I cry Preemptive Hypocrisy Foul on St. Louis University.

[akujunkan]

So, St. Louis University, a Catholic school, banned the performance of the Vagina Monologues on its campus last year. Quoting an email on feministing:

Last year, in 2007 UNA was told by the SLU administration that we would no longer be allowed to perform The Vagina Monologues on campus--ever. On top of this, we are not allowed to advertise on campus at all, or even set up tables to sell tickets. Determined to still raise money for our charities, we found an off campus location last year and the protests and controversy surrounding the production helped us sell out all our performances.

The reason the administration gave us for banning the Monologues was that having the production every year was "redundant." They told us that they would be willing to support a future V-Day campaign on-campus if we found another production to do instead.

This year, we are once again performing The Vagina Monologues off-campus, and to avoid "redundancy," we chose another Eve Ensler production, A Memory, A Monologue, and Rant, and a Prayer (MMRP) to be performed on campus to raise awareness. We thought that this would satisfy the administration. We thought wrong. Just a week before MMRP was scheduled to run, we were told that they would not approve the play. They said that this production was basically "Vagina Monologues 2," and in order to be "consistent" with their previous decision they could not allow MMRP on campus since the Monologues were already banned.

Gee, I hope the university stuck to that "no redundancy" policy by banning all on-campus celebrations of Ash Wednesday last week, observances of Lent, and any and all future observances of Easter, Christmas, and any other annual feast days. Cause personally, I sure can't think of anything more redundant than holiday productions that have been occurring more or less continously for the last 2,000 years.

Just saying.

That will be all.

Comments

What asshattery!

[bran420-7.livejournal.com]

How could they ban MMRP!?! I really have to agree with you there. So every Easter is redundant on it's face. It's "Jesus's Birth 2." So by their standards it should never be celebrated. And you can forget about President's Day, that's total redundancy. It only celebrates two birthdays AGAIN, AND in the same month. And don't even get me started on the holidays those bastards don't have to work but get paid for; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, Labor Day, or Good Friday anyone?

Re: What asshattery!

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

What really irks me about this, is that if you're a Catholic university and object to VM/V-Day/MMRP because of your interpretation of the bible, have the balls to say so. Don't offer up a bunch of pansy-assed, transparently false excuses instead. And at the very least, offer your own anti-domestic violence program in V-Day's place. 'Cause your dislike of people talking openly about their vaginas does not mean that DV isn't a problem.

The end.