Providence College Bans The Vagina Monologues
By Eve Wartenberg Condon
[Note: This article first appeared in The Agenda #16 (March 16, 2006)]
To exclude [The Vagina Monologues] from a Catholic Campus is to say either that these women are wrong or that their experience has nothing important to say to use. [T]hese are voices that a Catholic university must listen to if we are to understand human experience and if we are to be faithful to the one who welcomed all men and women."
—Rev. Kevin Wildes, President of Loyola University, New Orleans
"Freedom in the Catholic tradition, and even in the American political
tradition, is not the right to do anything. Freedom in the academy is always
subject to a particular discipline. It is never an absolute."
—Bishop John M. D'Arcy, University
of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind.
Over the past two months, Rhode Island has been on the news radar with Providence College's January 18 announcement that the students' yearly performance of the play The Vagina Monologues will no longer be allowed on campus. Stories about PC's decision have run not only in the ProJo, but also The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and numerous Catholic, queer and women's publications. Although many of us who don't go to Providence College aren't aware of it, our beloved city and state are currently involved in a national controversy encompassing complex social issues-from sexual and domestic violence prevention, to censorship, to differing interpretations of Roman Catholic values.
The Vagina Monologues is a play made up of individual monologues based on more than 200 interviews collected by New York playwright Eve Ensler. The monologues relate women's experiences, both good (first shame-free orgasm, the miracle of childbirth) and bad (genital mutilation, gang-rape as a tactic of war) with their own and other women's vaginas. In the past ten years, the play has stormed Broadway and blossomed into an international phenomenon in which independent groups organize and perform the play around Valentine's Day, here referred to as "V-Day" for Vagina, Victory over violence, and Valentine. The V-Day movement's stated mission is to increase awareness about violence against women and girls while raising money for anti-violence organizations. So far, V-Day has raised more than $30 million, and this year 1,150 colleges and communities are scheduled to stage the play throughout February and March. The most popular setting for these productions is college campuses, where it's not uncommon for the whole month of February to be filled with student-organized events inspired by and leading up to The Vagina Monologues.
This explosion of vaginal theater has created quite a headache for Catholic
universities, where administrators are being forced to confront the
difficulties of reconciling the play's content with the official views of the
Catholic Church. The biggest objection is that The Vagina Monologues
speaks frankly and unapologetically about masturbation and lesbian sex.
Particularly intense opposition has been expressed against a monologue entitled
"The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could," in which an adult speaker recounts
how at the age of sixteen she was given an alcoholic beverage and seduced by a
twenty-four year old woman. Given the Church's current PR problems regarding
sex between adults and children, this monologue-and the fact that the speaker
uses religious language to describe the experience-makes many faculty members
and clergy nervous. This explosion of vaginal theater has created quite a headache for Catholic universities, where administrators are being forced to confront the difficulties of reconciling the play’s content with the official views of the Catholic Church. The biggest objection is that The Vagina Monologues speaks frankly and unapologetically about masturbation and lesbian sex.
As V-Day has grown more popular at American colleges, grass-roots organizations
have mobilized to convince Catholic universities to prohibit The Vagina
Monologues from their campuses. The most successful of these is the
Cardinal Newman Society, a group of lay Catholics "dedicated to the renewal of
Catholic identity at Catholic colleges and universities in the United States."
One of the most prominently featured campaigns on the group's website is the
abolition of The Vagina Monologues from Catholic universities. CNS calls
the play "filth" and argues that V-Day's stated mission of ending violence is
merely an excuse to expose young women to "lesbian propaganda" which
contradicts "the roles most natural to women: those of spouse, mother and
virgin." Using advertising and letter-writing campaigns, the Cardinal Newman
Society boasts of having influenced ten Catholic Universities in their decision
not to stage the play this year. Presently, the school whose decision they are
circulating most widely is Providence
College.
So, what is arguably the most vibrant feminist movement in the country is clashing on college campuses with proponents of the Roman Catholic Church. Where better to play out this controversy than Rhode Island? With 63% of us owing allegiance to the Vatican, we're proportionately the most Catholic state in America. Zero in on Providence County and that number climbs to 71%. (We also have the 7th highest abortion rate, but that's another story.) Providence is also home to eight college campuses. Providence College, which is considered on the conservative side amongst Catholic universities, has previously received positive recognition from both from the Catholic and academic communities. What happens in a Catholic college in America's most Catholic state is seen as a precedent to the national Catholic community.
"[T]he Roman Catholic teaching sees female sexuality as ordered toward a loving giving of self in a union of body, mind, and soul that is ordered to the procreation of new life. Any depiction of female sexuality that neglects its unitive and procreative dimensions diminishes its complexity, its mystery, and its dignity."
—Rev. Brian J. Shanley, President of Providence College
"It is in the college's mission to find ‘veritas,' truth. How can we as students explore truth if what we are exposed to is being censored? There is nothing un-Catholic about listening to true stories about women's lives and their experiences with their sexuality and sexual exploitation. We have to hear these things, no matter what religion, because it happens."
—Erica Rioux, Providence College V-Day Coordinator
The Cardinal Newman Society has targeted Providence College
for three years, repeatedly asking the administration to ban the play. While
former college president Father Smith evaded their requests, PC's
administration has always stated their disapproval of the play. The Cardinal Newman Society calls the play “filth” and argues that V-Day’s stated mission of ending violence is merely an excuse to expose young women to “lesbian propaganda” which contradicts “the roles most natural to women: those of spouse, mother and virgin.” For the last
four years, the students have performed The Vagina Monologues under
restrictions such as not being allowed to advertise on campus and having to
perform in a classroom rather than an auditorium. This year, the college's new
president, Father Shanley, ended what he described as one "of the most debated
questions" on campus by deciding that The Vagina Monologues "is not
appropriate for a school with our mission." Prior to his decision, Shanley had
met with the production's student organizers in an effort to come to a
compromise.
A student rally in protest of Father Shanley's decision was held in front of
the college gates on the evening of Jan. 25. A smaller group of
counter-protesters congregated across the street. On the pro-vagina side, one
in three people were given a red balloon to symbolize the national statistic of
the one in three women who will be sexually assaulted throughout their lives.
The rally was peaceful but passionate, with the pro-vaginas waving signs
reading "RAPE IS VULGAR-NOT VAGINAS" and "MARY HAD A VAGINA" while the
pro-Shanleys chanted "Thank you, Shanley" and "God bless you." Towards the end
of the rally, members of the two sides shouted at each other, the pro-vaginas
yelling "See the play" while the pro-Shanleys decried it as degrading to women.
At the rally, V-Day organizers Erica Rioux and
James Maginot made it clear that they had no intention of canceling the
performance. Typically, college students begin working on their V-Day campaigns
months in advance. The timing of Father Shanley's decision left the PC students
little time to reorganize, particularly to find an alternate venue, a setback
which Rioux described as "the hardest hurdle" in keeping the production going.
“The Cardinal Newman Society says their mission is to ‘promote discussion and understanding of the message of the Catholic Church,’ and that’s exactly what was prohibited at Providence College,” said Maginot. On Valentine's Day, the students announced that they would stage The Vagina
Monologues on March 2 at Beneficent
Church in downtown Providence.
The students will stage one performance of The Vagina Monologues.
According to Maginot, they usually do three, and he predicts that they will
make no more than $1000, compared to the $1,926 they raised last year. This
year, the students' beneficiaries include Silent Witness of Rhode Island, an
organization devoted to a "successful community-based domestic violence
reduction efforts in order to reach zero domestic murders by 2010." Between
1990 and 1999, 59 women were killed as a result of domestic violence in Rhode Island. Father
Shanley has said that he hopes that the school can devise a fundraising aspect
for their annual Sexual Assault and Violence Education, or S.A.V.E. events,
which take place the third week of April and include a "Take Back the Night"
vigil. One of the Providence College V-Day Campaign's former beneficiaries, the
women's shelter Sojourner House, has had contact with Father Shanley and plans
to discuss future fundraising possibilities with the administration.
Both sides have compelling arguments to make. The Vagina Monologues, by its very nature and social context, does contain controversial material. Parts of it can seem shocking and difficult to understand. In regards to issues of artistic and academic freedom at Catholic universities, there is no consensus for navigating the way between traditional Catholic teachings and secular academia; each school must establish its own policy that will simultaneously accommodate religious convictions, academic standards, and the needs of the student body. The Roman Catholic Church is in the midst of what Bishop D'Arcy of Notre Dame terms "a crisis" due to financial problems and scandals. In response to this, the call to a return to a more traditional adherence to Catholic values is understandable.
However, sexual violence is an undeniable problem, especially in a collegiate setting like PC's where the majority of the students live on campus and six bars are within walking distance of the college. In America, between 20% and 25% of women are sexually assaulted in college. There is a small women's group on campus and the counseling center does have a couple of groups for victims of sexual violence. Rioux acknowledged that "the counseling center does a great job," but said that there still aren't enough resources, such as a women's center, to provide information and support for the student body.
Rioux and Maginot agree that what is needed most in this situation is discourse. "The Cardinal Newman Society says their mission is to ‘promote discussion and understanding of the message of the Catholic Church,' and that's exactly what was prohibited at Providence College," said Maginot. He suggested that PC could have held a forum either before or after the performance to discuss the Catholic Church's take on the issues raised by the play. In his letter explaining his decision, Father Shanley wrote that he hoped both sides "could move beyond disagreements" to "work together on a cause that unites us all." As members of a community rich both in Catholic values and a history of sanctuary and tolerance, let's hope that a dialogue which benefits and respects both sides of this debate can be achieved.
More information: www.vday.org
Father Shanley's statement can be found on Providence College's website.