The internationally acclaimed Vagina Monologues is basically about stopping violence against women (`Vagina' forum makes headway, April 24, page 4). However, when some would-be social do-gooders and entities along the likes of professors, educators, laws and other social institutions claim to be advancing and even protecting women's rights, they are in fact doing the opposite -- which is one of the reasons why The Vagina Monologues is on a global tour.
But some people are just not getting the message, rather merely taking in this "spectacle" as just another angry woman's female liberation campaign.
If women and girls are ashamed to talk about their vaginas it is certainly the culture in which they live that creates the ideology of this shamefulness, because, after all, men are measured by what they "have" and women by what they have not.
In Taiwan, for example, I have often heard male children, when playing with their classmates, exclaim "She doesn't have a `penis!'" -- although "penis" was not the word they used. Instead it was a derogatory term. And while the boys were laughing hysterically, the looks on the girls' faces said it all.
Sadness, anger and confusion. We see in Japan, for example, male fertility celebrations in which men carry long, phallic-shaped poles on their shoulders. But does anyone see women toting their vaginas on their shoulders? And in another language, "vagina" means "shame lips."
The famous statue of the little boy, Manneken Pis, which urinates into some pond or other, is seen in virtually every major park around the world. However, I have yet to see a squatting, or standing, female statue doing the same. "His" penis is visible; "her" vagina is not. Is it really any wonder women are afraid or ashamed to talk about their vaginas?
And when the public is being educated by those empowered to do so, we hear the same patriarchal tone time after time.
Lee Kuang-hui (李光輝), director of the psychiatry department at Peitou Armed Forces Hospital, says: "The most important work that can be done to prevent violence and sexual abuse is to educate women what to do in order to prevent rape or harassment."
What a truly sad thing to say! It is not the women who need to be educated. It is the men.
Again we see the responsibility of controlling men's sexual impulses being placed squarely on the shoulders of women. Historically, it has virtually always been the woman's responsibility to control a man's sexuality. In the Middle East we see women dressed perhaps too conservatively, all in order to prevent their male counterparts from becoming "aroused."
Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), the chief executive officer of the Garden of Hope Foundation, completely misses the mark when she states, "I think it would be wonderful to have the `penis monologue,' which would allow men to share their stories and also raise their consciousness about their own bodies."
This statement is a direct slap to all women. Metaphorically, and in fact buried in our ideology, the entire world is run on phallic imagery -- Taipei 101, for instance. An erection proudly displayed in the center of a city that once was nothing but a lush "virgin" jungle, only to be "penetrated" and "unveiled" and ultimately conquered, because of man's fear of the "other." "Other" being nature and women.
Across the water we can see an angry man pointing his 700-plus penises at his supposed lost and wayward spouse -- "come back or I'll slap you!" His [China's] virility is being challenged by a self-actualizing Taiwan, and patriarchy can only stifle that.
One need only look at the society in which they live to take in the bigger picture of why they live in the world they do.
Kevin Larson
Chiayi City
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