The Office of Student Affairs' decision to deny an application to bring to campus "The Vagina Monologues," a play about female sexuality, has upset students who wanted to see it performed to raise awareness of sexual violence against women.
Jesuit University Students Together In Concerned Empowerment, a student organization dedicated to social activism, brought the proposal to the Office of Student Affairs in January. The Rev. Andy Thon, vice president of Student Affairs, advised last week that alternative ways of promoting awareness should be used.
"I feel that we were given a whole bunch of flimsy reasons as to why we couldn't do it," said Dominique George, co-chair of JUSTICE and a senior in the College of Engineering. "I feel insulted that the university gave us such a brush-off and would really like it if they had been more up front about their reasons."
Thon responded to JUSTICE's proposal in a letter stating there would be better ways to address the issues of sexual violence, oppression and injustice than by bringing the play to campus. The short timeframe prior to the proposed March production date also raised concerns.
Student Affairs has offered to assist JUSTICE and the other organizations involved in the proposal in creating a form of dialogue and programming to increase awareness, something George said JUSTICE already has in the works.
Mamie Smith, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences who lives in the Catholic Houses — a housing option for juniors and seniors that focuses on prayer and the Catholic faith — said the monologues "demean" the body, while Catholicism views the body as "sacred and beautiful."
"While we do need to talk about these issues, we need to discuss it in a way that considers both the body and the soul," Smith said. "It just seems there would be a better way to address the issue than something that's shocking and out there."
The Cardinal Newman Society, a national organization which describes itself as "dedicated to the renewal of Catholic identity at Catholic colleges and universities in the United States," says the monologues are not just controversial, but are downright offensive.
"The content runs directly contrary to the Catholic understanding of human dignity," said Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, of the play. "Its approach to sexuality goes directly against Church teaching.
"Given the current priest sex abuse situation in the Catholic Church, we find it offensive and horrifying that any Catholic university would want to allow a performance that portrays something similar to the current sex abuse scandal as something good for the victim," Reilly said.
Some students said they believed the Cardinal Newman Society had strongly influenced the Office of Student Affairs.
"The fact that the Cardinal Newman Society is so opposed to it and are really willing to bring it to a national level and question Marquette's dedication to their values has a lot to do with why the university will not allow us to do it," said Ali Althaus, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences.
The mission of the monologues, according to its Web site, is to end violence against women, one of the reasons JUSTICE wanted to bring the play to campus.
"'The Vagina Monologues' are really about reclaiming the language, saying that we can talk about sexual violence and the ways that women are objectified," said Meghan Griffiths, Manresa intern in University Ministry and coordinator of Crosswalks, a series of dialogues. "It seems like this is not something the institution is ready for, whether it be for lack of dialogue or fear of backlash.
"It will be a really good step for the university to take those issues and to talk about them," Griffiths said. "It's a dialogue that we currently lack, which is why we can't see how it can fit into our Catholic identity."
"The Vagina Monologues" has been presented on campus before, during the 2002-'03 academic year.