Yes, stories about Eve Ensler's controversial play, "The Vagina Monologues" can be almost as tiresome as the play itself, but when they involve freedom of expression they can be important.
In the enlightened community of Winona, Minn., two schoolgirls and 100 of their classmates are being threatened with expulsion because the girls expressed their love for their vaginas.
More below the, er, fold.
The trouble started last month when student Carrie Rethlefsen saw Eve Ensler's play about female sexuality and sexual violence against women, which led the teen and fellow student Emily Nixon, 17, to start wearing "I (heart) My Vagina" buttons.
Despite the threats of serious punishment, Rethlefsen has continued to wear her button to raise awareness about women's issues. As a show of support, more than 100 students have ordered T-shirts bearing "I (heart) My Vagina" for girls and "I Support Your Vagina" for boys.
What's the rationale for threats of expulsion and preventing top students from graduating? According to the Star Tribune (registration required but, as usual, beatable at bugmenot), their message might be offensive to someone. And, as we all know, our freedom of expression doesn't include offensive words. Or at least the high school principal seems to think that.
Principal Nancy Wondrasch said some in school find the buttons offensive.
"We support free speech," she said. "But when it does infringe on other people's rights and our school policies, then we need to take a look at that."
True, high school students' freedom of expression isn't as broad as public university students' (scandalously, in my view), but the mere possibility of offense should not be an infringement of others' rights and a legitimate excuse to ban speech. The Minnesota ACLU is on the case.
I see at least two issues here. Why don't school administrators have the courage to support even controversial expression if it is not demonstrably harmful? In the city where I teach, the high school newspaper adviser would not let it print a column (and thus an expression of opinion) in which the writer made a reference to her religious faith. Someone might think it a breach of the wall between church and state, the editor was told. Are such school administrators stupid, or timid and cowed by the Religious Reich, or both? (It's easy to see why teachers don't much like the issue of merit pay, considering who would be deciding what constitutes merit.)
And furthermore, what could be so damned offensive and controversial about a statement of affection for one's vagina? Have we come so far that wearing an "I (heart) My Vagina" button is an expellable offense? Well, yes, we have. The Christists have so demonized the body, particularly the woman's body, that some poor flower is sufficiently offended by the mere presence of the word to provide the principal the opportunity to punish free expression.
Go, Minnesota ACLU, and hang in there, you brave women on the free speech front, Reflethsen and Nixon, and your supportive classmates.
Tiresome it may be, but "The Vagina Monologues" seems also to be necessary in these dark times.