Dear FABsters,
     I thought this would be of interest to many of you on the list. ISNA
is a reputable organization that does good work, though I am sorry to see
it go after a piece of feminist theatre. Feminists really aren't the enemy.
Hilde

Intersex Activists Respond to "The Vagina Monologues"
ISNA Kicks Off National Initiative to Educate Playgoers

January 7, 2002

For more information, contact:

Emi Koyama
Program Assistant, Intersex Society of North America
Community Board Chair, Survivor Project

Web: http://www.isna.org/events/vday/
Email: [log in to unmask] (preferred)
Voicemail @ Survivor Project: (503) 288-3191

Today, Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) kicks off V-Day
Chalenge 2002, a national initiative that will respond to and coincide
(although not officially affiliated) with V-Day 2002 College Campaign.
Founded by the playwright Eve Ensler, V-Day plans to produce her
popular play "The Vagina Monologues" at approximately 500 colleges and
universities across the country this February. Members of the intersex
community feel that, while the play is mostly funny, insightful and
empowering, some portions of it is very hurtful to intersex people.

In particular, the play includes a "monologue" about a "wonderful
vagina fairy tale," which involves a woman who was born without a
vagina. Apparently in an attempt to consol his daugher, the father of
this woman declares: "We're gonna get you the best homemade pussy in
America. And when you meet your husband he's gonna know we had it made
specially for him." Aside from the fact that the idea that women's
bodies need to be modified in order to make them desirable to their
husbands is misogynist, there is a wide disparities between how the
play depicts the genital cuttings in this scene (intersex genital
mutilation) and the genital cuttings in Africa (female genital
mutilation).

The condition in which a vagina is missing is known as MRKH or vaginal
agenesis, and is a type of intersex condition occuring in
approximately one in 5000 female births. Currently, the standard
protocol for treating intersex conditions, including MRKH, is to
surgically alter the appearance of the genitals so as to make them
resemble "normal" genitals, often while the patient is too young to
understand what is being done to them or to be able to make an
informed consent. In the recent years, there is a growing movement by
intersex people and some medical professionals to replace this
concealment-based medical protocol with the patient-centered one that
offers psychological and social interventions and honors honesty and
true informed consent.

Esther Morris, a woman with MRKH and the founder of MRKH.org, states:
"Being born without a vagina was not my problem. Having to get one was
the real problem... I want people to understand that doing the right
thing often does more harm than good. The standard of normal that we
aim for is imaginary. We alter women's bodies when attitudes need
adjusting... Women shouldn't have to endure emotional and physical
pain to perform one sexual act when so many options are available...
Identity shouldn't be centered around body parts - missing,
constructed, or removed..." ("The Missing Vagina Monologue," March
2001 issue of Sojourner).

"Last year I went to see this play at a local university on V-Day,"
says Emi Koyama, the Program Assistant for Intersex Society of North
America. "As a long-time anti-domestic violence activist, I was happy
that this play was raising awareness about the extent of the violence
against women. But when I saw how the play trivialized my own pain and
turned it into a joke, I felt deeply hurt and upset. The hardest part
was how the roomful of audience laughed hysterically to that part, and
then after the play I had to walk past many women I knew telling each
other how empowered and validated they felt. I didn't - I felt
invalidated and silenced."

V-Day Challenge however is not a protest, says Koyama. "We felt that
it was not wise to protest the play or V-Day, because they also do
many good things. They empower women, raise awareness about the
violence against women, and contribute financially to organizations
that fight these violence." Instead, the Challenge will try to work
with local coordinators of V-Day College Campaign to use them as an
opportunity to raise awareness about the experiences of intersex
people, and to build greater alliances between feminist anti-violence
activists and intersex activists. "V-Day is not just a performance,
but a movement - the global movement to stop violence against women
and girls," Koyama continues. "As such, it needs to hold itself
accountable for damages it causes, however unintentional that may be."

Intersex Society of North America invites everyone - whether you are a
V-Day organizer, a feminist, a student, an intersex person, or an
intersex ally - to participate in the V-Day Challenge and to help
create an inclusive movement that will end violence against all women,
including women born with intersex conditions. For more information
about the Challenge, visit the V-Day Challenge web site at
http://www.isna.org/events/vday/ or contact Emi Koyama at [log in to unmask]
(preferred) or 503-288-3191 (voicemail belonging to Survivor Project,
another small non-profit organization for which Koyama is a board
member).

As an example, production crews at Portland State University Women's
Resource Center have already made a commitment to support ISNA's
effort while putting on the play: they agreed to provide ISNA with a
table at the show, put ISNA's leaflet as an insert in the program, and
make ISNA's local project, Intersex Initiative Portland (which has a
specific focus on domestic and sexual violence) one of the
beneficiaries for the event. ISNA looks forward to working with other
organizations across the country who want to make their cities as
intersex-friendly as they are (or will become) vagina-friendly.

#####

How the play depicts genital cuttings in Africa:

Female Genital mutilation has been inflicted on 80 to 100 million
girls and young women. In countries where it is practiced, mostly in
Africa, about two million youngsters a year can expect the knife-or
the razor or a glass shard-to cut their clitoris or remove it
altogether. Short-term results include: tetanus, hemorrhages, cuts
in the urethra, bladder, vaginal walls. Long-term: chronic uterine
infection, increased agony and danger during child births, and early
deaths.

How the play depicts genital cuttings in Oklahoma City:

Bet you didn't know, for example, that they love vaginas in Oklahoma
City [...] a wonderful vagina fairy-tale occurred--that's a VFT [...]
One girl in Oklahoma told how she had been born without a vagina, and
only realized it when she was fourteen. She was playing with her
girlfriend. They compared their genitals and she realized hers was
different, something was wrong. She went to the gynecologist with her
father, the parent she was close to, and the doctor discovered that in
fact she did not have a vagina or a uterus. Her father was
heartbroken, trying to repress his tears and sadness, so his daughter
would not feel bad. On the way home from the doctor, in a noble
attempt to comfort her, he said, "Darlin'. We've got an interesting
situation. You were born without a vagina. But the good news is we're
gonna get you the best homemade pussy in America. And when you meet
your husband he's gonna know we had it made specially for him."

#####

Intersex Society of North America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization dedicated to ending shame, secrecy and unwanted genital
surgeries on chlidren born with intersex conditions, or atypical
reproductive anatomies. For more information about intersex or
ISNA, please visit www.isna.org on the web.