Vagina - now suspend me
3 High school girls from Lewisboro, New York were suspended from school for saying the word “vagina” at a public reading, against the direction of the school’s staff.
The honor students, Megan Reback, Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson, included the word during their reading of “The Vagina Monologues” because, “It wasn’t crude and it wasn’t inappropriate and it was very real and very pure,” Reback said.
Their defiant stand is being applauded by the play’s author, who said Tuesday that the school should be celebrating, rather than punishing, the three juniors.
“Don’t we want our children to resist authority when it’s not appropriate and wise?” said Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues.”
The excerpt from “Monologues” was read Friday night, among various readings at an event sponsored by the literary magazine at John Jay High School in Cross River, a New York City suburb. Among the other readings was a student’s original work and the football coach quoting Shakespeare.
The girls took turns reading the excerpt until they came to the word, then said it together.
“My short skirt is a liberation flag in the women’s army,” they read. “I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina’s country.”
[…]
But Principal Richard Leprine said Tuesday that the girls were punished because they disobeyed orders, not because of what they said.The event was open to the community, including children, and the word was not appropriate, Leprine said in a statement. He said the girls had been told when they auditioned that they could not use the word.
Reback said Tuesday that no one in the audience was younger than high school age. “What did we do that was so wrong?” she asked. “We were insubordinate, but the reason we were insubordinate was that we talked about our body.”
The school “recognizes and respects student freedom of expression,” Leprine said. “That right, however, is not unfettered.”
“When a student is told by faculty members not to present specified material because of the composition of the audience and they agree to do so, it is expected that the commitment will be honored and the directive will be followed,” he said. “When a student chooses not to follow the directive, consequences follow.”
Bob Lichtenfeld, superintendent of the Katonah-Lewisboro school district, which includes John Jay, said that had the teens, who are in their third year of high school, wanted to perform the play, they would probably not have met opposition.
“As long as the intended audience knows what to expect, we don’t have a problem with it.”
Since the order to not say the name of a body part in public where other school children in their teens could hear it, is utterly puritan and un-American, I’m glad the girls stood up to the school’s staff and that there are many parents backing the kids. It’s not like they were playing the “penis game” where one person says “penis” quietly, then another in the game must say it louder, until someone either refuses to say “penis” louder than the last person, or can’t shout any higher. The girls were reading a respected stage play, and it’s just a word in anatomy.
Won’t someone please think of the children!?
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Debra has more about vaginas.
I challenge every blogger who reads this, to use the word “vagina” in a blog post title, linking to Debra’s site to give your readers the reason why you’re speaking up for the genital that’s getting the short end of the free speech stick in a New York school.
==
UPDATE:
The following bloggers have taken the Vagina Challenge:
Dave
Rosie
Nicole
Tanya
Dodos
Meghan
Liberal Avenger
Larry
The Courtesan Connection
Late Edition - from Australia
Cris
Ellie
Miss Cellania
Dan
The_Yecart
Stephen
Avedon
Ross
The Hall Monitor
Peri
Progressive Gold
Spiiderweb
fixerbaby
Tim
Rose
Hazel
Tonnet
Ted
UPDATE 2: March 8 is International Women’s Day.
UPDATE 3: Mark says the suspension is on hold until at least Tuesday for review by the Board.
Technorati tag: vagina
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March 7th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Done! (Actually I did it a couple of hours ago.)
It’s not even a free speech issue. Vagina is the accepted non-vulgar name of the female genitalia. It’s not dirty… unless… Leprine is actually horribly educated and shouldn’t be a principal at all.
I wonder, if there was a play on other parts of the human anatomy if the word “ulna” would be censored.
March 7th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
It’s a free speech issue in the sense that a school is condoning staff punishing the girls for standing up for good sense, in light of undemocratic and puritan direction given to them. It’s an overblown reaction by the school for having been stood up to by 3 high school girls, for an issue that they are completely in the clear about.
March 7th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
I don’t mean to be speaking out of turn here — I’d hate to steal someone else’s point — but saying that… that word… is decidedly un-classy.
Otherwise, yes, vagina. Maybe the school would have let them say “birth canal”? Or “hoo-hoo”? Or “I’m more mature than my teachers”?
I’m glad these girls stood up to the school. They are indeed insubordinate, they did indeed disobey their teachers, and they are paying the price. Now the school and teachers are the ones who look like immature idiots. Mission accomplished, I’d say.
March 7th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Ok, I even linked ya. Come and check it out. I think I said vagina twice.
March 7th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
alright, I fixed the title for you. Now get off my VAGINA
March 7th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I think that if you say the word vagina, Baby Jesus cries. And teenage girls automatically get pregnant. Or something like that.
Vagina!
March 7th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
well maybe you could line up with a bunch of 8 year olds and take them to the play vagina monologues in the city… I guess that is not a good idea.
When does freedom of speech cross the common sense line?
RIGHT NOW!
If you guys want to hang out in a personal setting and talk about the vagina that is your right…but it should not be in a community based setting like a high school event. Maybe they could have communicated the adult theme on the invitation. However I am sure that wasn’t the sixteen year olds responsibility or interest. Their lone objective was to shock and create attention for themselves
March 7th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
James, you’re way off base, and the pitcher just faked… you’re wrong.
I haven’t seen the Vagina Monologues, but if “vagina” is the most “shocking” word in the passage they read, then your position is ridiculous. In case you didn’t know 8 year old girls have vaginas, just like 16 year old girls, and 32 year old women. Saying the word vagina should be no more shocking than saying the words “nose”, “bladder”, or “foreskin”. I dare say you’d not think it’s wrong for someone to discuss circumcisions in public, and if you think male genital modification isn’t too shocking a subject, natural vaginae certainly aren’t.
The girl’s lone objective was to stand up to immature teachers. Mission Accomplished.
March 7th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I’ve seen the Vagina Monologues, and I can say that the passage they read is very tame. It is entirely about how someones clothing is not an invitation for rape. I think that is a perfect section that SHOULD be performed in all high schools. So why is the word vagina so shocking when we are talking about preventing RAPE and sexual assault? Shouldn’t those actions be more shocking than the word “vagina”?
March 7th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Their intent was to shock. They said the one word that they knew would tick off teachers TOGETHER. The rest of it was single-voice. They obviously wanted to make a point.
Aren’t there some homeless people they could go feed if they wanted to make a point?
March 7th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
this was not just for high school students it was a community event where families and younger brothers and sisters were invited…
a descriptive education on circumsicions or excerpts from the vagina monologues is not appropriate for 8 year old children coming to see performances from the students.
maybe if the audience was warned about content, and families had a choice it would have been OK. That was not the case.
by the way a vagina is not a nose or a bladder and it is subject matter that needs direction for young children (especially in the content matter performed)
March 7th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
James, children should be taught what a vagina is before they go to grade school, and parents who don’t teach anatomy are being neglectful of their children’s education. And even if there was direction required after the word is heard for the first time, the kids were in the perfect place to have direction - in a school with teachers and presumably parents.
Stigmatization of female genitals is what the Vagina Monologues is about, so if the teachers approved a reading from it, but banned the word vagina, they were being beyond silly. The girls said no kids were below highschool age, do you have a report that says otherwise?
Amanda, yes they showed dramatic flare in making their point, so sue them? Maybe they’ll tackle the acceptance of homelessness next, after they’ve unstigmatized vaginas for the people of their school.
March 7th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Geez, what a bunch of stupid cunts those New Yorkers are, eh?
March 7th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Time for some shameless linksturbation. My two cents.
The above comments are motivating me to record my 7 year old to singing a song about vaginas in exchange for a trip to Sev. Anti-rape messages and the word vagina are highly appropriate.
March 7th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
By pushing the point with their unison reading, they’re not de-stigmatizing it; they’re reinforcing the fact that there is something “different” about the word “vagina”. If they had simply read the excerpt as normal, no one could accuse them of sensationalizing it. But no, they had to emphasize it.
But yes, *if* the school okayed a reading from the Vagina Monologues but said “don’t say that word” then the school is run by a group of double-digit IQ administrators.
There *is* a fine line between demystifying something and making it blatant. I will educate my children about sex. My at two my son already knows how to clean his penis and calls it by the anatomical name. Education? Sure. Parading things about nonchalantly? Not for me. Just like I wouldn’t want my child’s teacher demonstrating the perfectly natural act of sexual intercourse in front of my child’s class. There’s a difference between being frank and open and being shocking for shock’s sake. Thats the difference between a simple, plain reading and a dramatic, ensemble voice.
If the girls really thought the word “vagina” was in the same category as “television”, why make a dramatic point of it?