What does the word "vagina" mean to you? Dirty? Shameful? How about charming and beautiful? A forum held yesterday to celebrate the successful debut of an internationally acclaimed play invited people to end violence against women, by loving and respecting a woman's vagina.
Celebrating the successful debut of The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler's award-winning play was performed in theaters and on university campuses last month.
The Garden of Hope Foundation and Zonta International held a forum called "Vagina, Valentine, Violence" yesterday.
Famous TV personalities, women's rights advocates and academics joined together to discuss issues ranging from sexuality, sexual abuse and violence, and to promote "V-Day," a global movement to end violence against women and girls.
Before the forum, pop star Aya (
"I think it is important for women to love their bodies and become more conscious of themselves. Talking about what is traditionally deemed taboo and a dirty part of the female body in a positive way can be a good start," Aya said after reading the excerpt.
Su Tsu-chung (蘇子中), an English professor at the National Chi Nan University, introduced the play to his students and held a performance on campus, and said that students told him the play had raised their consciousness and understanding of women's bodies by talking about something they are usually ashamed of talking about.
Bih Herng-dar (畢恆達), a member of the gender equality education committee under the ministry of education, said that sex has always been a taboo and something parents never know how to talk about with their kids.
"As a result, our boys turn to pornography for sexual education, and so patriarchal thinking -- which objectifies and belittles women -- ?will continue to thrive in society," said Bih, a professor at National Taiwan University.
Lee Kuang-hui (
"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," Lee said.
"We also need to raise men's awareness and break some deep-seated myths about rape. When women say no to sex, it means no, and men need to learn to control their sexual impulses and instead choose to respect women and their bodies," he said.
Chief Executive Officer of the foundation Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) said the play provides excellent material on sex education.
"In addition to adding more of the Taiwan experience in the Vagina Monologues, 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," Chi said.
The Vagina Monologues is a collection of personal accounts from various women interviewed by Ensler. From the retelling of a rape experience to tips on masturbation, the monologues address serious issues while attacking conventional, often dated, definitions of sexuality.
The play has made a major impact around the world since it was first staged in New York in 1997, and made its debut in Taiwan last month.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods