Spring 2010 101 Research: Intellectual Freedom

Katie's Findings

Feminism and the Vagina Monologues

"Queerness, Disability, and The Vagina Monologues" By: Hall, Kim Q. Hypatia, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Winter 2005), pp. 99-119 Published by: Indiana University Press

This paper questions the connection between vaginas and feminist embodiment in The Vagina Monologues and considers how the text both challenges and reinscribes (albeit unintentionally) systems of patriarchy, compulsory heterosexuality, and ableism. It uses the Intersex Society of North America's critique as a point of departure and argue that the text offers theorists and activists in feminist, queer, and disability communities an opportunity to understand how power operates in both dominant discourses that degrade vaginas and strategies of feminist resistance that seek to reclaim and celebrate them.

Finding 2

Talking About "Down There": The Politics of Publicizing the Female Body through "The Vagina Monologues." By: Hammers, Michele L., Women's Studies in Communication; Fall 2006, Vol. 29 Issue 2, p220-243, 24p

This critical reading of "The Vagina Monologues" examines the play's circulation within dominant discourses of public and private and considers the ways in which the play works to reconfigure the female body and body-related issues as properly public. However, this article also begins to explore the potentially essentialist and reductive nature of the play's construction of female identity.

Finding 3

Women’s and Gender Studies department questions use of University Events Policy. By Several University Faculty Members.The Gonzaga Bulletin; April 1 2010.

A letter to President McCulloh and the Board of Trustees regarding the ban on the Vagina Monologues. [1]

Nicole's Findings

Finding 1

M Cathleen Kaveny. "The Perfect Storm. " America 8 May 2006: Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 31 Mar. 2010.

This article talks about the controversy over "The Vagina Monologues" illustrates the continuing tension between two views of how Catholicism should relate to contemporary culture.

Finding 2

"Success Stories: Colleges and Universities. " Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom 55.4 (2006): 211-212. Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 31 Mar. 2010.

This article talks about the University of Notre Dame will continue to allow a gay film festival and the play "Vagina Monologues" on campus, its president announced April 5.