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Just how did the American people get so screwed up? OK - not, perhaps all of them - but enough of them to set the country on a backward trend towards repression. Here is a country that on one side produces the biggest volume of porn videos and material the world has ever surely known, produces the most violent and goriest television and films, has an appalling record of violence and murder on its streets and is capable of creating such seedy and gaudy places like Las Vegas - yet on the other hand feels able to ban and then punish three high school girls for using the word ‘vagina’ in a reading from The Vagina Monologues?
In a public event, sponsored by the literary magazine at John Jay High School in Cross River, a New York City suburb, the three girls were allowed to perform the reading as long as they dd not use the word ‘vagina’. (Bugger it - I’ve said it again.) And, good for them, when they came to the word, they said it in unison and were immediately suspended. It’s at least warming to know that this ban and subsequent punishment has caused as much outrage as it has support. So there is hope for some Americans. The sensible, forward-looking, open-minded, intelligent ones - as opposed to the God-fearing fanatics who probably don’t know where their vagina is and believe that George Bush and Pat Robertson never use the word ‘fuck’ and still believe in burning non-believers at the stake.
What I really want to know is how was this reading announced? How do you announce to an audience that these three young women are going to read extracts from The Vagina Monologues without using the word Vagina?
After the “God” word (for Jews) we have one more forbidden word. Now we can start making dictionary for forbidden words, which will be forbidden to read
Sadly not a new concept but one I could well see making a comeback
As I point out to friends elsewhere on a practically daily basis, the US has never got over the puritans and the mid-vic prudes. Doubtful it ever will.
Excuse me though - I grew up in Vegas; the only part of it that’s truly tacky is the Strip. The rest of it’s just like any other southwestern US city of about the same size.
I guess we got over the puritans because we threw them out
Er… I wonder where they went?
My apologies over the Vegas remark. It’s the same anywhere. Niagara Falls was the same. I have never been to Vegas and it’s easy to think of it just as the original planners did. And again - like US TV, it’s the image that is exported.
It’s true, and not really any apologies needed; I just do my best to correct that impression when I can.
There are worse cities, believe me….
yes, we have one called Milton Keynes…
You know Vince won’t speak to you for another week after this post
Very true! Actually he would have been horrified by one suggestion I came across which was - if they don’t like the word ‘vagina’ - throw away the latin and use the good old English word instead!
Andy, what do you expect from a country that wanted the scalp of a President because he got a blow job from an intern but gave a second term to one that lied to start a war just to get even with the middle eastern tyrant who made threats on his daddy’s life?
Ah.. but weighed aganst Clinton was the honourable, deeply spiritual, fanatically truthful Newt - a man who quite obviously didn’t know what a vagina was.
But seriously, it is that dichotomy that many peole have problems with. When you meet an American for the first time you never know if they are going to turn out ‘normal’ or ‘fanatical’!
Horrors…. Newt’s going to run for Pres *sigh*
I think they all need to get shipped off to the war, personally.
Oh, and in case you didn’t hear: Newt admitted to a full-blown (but “honorable” heterosexual) relationship - in other words he had a mistress but it was the missionary position all the way - while he was blowing Clinton out of the water.
Perry, not all of “us” agree with anything that’s gone on in this country for the last 40 years. But we are unfortunately limited by what our constitution allows us to do.
I don’t similarly point fingers at your whole nation for the idiocies perpetrated by your PMs, current and ex….
He’s what? With his rep? If he was a Democrat he would be taken to the cleaners….
I take exception to your comment about Las Vegas being “seedy and gaudy.” It’s only that way for the tourists. We put on a show for you guys.
The majority of Las Vegas is regular, hard working folk who tend to be Catholic or Mormon (12%) and who work in either of the two major industries: construction and hotel. Most of the residents of Las Vegas are former Californians (40%) who can’t afford California anymore.
The city began hundreds of years ago because it was a meadow with a good watering hole in the middle of the desert. It’s evolved through history from a Native American camp to a Mormon fort to a railroad stop to a gaming destination to a cheap family vacation destination.
Yes, Las Vegas has it’s problems of crime and homelessness, but compared to cities like New Orleans and New York, Las Vegas is a shining star of cleanliness and safety.
I rather thought I’d covered this below so i don’t feel the need tio apologise again. Put it down to Hollywood and US TV. The ‘exported’ image of Las Vegas is, of course, the Strip. That’s all that anyone who has never been there knows and that’s the side of Las Vegas that is ever shown. And a bigger monument to seediness and gaudiness would be hard to imagine. It is, in fact, bordering on the obscene. And it’s good to know that surrounding it is a normal, nice place to live.
Oh gosh, Elaine, you still live there? Well, I’m glad I grew up there, but I’m also glad I don’t live there any more….
almost any city has its detractors and bad image. Here we’re also dealing with neighbourhoods that are upset by the media’s portrayal. yada yada.
So no I don’t believe the media image of any place. But I do think that Vegas is a tinsel town. I’m sure the folks are swell and normal. But the town isn’t for me. Niagra NY is a dump of a town too but the falls are nice. Niagra Ontario is cheesy but the falls are even better. and on and on.
Oh yeah, Vagina. My horror is that every tidbit of info, news, film, everything, is first analyzed and rated by someone’s measure of good vs evil. Trying to codify everything is the problem. But it keeps lawyers laughing at the bank. And it makes the media a boring joke.
Don’t laugh Canada, all the ills are coming but won’t be dealt with until it is too late. oops, too late.
The answer is simple really — the USA is practically a continent unto itself. The scope of the people, dialects, geography, languages and cultures is comparable to the rest of the world as as whole. It is not possible to sum up the USA or its people in the context of what you see overseas on television, what you believe you know of us from movies or even books. I’ve been to almost every state in this country and still can’t hope to ever see everything in my lifetime.
I can tell you this much — there are villages, towns, cities and then mega-cities like Chicago, Dallas, LA and NYC. You would be very surprised at how beautiful, peaceful and neighborly many places are in the USA that most of you have never even heard of or will ever see. Many villages in NY State for instance, would amaze — the difference between what most people know of NY from New York City and the actual state itself is night and day.
And that’s the short answer.
[...] Swordfish » The Comedy And The Tragedy Of The USA. Here’s a taste: I posted an item entitled The Americans And The Vagina a couple of weeks back following which the comments wandered off topic a bit and I said some things [...]
My only question is; Why were they reading “The Vagina Monologues” in class?
@Lady V: But why not?