Production named after female sex organ benefits abused women
Posted: February 3, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Ron Strom
� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
GRANTS PASS, Ore. � A controversial play dealing with female sexuality � and which detractors say winks at child rape � has residents of this small town in an uproar, saying the production doesn't deserve the support of the community.
Produced by the local
Connect the Dots theatre company, "The Vagina Monologues" will be performed at the Josephine County Fairgrounds Feb. 12 as a benefit for the local Women's Crisis Support Team, which helps female victims of violence.
Performed around the nation, often on college campuses, around Valentine's Day each year, the play is meant to "empower women to find their collective voices and demand an end to the epidemic levels of violence and abuse in their communities around the world," states the theatre company's website.
"Groups around the world present productions of 'The Vagina Monologues' on or around V-Day (Feb. 14) to raise money and awareness to stop violence against women and girls. The proceeds from these events are donated to local organizations in the community that are working to stop sexual violence."
Cast of 'The Vagina Monologues'
According to its website, the worldwide V-Day Campaign seeks to "stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sexual slavery."
What has outraged many in Grants Pass is that a play purporting to support women who are victims includes a scene where a 24-year-old lesbian plies with alcohol and then rapes a 13-year-old girl, with the girl afterward expressing her pleasure with the experience.
"Now people say it was a kind of rape ...," the girl says. "Well, I say if it was rape, it was a good rape."
Myrna Shaneyfelt is head of Josephine County Right to Life and has spearheaded efforts to protest the performance.
"This play is about seducing and raping a minor, but it's done by a lesbian," Shaneyfelt told WND. "Michael Jackson is on trial for doing the very same thing.
"So, there's nothing wrong if a woman does it, but obviously it's wrong if a man does it. Pardon me?" she said rhetorically.
"This play promotes lesbianism, pedophilia and plying minors with alcohol, but it's justified because it's women doing it to women."
Shaneyfelt said she and other activists are contacting business sponsors listed on the Connect the Dots website to let them know about the play.
"What we're doing is very courteously saying, 'Did you know your name is on this list of sponsors and were you aware of this play they're putting on?'" Shaneyfelt explained, saying she then asks them to call the company and have their names removed from the site.
Shaneyfelt said she was able to get the local Chamber of Commerce to stop selling tickets to the play, but the Grants Pass Conference and Visitors Bureau continues to sell them. The bureau is under the jurisdiction of the city government.
The activist says she has contacted the mayor and city manager hoping to have the ticket sales at the facility stopped.
Shaneyfelt also hopes to protest a performance of the play at nearby Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Ore.
"These women's abuse centers around the country are continuing the abuse by saying it's OK and it's funny when women do it," Shaneyfelt said. "This is so twisted. The centers are benefiting by making pedophilia seem OK."
Writer Robert Swope criticized a performance of the play, which includes 20 separate monologues by all female actors, several years ago at Georgetown University.
Wrote Swope: "What do you get when you glorify ... the rape of a minor, promote lesbianism, insult heterosexuals and attack men? Answer: An event by the Georgetown University Women's Center."
One online review of the play after a performance last year in San Diego stated: "Eve Ensler's 'The Vagina Monologues' is not for anyone squeamish when it comes to talking frankly about sex and female anatomy. What it is good for is helping women (and even men) feel more comfortable talking about the vagina (the show begins by bombarding the audience with the "V" word to numb you to the initial shock!), for letting women know that they are not alone in some of the amusing and some of the terrifying experiences shared by women throughout the world, and for raising money in V-Day events throughout the world that is used to help increase awareness and prevent violence towards women."
