I thought some readers might be interested in the views of the President of the Network of Enlightened Women, a women's orgainzation founded recently by a student at the University of Virginia. There follows her article and at the end, the website address of NeW. It is interesting that this organization, secular in orientation and growing for the most part at secular instituitions, is putting to shame so many "liberated" women, many on the campuses of Catholic universities, by their mature and serious approach to human sexuality. It would be nice to see chapters begun at Notre Dame and St. Mary's as another counter to those students and faculty who continue to push the VM and its malicious, destructive messages. Feminists have become their own worst enemy By Karin Agness (NeW Founder) Feb 16, 2006 at Townhall.com While most people were celebrating or searching for love on Valentine’s Day, groups of women throughout the country decided to forego this lovely holiday to talk about their vaginas. Women have the choice to do this. I am thankful for that choice. But this choice to participate in The Vagina Monologues is the latest manifestation of feminism gone wrong in America. These “Vagina Warriors” have become those monsters, men, who they feared and hated for so long for exploiting women. They are their own worst enemy, objectifying and abusing themselves and other women. Feminists have long complained that they are only valued for their physical and sexual attributes. In The Vagina Monologues, the feminists objectify women worse than the way they claimed men did. Feminists argued that men oppressed them in the home and did not treat women as full humans, through patriarchal institutions such as marriage. This is shown in the 1966 Statement of Purpose of the National Organization for Women, “If it is necessary to mobilize the votes of men and women who believe in our cause, in order to win for women the final right to be fully free and equal human beings, we so commit ourselves.” These feminists sought education to correct this problem, “We believe that it is as essential for every girl to be educated to her full potential of human ability as it is for every boy...” They sought equality in economic opportunities. They sought freedom from men and male institutions that did not treat them as full human beings, but as property and objects to be admired, used and abused. Now feminists have reversed the scenario, and women are exploiting themselves. Throughout the play, women claim their body parts define them. In one monologue, a woman describes her experience at a Vagina Workshop. Her instructor told her to draw a picture of her own vagina and look at it with a hand mirror. This woman said, “She [the instructor] then told me my clitoris was not something I could lose. It was me, the essence of me....I didn’t have to find it. I had to be it.” She embraces and accepts this definition of herself. The woman in this monologue has clearly reduced herself to a body part. This is way worse than the supposed objectifying that feminists claimed men did in the 1970s. Can you imagine if a man then or today would say to a woman, “Your clitoris is you?” No, only a leftist woman can get away with saying this. Unfortunately, these Vagina Warriors have chosen to focus on their body parts rather than their brains, talents or achievements. As such, they have effectively reduced themselves to the very thing they did not want to be defined by: their intimate anatomy. Feminists also loudly complained in the 1970s that men used their structural power to abuse women. In a monologue titled, “The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could,” a 24-year-old woman invites a 16-year-old girl into her car. The 16-year-old says, “She asks me if I like to kiss boys, and I tell her I do not like that. Then she says she wants to show me something, and she leans over and kisses me so softly on the lips with her lips and then puts her tongue in my mouth. Wow.” It gets worse. The 24-year-old asks her to spend the night, feeds her vodka, slides into lingerie and then teaches the young girl how to play with herself. If this is not abuse, I don’t know what is. Still, this is not condemned in the play. Rather, the young girl says, “I realized later she was my surprising, unexpected, politically incorrect salvation. She transformed my sorry-ass coochi snorcher and raised it up into a kind of heaven.” In The Vagina Monologues, then, a rapist is compared to “salvation” and as giving “heaven” to her victim. She is the heroine of the monologue. In turn, feminists have become the dominating, oppressive force, which they condemned in the 1970s when it was supposedly men acting this way, committing crimes and creating victims. These feminists are the monsters they once despised, abusing women and then celebrating it. The feminist movement has always been quick to point out the objectification and abuse they felt men were committing against women. I think it’s time that the feminists realize that they have become their own greatest enemy. The NeW website is: www.enlightenedwomen.org/home.htm