Comments on: The Penis Monologues

By: Leisha

Leisha — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 16:21:13 +0000

Hi Ariel, kudos to you and the women on your campus for doing this! It is one thing to get on stage and read someone else’s monologues (as in The Vagina Monologues); it is entirely another to get on stage and read your own monologue that you ahve personally written!!!!!!! I think its wonderful!

There is a good resource on the V-Day website (and I do agree with your comments about it tokenizing and not being inclusive of all women - I’ve both directed and performed in the show and am now doing a thesis on its effects on women’s lives) - a good resource about men’s role in The Vagina Monologues. Reverse sexism? I don’t think so. It takes a lot for a man, who benefits from his privilege and position in patriarchy (both good and bad) to step away from that and say “I don’t need to be included in this. Its’ not my place now, I will only support it.” Women must be given the chance to tell their stories, to fight their own fights someetimes (and other times with support).

By: Official Shrub.com Blog » Blog Archive » Who’s responsible for facilitating discussion on men’s issues?

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:23:30 +0000

[...] In The Penis Monologues Ariel talks about something that happened during a production of The Vagina Memoirs, which consisted of women going up there and telling their real stories of everything from sexual assault to discussing their queer identities [emphasis mine]: We had a dialogue afterward the show, and someone in the audience made a comparison to reverse racism and asked why we werenâ€™t including menâ€™s voices in such performances. […] [...]

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 21:07:56 +0000

I certainly dont think they should spend exactly half their effort into highlighting mens issues.

I get the impression lots of people tend to think thats what feminists should do, and if feminists concentrate too much on issues for women, that makes them men haters.

Jona, you just summed up my ex’s problem with feminism in two sentences. That’s pretty damned impressive. /applauds

By: anon

anon — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:48:23 +0000

aaaa

By: Djiril

Djiril — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:46:15 +0000

It looks like some guys are putting on a (serious) male version of The Vagina Monologues:

http://www2.humboldt.edu/~merge/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&page_id=1530

By: DNi

DNi — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:45:18 +0000

“Reverse-Racism” (and, by extent, “Reverse-Isms” in general) has always been a phrase that’s made me actually feel kind of, literally, ill. I think because it’s own, earnest existance actually validates its own existance. I mean, that a person is discriminated against because of his ethnicity, regardless of whatever that ethnicity might be, is an act of racism. So what’s reverse-racism, then? That the commonly discriminated-against are now discriminating against the most-oft discriminators?

By: Kristy

Kristy — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:32:21 +0000

It’s strange though. While men might argue ‘what about men?’ I can’t imagine a white woman speaking up about any other ethnic group and saying ‘what about Caucasian women?’

By: Lake Desire

Lake Desire — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:20:18 +0000

The point of Vagina Memoirs, from my perspective, is to tell our own stories. The Vagina Monologues are a different production–a scripted show by Eve Ensler, and are criticized for tokenizing women of color and queer identified women. I’m sure other univeresities and groups do performances of women’s own stories.

By: Jona

Jona — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:40:51 +0000

I remember something just like this (while they are two completely different incidents, there is a similar idea behind the complaint in a sense) on the site where I first learnt something about feminism. It was about some e-mails from men saying that the editor of the site was sexist because she focused on sexist adverts towards women, without bringing up any that were sexist towards men. Now I dont consider myself a feminist, because Im a guy, and I dont consider myself a pro-feminist, because I dont know any feminists or pro-feminists personally. Also I have never really contributed in any way to feminism, and I dont think it would be right to label myself with those who actually have. Though I do have a great amount of respect for feminists, and I certainly dont think they should spend exactly half their effort into highlighting mens issues.

I get the impression lots of people tend to think thats what feminists should do, and if feminists concentrate too much on issues for women, that makes them men haters.

By: D. Edward Sauve

D. Edward Sauve — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:58:06 +0000

Very simple question I as a writer would ask myself: What is the point of the production? What were the original creators trying to express?

Not having seen Monologues yet, from what I’ve heard it’s about women at various points in their lives telling their stories.

Adding a male point of view is surplus to requirements, and would be like adding an five page aside on minnow growth to an essay about salmon’s migration pattern– I’m sure it’s a worth while topic, but excuse me, what was the original point?