Vagina Monologues/Penis Dialogues

[Tammanna]

.. what next ?



They say the play is all about seeing women as more than sex objects and respecting women as moral, social and political equals but..



'Vagina Monologues' is about the feminists feeling themselves, moaning, groaning and all, on the stage. Wanting the world to know that a Man be damned, that he is NOT needed for them to work themselves up and enjoy and it turns out that the big message of radical feminism is that women are nothing more than sex objects after all, and the path to liberation is saying "vagina" as many times and get the kick out of it.



The play is being peformed in various high schools and colleges in the USA(search for 'vagina monologues' on Yahoo and you will find the rest of the details)



That part of despicable American culture (Jane Fonda et al) has brought forth Vagina Monologues to Mumbai and similar Indian counterpart male sickos are playwriting Penis Dialogues.



The dunces that we are, we welcome Jane Fondas and the likes because of their skin colour or for the sheer reason that they are western, without reasoning what they are bringing into our country.



..Where are the rigthful thinkers now that we need them ?! Where are the Culture Police now that we ned them ? Where are the mullas and the mohalwis and the priests and the RSS and the fundamentalists ? They idiotically go burn shops on the Valentines Day but are NOT understanding to kick these guys out of India, now ? !!

[asli_badmash]

Vagina Monologues banned in India - http://www.news24.com -



New Delhi - Police in the southern Indian city of Madras have banned Eve Ensler's acclaimed off-Broadway play Vagina Monologues, it was reported on Thursday.

---------------------



Woman Reviewer of Vagina Monologues:



It is a collection of monologues about the 'blameless vulva' written from different perspectives and covering all aspects of self-image, body awareness, female oppression, violence and a little bit of sex too. It is often very funny, but within minutes you will find yourself crying as some of the monologues are poignant and distressing. Eve Ensler has been incredibly brave in facing many of the issues head on.

---------------------



Man Reviewer of Vagina Monologues:



I saw the play in Faribanks, AK, USA performed by amateurs of all ages. The auditorium was packed, and they got standing ovations. In a morally conservative society like the US performing in a play like this takes some courage. The monolgues are based on real interviews, and they give a grim, grim picture of the state of gender equality. The very existence of Eve Enslers book gives hope; someone speaks up, someone gives these oppressed women a voice. On the other hand, where are they who need to listen? We men who were there generally only need to get reminded, the men who need to learn are at the bar, or in church. Buy the book, see the play, but also spread the word.



-----------------------



I would definitely go and see it.



Tamanna India is a free country and we do have the right to free speech and expression. Yes everything has a limit. But Its not like the performers in this play are performing a lewd act on the stage. Maybe lewd to an extent, but there are boundaries that I don’t think are being crossed !



All I ask of you is to look beyond the obvious moaning and groaning and the sexual connotations. Look at the message; look at what is being said.



I am all for equality; and If someone wants to come out and speak how they feel I say BRAVO !



Why should India Ban it? And please don’t call your religious people into this. The mullah and pundits while showing the holier than thou attitude in public, don’t miss a chance to take advantage of the trust of a vulnerable female. They are all hypocrites.



If you want this play is to be banned what will you do to the temples which depict the sexually explicit material (http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/erotica/khaju.htm) engraved on the walls. Will you become like the afghans and destroy them too, like how they destroyed the Budhas ? Would you ?



When will we Indians become comfortable with our sexuality? When will our sexually repressed society rise to the glory of times past where Kamasutra was taught as a text. Gruhasth ashram is an important part of a humans life and it was said if a person overstepped this, he would not be granted moksha ! Yet we get married not knowing how to have safe sex. That is why AIDS is an epidemic in India.



So when did our socially adept and sexually open Indian society come under the influence of Victorian “Hide the penis”… “Cover the vagina” attitude ? ( You might recollect this from the art work of the renaissance period, where Adam and Eve are shown almost nude with their sexual organs covered with leaves. )



I am not inciting immorality, all I am saying is lets be open about stuff that someone wants to put forward and give it a chance ? And I dont think moaning or groaning and talking about the Vagina or someones sexual experience makes woman a sexual object.



The message of the play is open to your interpretation. Everyone takes away their own interpretation of it. I want to look at the less obvious side and not just the literal side of "Vagina Monologues". What do you want to do?



Maybe people will hang me for writing this... But I have always beleived in writing what I feel ?



~Badmash~



PS: I dont know who is writing the PENIS DIALOGS... they are doing it to ride the wave created by Vagina Monologues.



http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/erotica/khaju.htm



Why Erotica in Temples?



There are different opinions on why temples were decorated with sexually explicit sculptures. One group argues that the old kings lived in obscene luxury and that they used these for excitement. Another group thinks that it was part of sexual education in ancient India: since most people visited temples, it was an appropriate place for mass communication. Some scholars say that since Hinduism believes in the efficacy of all four paths to Moksha (Dharma, Artha, Yoga, and Kama), these sculptures were provided to assist in the last of these four paths. Since these sculptures are limited to the outer walls of the temples, some people interpret them as a symbolic gate to reaching God.

[azazel]

Its just a play bro.. cool it!

its more abt bringing the issues/problems faced by them in different places, whats wring in them speaking out?

i think its more or less has gotto do with the name of the play..

chill out man..

mebbe someday, u can perform on stage with the penis dialogues..

[asli_badmash]

You know Azazel you are right... I need to take a break.



I am out... Later then.



~Badmash~

[azazel]

You know Azazel you are right... I need to take a break.
~Badmash~

Actually meant that for Tamanna, but so long as it works.. no problemo

[CtrlAltDel]

asli' makes sense...this is just a play in a radical n bold format...hope it travels to hyderabad too....gotta see it....



abt the "Penis Dialogs"...as asli' says it just looks like an attempt to cash in on the current buzz abt "Vagina Monologs". i bet it wud turn out to be a crass, lewd play.

[read on]

The V word debate: F-all babble

PARUL GUPTA/TIMESOFINDIA.COM



[ MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2004 04:10:59 PM ]

In recent days, if you were an emancipated woman (not the gold streaks, halter neck-types, but the Fab India, grey streaks variety) in India, you would have feted the new ultimate quotient of cool – American author, Eve Ensler's play, The Vagina Monologues .

I will spare you the merits or demerits of the play about sexual equality and the debate over what is said to be the generous use of the V-word for shock value.

For, I found a lot more shocking, not just about the play, but also about what it has come to represent - women fighting a gender war not for equality, but for superiority. Women who watched the play in India were anything but victims of gender inequality, for whom the play is really meant to be.

It's a dangerous, alarming trend sweeping urban India where the New Age man finds himself at the receiving end. Ironically, he can't do much in these politically correct times for the fear of being branded an MCP. Worse still, he doesn't even realise he's the new victim of gender inequality, where the scales are heavily tilted against him. Every other man I know today is a victim without knowing about it, since men don't celebrate their equivalent of International Women's Day.

So, when Ensler spouted trivia about a woman's sexual organ having more nerves than a male organ, Delhi's 'emancipated' women cheered lustily. And when Ensler asked them to repeat the line like a chant, they obliged happily.

I didn't find the fact either enlightening, or empowering; I found the reaction appalling. It was like men discussing whose was bigger, and bragging about it to the world. A statement of superiority is most often a cover for inferiority.

And this collective inferiority of women in urban India is throwing up a generation of wannabes – regressive women, who want to be everything a man is and worse still, want to do everything they criticised the men for. For them, watching the men strip and boasting about their sexual exploits is a statement of empowerment.

[asli_badmash]

The V word debate: F-all babble
PARUL GUPTA/TIMESOFINDIA.COM
[ MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2004 04:10:59 PM ]
In recent days, if you were an emancipated woman (not the gold streaks, halter neck-types, but the Fab India, .... Women who watched the play in India were anything but victims of gender inequality, for whom the play is really meant to be.

To the author or everybody : A play or a book can be subject to interpretations; you take from it what you want to take. Let me draw a parallel, during India's freedom struggle we had two different types of freedom fighters, the non-violent kinds and violent kinds, they had different approach but the cause was the same, Indian Freedom. So maybe we can equate this so called "man-hating emancipated women" to the violent kind of freedom fighters. Maybe these women are the "Bhagat Singh" of womens lib.

If this play didnt reach the women for who it was actually meant to be, why cant we treat this just as we an obtuse expression of the repression the women feel and leave it at that. The same women who were cheering lustily at the play would have probabaly gone home and setteled into the roles they have always played, the doormat, the maid or the ever obliging wife.

It's a dangerous, alarming trend sweeping urban India where the New Age man finds himself at the receiving end. Ironically, he can't do much in these politically correct times for the fear of being branded an MCP.......

Please... not every man you see is scared of being branded an MCP; if you profile the Indian population, most of them wouldnt even know what you are talking about. They grew up in a society which lives by the MCP rules. So they are only playing by the rules. The only male who would possibly be worried about being branded a MCP would be the one who is trying to get with these so called "emancipated women", while trying to fool them into beleiving that he understands, he is sensitive and all that. No men dont understand, they have an idea but they dont understand. PERIOD!

I didn't find the fact either enlightening, or empowering; I found the reaction appalling. It was like men discussing whose was bigger, and bragging about it to the world. A statement of superiority is most often a cover for inferiority. .....for. For them, watching the men strip and boasting about their sexual exploits is a statement of empowerment.

Let me tell you about an article I read about Gandhi and Congress the other day and how it has led to the current state of India.



Sri Aurobindo wrote in an article criticizing Gandhi's and Congress way of appeasing the minorities. He said, If we supress an urge or a collective thought of hindu pride, when it does come out, it would take the shape of an uprising so massive every norm that we know and accept today of tolerance and a secular state would be blown to shreds. And it came to be.



On the same lines we know that women have been repressed, oppressed and mistreated for centuries. If we allow them the freedom to express their anger, in the form of "vagina monologues" or whatever, maybe it would all come to a point where both genders feels accepted in their roles. I agree there would be changes and even grouse injustice, sometimes on part of women and sometimes men but only when an issue is addressed do we come to a resolution.



I have seen women, who I love(sisters, mothers and cousins) who have been mistreated by men. I would rather want them to be the emancipated kind, than the meek submissive types.



The question here is not about who is supirior or who is inferior, in a relationship there is always going to be a dominant personality. The important thing is how you share that power in a just fashion, if you misuse it you would get branded either a MCP or "emancipated women". The choice is yours!



~Badmash~



PS: I dont know how it feels to be a woman, becaue I am not one. I write all this based on how I would want to be treated If I were a women. I may be wrong, so dont hang me for this.[/b]

[mysterious babe]

I think some three weeks back i saw Eve Ensler's the author of the play being interviewd when they were performing in bbay. there is nothing offending about the play that we need to make it such a big issue.Yep mayb the name of the play creates all the controversy.

[sanya]

... there is nothing offending about the play that we need to make it such a big issue.Yep mayb the name of the play creates all the controversy.

Mysterious Babe, Hon, that is what is so special about such people. You never know when, how, where and who has hit you.

[vivek]

It is an 'upmarket' stunt which rich ladies do it all the time. All they do is go to swank pubs grap a cocktale called 'blow job' or 'sex on the beach' and talk about penises. This time somehow they managed tons of money and made a play.



I thought only Shoba De invented upmarket pervertnesses, now i know it is a plague in all the rich married women.



I heard they want to have something called a 'vagina day'



It is so easy to write a play on such topics!!

[CtrlAltDel]

All they do is go to swank pubs grap a cocktale called 'blow job' or 'sex on the beach' and talk about penises. This time somehow they managed tons of money and made a play.

I heard they want to have something called a 'vagina day'

now..now...dont give ideas to a downmarket pervert like me!!!

[vivek]

he he he upmarket pervertness trickel downs to 'downmarket. While upmarket invents a new one!