Anger over ‘Vagina Monologue’ ban

From day one we are told about the Gonzaga Creed that we embrace Jesuit traditions like social justice, and that we celebrate all peoples and all cultures. Social justice and diversity, we are constantly reminded that these are what Gonzaga strives for.

Clearly, with the decision to continue the ban on the viewing of the ‘Vagina Monologues,' that it's easier to say a principle, then to follow a principle. It's unnerving and disturbing that our campus continues its blatant and offensive censorship of a continuing problem: women empowerment and awareness.

When the Board of Trustees made its ban, was it fully aware of where the money from the monologues goes? It goes to raising sexual assault awareness, to help society rectify the injustice that is brought down on legions and legions of women every single day.
This campus brings sexually charged messages all the time, the most recent will be the play "Lysistrata."  What, exactly, makes the monologues any different except for a misconception that it is a work of nothing but man-hating? The monologues are not about sex, they are about experiences of women who have to deal with the ongoing hostility they face as women in this world.

We have an expectation that each person, and subsequently each department, would be treated with respect and integrity yet in this case we have an entire department, Women and Gender studies, which despite following all of the rules, were unfairly scrutinized. At the end of the day we have a part of our community who was put down.

The most prevalent argument I have seen against bringing the monologues is the obscenity argument. Obscenity is in the eye of the beholder. A great example is the crosses that the Pro-Life clubs put on the lawn in front of Crosby ever year. I find that very obscene because to me it represents a glorification of the Pro-Life cause and a trivialization of the hard choice that people who do get an abortion have to make. I handle it by ignoring and not participating in it. It is their right to display such a view and it is my right to ignore?

Likewise if you find the monologues to be obscene then my advice is to not go see it. I think that is a point that is lost on our Board of Trustees. I understand that as the board they have a lot to consider when they make the decisions they have to make. For one, as I have been told, the board has to worry about the parents, a lot of whom pay for their kids to come here and a lot of them have an expectation when sending their kids to a Catholic University. That does not justify the censorship of the program. And I have to keep coming back to our Creed which talks about social justice and diversity and I have to ask Gonzaga and the board of trustees how it defines diversity. Does it just mean a student population with larger populations of minorities or does it mean something? Does it mean a diversity of ideas as well? I feel we are being hampered by a homogenized upper brass that needs to listen to the ever-increasing diversified student body.

Now I'm not going to suggest that there is a vast conspiracy at play here and I understand why President McCulloh, in the absence of the full board vote went along with the original decision. I understand that the Board of Trustees is meeting sometime in the near future. I ask, I implore that the Board meet with the student body, to have a discussion about this and to recognize that this issue is one worthy of our Creed. Otherwise, what Gonzaga stands for is nothing more than words.



Drew Pollom is a junior at Gonzaga.