We’ve Reached Peak Feminism

 

Mount Holyoke College is an all-women’s school in Massachusetts; a combination of factors that guarantees it puts on an annual performance of The Vagina Monologues.  Guaranteed until this year, that is.  Have feminists finally realized that the play is virulently anti-male, and that femininity can be celebrated without trashing masculinity?  Of course not you hopeless optimist.  It seems the problem with the play is that it isn’t inclusive of transgendered students.

“At its core, the show offers an extremely narrow perspective on what it means to be a woman…Gender is a wide and varied experience, one that cannot simply be reduced to biological or anatomical distinctions, and many of us who have participated in the show have grown increasingly uncomfortable presenting material that is inherently reductionist and exclusive,” the email, obtained by Campus Reform, said.

Some ideas are so absurd that one must possess a college education to believe them.  Mount Holyoke College believes that gender – an inherently biological distinction – cannot be determined via biology.

As always, my libertarian instincts lead me down the path of not caring what you call yourself, and what you do with your life, provided you don’t violate the rights of others.  They do not however leave me inclined to participating in mass denials of reality.  And yet, on the opposing side of this dispute sits a play that represents all that is wrong with modern feminism.  How does one pick a winner to root for in this conflict?

If you have never seen the Vagina Monologues, know that I envy you.  You can re-create the experience by sitting around with some friends and saying the word vagina (and less polite synonyms) several hundred times out loud as everyone giggles like first graders who’ve just heard a dirty word on television.  Viewing it leaves you with an evening wasted, and short several IQ points which have been shaved off of your brain as if by a piece of low grade sandpaper.

As much as I would love to dedicate a thousand words to picking apart Eve Ensler’s magnus opus, Christina Hoff Sommers has already written the definitive critique.  Sommers is particularly bothered by the cavalcade of “brutes, sadists, child-molesters, genital mutilators, gang rapists and vile little boys” that represent the male gender in the monologues.  There is a lone exception: Bob.

Bob. Rarest of heroes, redeemer of his gender. So I guess Ensler’s message is this: It’s only MOST men who are brutal, cruel, insensitive, aggressive and stupid–but, every so often, if you’re really really lucky, you may come across a boring, humorless, unattractive man who likes to stare at vaginas for hours on end.

I will only add a recommendation to Ms. Ensler that in future versions, when searching for a metaphor for a woman’s lady parts, avoid the Grand Canyon.

With all that I have written above in mind, you can be confident that when I woke up this morning, there was no moment where I thought “I should defend the Vagina Monologues today.”  A swift kick to the groin, and contracting tuberculosis, were both significantly higher priorities.   It is an irredeemable and vacuous production, but I am a pragmatist, and we must at all times choose the lesser of two stupids.

Students of Mount Holyoke College had mixed feelings about the decision to pull out.

 “I love how people who have never been able to discuss or embrace their vaj-wahs aren’t going to find an avenue here, either, since female-validating talk about vaginas is now forbidden. That’s so misogynistic under the guise of ‘progress,’” one student wrote.

“But we can’t present a show that is blatantly transphobic and treats race and homosexuality questionably, when one of the conditions of getting the rights to the show is that you can’t critique it or alter it,” another student said.

To be clear, the supposed transphobia of the play rest entirely on the fact that it fails to include women who don’t have “vaj wahs”.  A more tautological observation you will never see.  All celebrations are exclusionary, as their very nature is to elevate something of a distinct quality for praise.

Even in the absence of any transgendered women, The Vagina Monologues is exclusionary to men.  Both mother’s day and father’s day fail to offer praise to those who have never raised a child.  Veteran’s day celebrates the efforts and courage of veterans, to the exclusion of non-veterans.   These are not interesting facts.

Eve Enlser thinks that lady parts are awesome.   On this, we have an accord.  She has chosen to celebrate their greatness with a terrible, terrible play.  Have the critical thinking skills of the modern university student truly deteriorated to a point where they can believe it hateful to single out a trait, accomplishment, or talent for praise?

Not quite.  To understand how a college student can so fervently believe that failing to praise the transgendered is hateful, while actively bashing men is perfectly acceptable behavior, one must always bear in mind the hierarchy of victimhood.  Rather than treating all people as equals and judging others by their actions, the left prefers to treat people differently based on traits such as race, gender, and religion.

Jon Gabriel’s oppression index is as succinct a guide you will find.

The more underrepresented an identity group is, the more important it is to handle them with kid gloves.  And for the moment, the transgendered are society’s victim du jour.  When seen through this warped lens, it becomes clear how so many people could find the male bashing of the Vagina Monologues acceptable, while its failure to celebrate trans-women so abhorrent.  The two are judged on different scales.

Women without vagina’s (which is coincidently my band’s name) are free to revel in their lack lady parts.   Or better yet, they can praise achievement, rather than trying to draw their self-worth from the conditions of their birth.  Mount Holyoke College should cancel their annual production of the Vagina Monologues because it is awful, not because it dares to celebrate a quality that only some people have.

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  1. 1967mustangman Inactive
    1967mustangman
    @1967mustangman

    Claire Berlinski:

    Frank Soto:

    Claire Berlinski:

    Western Chauvinist:Huh. This post really should have been entitled, “We’ve Reached Peak Vagina.”

    Has Ricochet suddenly gone PC?

    /Heh.

    Did something editorially unfortunate happen while I was asleep? Because I just woke up and saw this. If that was the original title, it was more apt and made more sense.

    It was, but we don’t want Peter to faint while browsing his own site. It’s probably for the best.

    Mine would have been even better, but even I would have fainted to see that on Ricochet. Country matters, as Shakespeare would say.

    Claire I must out of pride say that I had already proposed that title over in that thread no editor dares enter……..

    • #31
  2. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    Frank Soto: All celebrations are exclusionary, as their very nature is to elevate something of a distinct quality for praise.

    This is going into my “favourite quotations” file.

    • #32
  3. user_645 Member
    user_645
    @Claire

    1967mustangman:

    Claire I must out of pride say that I had already proposed that title over in that thread no editor dares enter……..

    You must learn the times of day when I’m awake. Not hard. I dare all the time..

    • #33
  4. Tom Meyer Member
    Tom Meyer
    @tommeyer

    Frank Soto: It was, but we don’t want Peter to faint while browsing his own site.  It’s probably for the best.

    I should take the fall on this.

    I sent Frank the link to the news item — if ever something deserved his treatment, it was this — and he suggested the “Peak Vagina” title. I told him that was hilarious, but that we should look for alternatives.

    So, yes, I’m apparently the [expletive] Ricochet scold.

    • #34
  5. Tom Meyer Member
    Tom Meyer
    @tommeyer

    In defense of myself, I was on the staff of a college newspaper that published a parody article circa 2001 called “The Man Boob Monologues: A Sensitive Issue, A Sensitive Tissue.”

    • #35
  6. user_82762 Inactive
    user_82762
    @JamesGawron

    Frank,

    What this post is still operational?! In that case I have yet another opportunity to vent my rage on you Mr. Soto.

    Sure Sure you say that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. How completely diabolical. We know what kind of things go on in that tortured consciousness of yours.

    Yes, the president has remarked repeatedly and Susan Rice has tried to help. You know very well. General Moters ahaa!!!! So an innocent automobile company is enlisted in the military industrial complex. Not Major Moters, no not Captain Moters but General Moters!!! What could be more obvious. War is hell it KILLS!

    Immediately, if not before, this sinister corporation must change its name. Frank Soto it’s all your fault. I haven’t determined exactly how it’s all your fault but I am absolutely positive that it is.

    Damn it man how could you be so low.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #36
  7. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Yet Claire, you have yet to delve into the PITs, either Pit6 or Chix Pit. So ya hasn’t dared.

    • #37
  8. user_645 Member
    user_645
    @Claire

    skipsul:Yet Claire, you have yet to delve into the PITs, either Pit6 or Chix Pit.So ya hasn’t dared.

    Right. While I understand that leadership requires that I maintain the illusion that I am totally in control here and know everything, I will confess to you–very, very privately, on a dying thread, where no one will see it–that I ave-hay no idea-way ere-way is-they is, or even-way at-way it is. So: help me acquire TOTAL control, and I will cut you in on the spoils. Deal?

    • #38
  9. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    The PITs Explained:

    See here and here.

    Back in April 2013, when SSM posts and post 2012 election blame posts were starting to get really heated (far worse than they ever got this year), 10cents started a parody post called “People I Hate On Ricochet”, wherein he just started in slinging over the top silly insults at other members. It was meant to help cool tempers on Rico, which it did, but it quickly turned into its own thing as a sort of back-room or chat lounge. It earned the nickname as the “Politically Incorrect Thread” or PIT, and kept going till it passed 10k comments (and actually kept breaking the site as 1.0 couldn’t handle proper indexing of that size). When it started to take 2-3 minutes just to do a page refresh in there, Dime started PIT 2.0. When that went over 10k he started 3.0, though some of the regulars also moved into some other similar posts. 

    The 2.0 changeover unfortunately wiped all of that out, most of those posts were actually lost / destroyed in the move, though you can still find truncated remains. Dime then asked me to restart it all cleanly after the move, hence PIT 4.0. However the number of patches, rule changes, and service outages at Rico made even that one really screwy, so 5.0. Rico now will stop sending you alerts on followed posts if the posts reach a certain age (I think 90 days), so PIT 5.0 is now effectively broken too. Hence 6.0. It’s not just a place to trade insults, it is also a place to get to know people outside of political posts, share creative ideas, or otherwise just vent or gripe. Feel free to drop in.

    This has in turn morphed into the linked post above – affectionately known as the Chix Pit (chick spit?).

    Both those have spawned endless side jokes, conversations, and banter that tend to find their way into a variety of other posts (Jason Rudert and I, for instance, had a fake rivalry going for a while in mockery of some other posts that had gotten rather nasty).

    It is not uncommon for a conversation started by a PIT regular on one thread, to spread over 4 or 5 others over the course of a week.

    • #39
  10. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Or, if you want the short version:

    • #40
  11. user_82762 Inactive
    user_82762
    @JamesGawron

    skipsul:Or, if you want the short version:

    What’s this huh..what?

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #41
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