College office cancels 'The Vagina Monologues' because, well, 'not all women have vaginas

The Women's Resource Center at Eastern Michigan University no longer will host "The Vagina Monologues" because the play lacks diversity and inclusion, focuses on cisgender women, and excludes transgenders, MLive reported.

'Not all women have vaginas'?

The center's decision came on the heels of a survey launched after conversations with current students, as well as feedback from a WRC workshop titled, "Not all women have vaginas," during the 2017-18 academic year, the outlet said.

"We feel that making this decision is in line with the WRC mission of recognizing and celebrating the diverse representations of women on campus along with the overall mission of the Department of Diversity and Community Involvement, in which the WRC is housed, of supporting and empowering minoritized students and challenging systems and structures that perpetuate inequities," the WRC told MLive in an email. "We truly believe that it is important to center our minoritized students and this decision is in line with this mission driven value."

The center's email added that "many of the same people" favoring the production believe it should be modified or accompanied by workshops that address the diversity and inclusion the play lacks, the outlet said.

But alas, copyright law prohibits changing the script of Eve Ensler's iconic feminist play, MLive said, which features first-person narratives of women discussing their vaginas.

Is this an uncommon occurrence?

Turns out EMU isn't the first college to take a new look at "The Vagina Monologues."

More from the outlet:

• American University's Women's Initiative chose to change the event to the "Breaking Ground Monologues" in an effort to "broaden the focus from specifically female genitalia to multiple identities and bodies."
• In 2015, a student group at Mount Holyoke College decided to cancel its annual performance of production, saying the play excludes the experiences of transgender women who don't have a vagina.

Here's a clip on the origins of "The Vagina Monologues," which features a long list of all different kinds of women who talked about their genitalia — and sure enough, transgenders are left out:



(H/T: The College Fix)