From:    Elaine Guidero <e.meredith.guidero@gmail.com>
To:      don@isc.astro.cornell.edu
Subject: Re: Vagina Monologues at Cornell: Censorship by the religious  community
Date:    Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:40:25 -0500

Dear Ken,

It has come to my attention that the performance of the VM was forcibly relocated from Sage Chapel to Annabel Taylor due to the agitation of the CURW. The wording of the excuse given by CURW, that mysterious and unnamed "others" would be "uncomfortable" were the monologues to take place in Sage Chapel, has me greatly worried for the nature of free speech on this campus.

The show itself is perhaps "uncomfortable." As a piece of poignant performance art, it is intended to bring awareness of sexuality and the myriad trespasses inflicted upon it. It is ludicrous that the CURW is offering a token $500 to assuage their discomfort at being open-minded. This relocation puts an unnecessary strain on the organizers of the Monologues, and is particularly troublesome due to the revenue losses that the organizers will have to take from being in a smaller venue.

Who, precisely, will be "uncomfortable" from this performance? And since when does Cornell, as a mostly freethinking institution, need to apologize for "discomfort?" If the mere idea of performing a piece of theatre that happens to have the word "Vagina" in the title is discomforting, then why do we allow the needlessly disgusting, graphic displays of the pro-life groups on campus during their annual siege of Ho Plaza? CURW needs to haul in the reins on their actions, and consider deeply the true motivation behind this forced relocation. I'm sure it would do more than few CURW members some good to grapple with their uncomfortableness and to embrace the allowance of multiple points of view.

Religious conservatism has no monopoly on Sage Chapel. Of course, neither does rampant licentiousness. Vagina Monologues is neither - it occupies that broad middle space where reasonable opinions of all kinds are allowed to flourish and be heard.

Please, reverse this decision. It does more harm than good.

Elaine Guidero