If my vagina could talk, it would dispel inaccurate assumptions about “The Vagina Monologues.” Critics oppose the production because they say it is reducing women to just a sexual organ. Instead of being empowering, they say, it is incredibly debilitating.

The Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute published a pamphlet and launched a campaign titled, “The Vagina Monologues Exposed: A Student’s Guide to V-Day.” This “guide” has 10 steps to oppose the production on college campuses, including hosting conservative speakers and notifying legislators. The pamphlet states that the play is entirely against men, saying, “Men are portrayed only in a negative way throughout the play – as adulterers, abusers, weirdos and rapists.” Sorry guys. The play is actually not about you or for you, except to try to understand female subculture and work against violence. Laura Hall, a senior geology major, described the play as “male-bashing.” “I just don’t agree with a lot of what is said [in the play],” she said. Many Catholic universities will not perform the production. Gonzaga University has banned the monologues from being performed on their campus because it is heretical. Most conservative and Catholic universities that ban the production seem to be against it because it is promoting the wrong ideas to young, impressionable women. But promoting civil rights cannot be wrong. Sexual liberation is not promiscuity – it is social empowerment. This opposition to the monologues is just another reason why the performance is so integral to the human rights movement.

Also, with all of the ridicule the Catholic Church has faced for sexual predator priests, it seems as if it’s about time for it to open up and get some issues out in the open. This month’s WSU theater main-stage production and diversity play “The Golden Age” was an intriguing commentary on lost cultures, complete with on-stage masturbation and full-frontal nudity. While the theater, in any setting – especially academic – is a great place to analyze cultural implications, there was no voiced opposition to this play. “The Vagina Monologues” is not nearly as graphic, as long as people remain open-minded. The play is not pornographic whatsoever. Throughout the show it is apparent that the subject is not really vaginas, but women. All the women interviewed for the play’s content were asked about their vaginas, but through these questions were able to share their stories of womanhood. “The Vagina Monologues” is not promoting experiences that every woman needs to have. Rather, it is examining the reality of some things women feel and go through. “The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could,” one of the monologues, is about a homeless women who shares her sexual experiences from childhood. The majority of the things she feels about her vagina are negative, until she has a sexual encounter with a slightly older woman when she is a minor. Along with this, there are other uncomfortable monologues about war rapes, transgender violence and even statistics about female genital mutilation. Sadly, these things are not fiction. The production is not presenting these stories because they are condoning them, but instead raising awareness about these occurrences. They are all true stories performed to create and explore the common bond among women: their vaginas. The vagina in this essence is a synecdoche for womanhood. It is not reducing women to their sexual worth. Obviously these critics do not understand the whole point of the monologues. Peter Reichardt, a graduate student in fine arts, said that people who think “The Vagina Monologues” is anti-male are probably too sensitive. “I think it’s a great play,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about it.” Females need just as much, if not more, representation as males, he said. “The Vagina Monologues” is “The Feminine Mystique” for the new generation, exposing the truth behind women’s lives. It’s a text for a new movement of empowerment and removing the societal taboo of being a woman. By liberating the word vagina, and encouraging women to speak about their own experiences, the production is creating a new feminine identity. Editor’s note: Brielle Schaeffer is the director of “The Vagina Monologues” production at WSU.