Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Mount Holyoke College group cancels 'Vagina Monologues' production citing lack of transgender role
By Dwight B. Shepard, published January 16, 2015 at 7:20 PM

"The fact that Eve Ensler's celebrated play about women, "Vagina Monologues," does not have a transgender character has prompted the theater group at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley to cancel its annual production.

In an email sent by student Erin Murphy on behalf of the college's Project Theater Board, students were told that the wide range of women the play includes is not inclusive enough, according to CBS Boston.com." (http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/mount_holyoke_college_cancels.html)

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Not sure what I think about this (except that some of the language used made me cringe a little.... like "biologically born female").

Sad. I found VM very empowering with perspectives I'd never heard before or since. Not every work of art depicting women needs a trans person.

I think it's pretty cool, actually. Not only has the college started admitting trans girls (and non-binary people), but they're apparently making a genuine effort to be inclusive.

They've also replaced the VM with student-produced pieces along the same lines, which is probably better in terms of letting the students do the work and learn that way.

Quote from: suzifrommd on January 17, 2015, 10:42:12 AM
Sad. I found VM very empowering with perspectives I'd never heard before or since. Not every work of art depicting women needs a trans person.

I completely agree.

I think it's great that someone wants a trans voice to be heard.  But this seems counterproductive.  I don't want my voice to be heard at the expense of someone else's, whose experience is just as valid.  I just don't want my voice to be ignored.  There's room enough for both, and it'd be nice to see something produced from a trans perspective for trans folk.  But I don't think it's fair to force ourselves into someone else's space, just as it wouldn't be fair of them to force themselves into ours.

I mean, yay, thank you for caring and wanting to include us, but allowing us to speak and have our experiences validated is enough, and it shouldn't have to come at the expense of cis-women having their experiences heard and validated, because they need that just as much as we do.

I saw a YouTube video (a Ted Talk, iirc) where a cis-woman was listing all the denials and put-downs that they have to deal with, and she also mentioned with just as much passion the denials and put-downs that we have to deal with.

A trans* viewpoint should be able to be woven into the Monologues somehow...the show need not cancel or trim others to make room for us.

This seems like an odd reason, since such a monologue exists, called They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy.. Or So They Tried. Lots of YouTube clips of it out there, not to mention the whole script of it exists from some university pages. Really baffling.

Apparently, they're not allowed by contract to make any alterations at all to the show as offered by the original creator - and for whatever reason, the trans monologue was not included/available this year.

My understanding is that the replacement performance will still focus primarily on cis women's experiences, it will simply include recognition and respect for trans women as well...

I didn't like the vagina monologues anyway since I recall there being a part that seemed to glorify lesbian rape. But, that being said, not everything has to include trans people either.

Eve Ensler: I Never Defined a Woman as a Person With a Vagina

Time Magazine, Jan. 19, 2015

http://time.com/3672912/eve-ensler-vagina-monologues-mount-holyoke-college/ (http://time.com/3672912/eve-ensler-vagina-monologues-mount-holyoke-college/)

Sadly, I would argue, The Vagina Monologues is still relevant here in the U.S. and around the world. Over 51% of the population has vaginas, clitorises, vulvas, and many to this day do not feel comfortable, familiar, free, or endowed with agency over them. One out of three women will experience physical or sexual violence in her lifetime.

Ten years ago, I was thrilled when a group of transgender women decided to do an all-trans production of my play. In preparation for the show, we gathered for days of dialogue and sharing of stories that, at the request of the group, I turned into a theatrical monologue called They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy. Since that first performance in 2004, the monologue has been available for inclusion in the play through V-Day, the global activist movement that grew out of The Vagina Monologues. Offering the monologue to our activists around the world was a deliberate decision on my part to encourage communities to address the needs and realities of the transgender community. Trans women and trans men have been welcome to perform in The Vagina Monologues throughout its history.

So I was surprised to find that students at Mount Holyoke College have decided to retire The Vagina Monologues because they believe it is not inclusive to transgender students. Their statement reads, "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."

The Vagina Monologues never intended to be a play about what it means to be a woman. It is and always has been a play about what it means to have a vagina. In the play, I never defined a woman as a person with a vagina.

Oh, thanks for posting this!

As a vagina equipped human I consider it to just be another part of me like an arm or a leg. I don't feel a need to celebrate it. I'm just happy it's there. Is that enough for my monologue?