who don't are very adamant about it," she said.
Walsh thinks the argument over The Vagina Monologues helps elevate
awareness of violence against women, and she hopes it continues. "I
hope the debate goes on forever," she said. "Will there ever be an
answer? I don't know. Whatever happens, it's wonderful to see how we
get there."