Follow-up: Vagina is back on the marguee
Categories: Relatives, Places To Go, Development, Media
Florida residents, cover your daughters' eyes! The word vagina is back in view! After a woman called to complain that her daughter had seen the word vagina on a theatre marquee, the theatre changed it to read "The Hoohaa Monologues". As if that were somehow better. I'm not sure what the woman was thinking; when the child asked, the obvious answer would have been "that's the part of the woman's body where a baby comes out" or some such.In any case, she's either going to have to come up with an answer for her niece or take a different route home -- the theatre has restored the proper title of the play: The Vagina Monologues. Play organizer Elissa Saavedra noted that they have the rights to perform the play only if nothing is censored. "We are not allowed to censor anything because the whole play is about being a woman, about telling certain women's stories. Vagina is the essence of a woman, and if you're going to suppress the name, then you're suppressing us as women," she said.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tony Triana 2-09-2007 @ 3:28PM
I suppose its ok to have the penis monologues too...right?
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Nicola 2-09-2007 @ 3:47PM
My son is two and knows the word (well, he says "ja-gina", but he'll get there). It is a body part, not a shameful or "dirty" word. Thank goodness for rational judgement.
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Christine 2-09-2007 @ 4:03PM
Well, good. I wondered why they would have the rights to list the wrong title anyhow.
I mean.. really this conversation is very simple: What is Vagina? Answer: Your Hoohaa (or whatever crazy term you use for it). I just dont like that word so we call it this. Child: Oh, ok. Why is is called that? Answer: because it is all about being a girl and that is what makes you a girl. Child: Oh ok.
LOL.
I mean... what else would the child ask??
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Anji 2-09-2007 @ 4:11PM
*claps* Good for them! :D
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SKL 2-09-2007 @ 6:01PM
I have always wondered why we tell girls that's their vagina. That is not their vagina, it's their vulva. Why don't we teach girls to say vulva? Is vulva considered a grosser word, or do these moms really think that's called vagina??? And why don't we teach kids to say anus, rectum, bowel, etc.? What's this obsession with "vagina?" I think it's weird.
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Jenny 2-11-2007 @ 10:02AM
SKL, I fear that many people think vagina refers to the whole kit-n-kaboodle, but I'm with you on finding it weird. I started with "girl parts" with my daughter and we're just starting to get into the names of specific parts as she realizes they exist and as she is capable of pronouncing them. I am not going to teach her that her vulva is called a vagina, and I absolutely refuse to teach her she pees through her vagina (for those who don't know, you pee through the urethra). As Wikipedia says, "calling the vulva the vagina is akin to calling the mouth the throat."
But back to the Vagina Monologues. In what I have read of it they are actually discussing the vagina, not the vulva. And I find it really interesting that the authors realized they needed to put it in their licensing agreement that nothing could be censored. Good for them!
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