Looking Good, The Adonis Complex, and The Vagina Monologues
The Bobbitt Contribution
By Erik Tarloff
Posted Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2001, at 4:27 PM ETLadies and gentleman,
Before we leave this part of the discussion with a wistful and good-natured "chaque a son gout," I do want to address a couple of points Katha and Marjorie made in their postings today. Especially Katha, who attributes to me opinions I did not express and do not hold.
She says I regarded The Vagina Monologues as hostile to men and to sex, she suggests I felt the play contains "anti-male diatribes" and some sort of "political lesbian" agenda, and she informs me that I was "bothered" by a scene in which a frigid woman learns to masturbate. None of this is true. I think the politics implicit in the play are largely benign and its goals generally unexceptionable. I also think the writing is inept and the mentality behind it unimaginative and vapid.
Today's discussion may well exemplify the reasons Chris and I both consider the play to be agitprop. I was brought up in left-wing circles in which, too often, mediocre work was extolled if its political tendencies were considered worthy. There's something coercive, even totalitarian, about this sort of exercise, as if a failure to admire the work is tantamount to a rejection of its political and moral values. Which is why I've taken the time to address the attitudes Katha attributes to me. I can comfortably applaud most of what Eve Ensler is attempting and still find the piece itself valueless.
In addition, I can only conclude that Marjorie has apparently heard the word "penis" a lot more frequently than I have. In my experience, its use was another social no-no (not quite a taboo, but a genuine envelope-pusher in polite company) until that fateful day Lorena Bobbitt lopped off her husband's. And then, all at once, the word was ubiquitous, downright inescapable. Out of the closet and (literally, in poor John's case) into the streets. Otherwise, words like "penis" and "vagina" were normally restricted to doctors' offices and to high-school hygiene classes (accompanied, in the latter, by nervous tittering). Latinate medical terms are not the sort of vocabulary lovers use in bed, after all, nor are they especially common in locker rooms, either boys' or girls'.
Marjorie is gently ironic about the attitudes toward female anatomy that Chris and I profess. I'm not quite sure why. That one felt like a cheap shot. The mechanics of sexual reproduction are rather extraordinary, and when you factor in their emotional component, they are even more so; the hydraulics of male sexual functioning still seem to me a legitimate subject of awe even though I've lived with them all my life, and the astonishing fact of female orgasm--unnecessary for reproduction but damned useful for bonding--is enough to make an agnostic reconsider. The lunar influence on the menstrual cycle is mysterious and haunting, and childbirth is a never-ending source of transcendent wonder. And Marjorie, this is a reformed pornographer (as Jodi was kind enough to remind us all yesterday) talking.
Finally, Jodi, Katha, and Marjorie all insist that the productions of the play they've witnessed brought out merit not apparent on the printed page. This is certainly possible ; as a sometime playwright and screenwriter, I'm aware that work intended for performance always benefits from the creative contribution of an inspired performer. But I also know that Ella Fitzgerald's first big hit was "A Tisket a Tasket." Her extraordinary virtuosity made the record noteworthy, but it doesn't make the song any better.
We seem to be giving male bodies short shrift this week. Such, I suppose, is the power of the vagina.
Fraternally,
Erik
The Bobbitt Contribution
By Erik Tarloff
Posted Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2001, at 4:27 PM ETReader Comments From The Fray:
[Notes from the Fray Editor: All right, calm down everyone. Let's just say, the Fray reflected the Book Club. Strong words, strong feelings, and a lot of comment on sex, relationships and vaginas. And on childbirth, some of it from those who are never going to experience it. Yes, that Natalie Angier post (below) did provoke comment. Yes, the views held were somewhat, but not wholly, gender-predictable. Yes, having an opinion on what women think during childbirth is apparently a valuable debating skill. Yes, we at the Fray keep remembering how much we enjoyed those tips on making grilled cheese sandwiches that came with the John Le Carre Book Club a few weeks back.
Some nice posts below. A good discussion on phallocentric writing started here. And it was a relief that all Goatgut wanted to tell us tell us was that it's Visa which is 'everywhere you want to be'; whereas Mastercard is 'priceless'.]
Chris Caldwell says:
"Or that poem about being in a room when a baby was born--which has nothing about a baby being born. The poem is all about the vagina--a really demented perspective, for anyone who has ever watched a delivery."
Demented perspective?!? Demented perspective??!! For the nearly two hours of delivering my kid, the only goddamn thing I thought about was my vagina, and my anus, too, because they felt like one and the same conduit throughout the ordeal. As Shulamith Firestone put it, childbirth is "like shitting a pumpkin," and for the average heaving vagina in labor, the baby counts for nothing until it has been expelled, ejected, dumped! Which takes forever! And then you still have to push out the placenta! Eve Ensler has it exactly right:
Childbirth is really about vaginas. Except when it's about assholes.
Chris Caldwell must have been watching a C-section
--Natalie Angier
(To reply, click
here.)
I think the Adonis complex is lodged firmly (excuse the pun) in the upper-middle class. The upper class can woo and succeed on money and collections alone. The upwardly mobile, however, need an extra edge. Or perhaps I'm completely wrong, but has anyone ever studied whether non-college college-aged women are as susceptible to eating disorders as those in college?
Btw: what's the problem with the Vagina Monologues? They may not work as literature, but I don't know of anyone who's ever seen them (I haven't) and not enjoyed it. I also understand that a couple of rapists and Bob the Curious are the only males that show up, but isn't the whole point that it is not about men? I mean, who but the most cynical of Hollywood producers would insist that some vagina-loving men be inserted to counterbalance the vagina-hating ones?
--Fletch
(To reply, click
here.)
Christopher Caldwell asks, "And what kind of sad person prefers power to romance?" Well, any person who has no power, or any person who has only a very indirect kind of power. Frankly, the power versus romance thing sort of smacks of the ethics versus a full stomach. Only the people who have the basics (and power is a basic for a human being, regardless of gender) have the time to focus on the nice things like romance. Is it sad that people lack these basics? You bet.
--Dea
(To reply, click
here.)
Jodi Kantor and Katha Pollitt seem to see The Vagina Monologues as simply a female counterpart to something that men have always done--publicly exploring their sexuality and taking pride in their bodies. But where exactly do they see all this male celebration of male anatomy and male physiological functions? (That's why I've always thought Steinem's "If Men Could Menstruate" essay was the height of silliness. After all, men can masturbate, but it's hardly something that has been traditionally celebrated in our culture.)
Yes, one can find some passages in D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller and Norman Mailer exalting the generative and creative powers of male genitalia. (In Sexual Politics, Kate Millett cites a hilarious Lawrence passage on the mystical powers of balls.) Still, this is fairly marginal stuff. Kantor cites Portnoy's Complaint and There's Something About Mary as male parallels of sorts to Monologues. But these works, in facts, are expressions of sexual shame, not of "penis pride."
Since I haven't seen or even read The Vagina Monologues, I don't know whether or not it has a lot of male-bashing...I have to wonder, however: doesn't it bother Kantor and Pollitt that the play celebrates an adult woman's seduction of a 13-year-old girl? The girl is even shown saying, "if it was rape, it was a good rape." No need, I think, to ask anyone to imagine what the reaction would be if this was an adult male seducing a 13-year-old girl...
--Cathy Young
(To reply, click
here.)
I take issue with the writers' assertion that women do not like the bodybuilder's body. The pictures to which the women so negatively reacted probably were of professional bodybuilders in full contest mode. Most men would never think that this level of size would attract many women. But show those same women pictures of professional fitness models, or Chippendale dancers, and the reaction would be quite different. These are men who are in reality very large and very defined, just not as much as the guys who do anabolic steroids for the whole off-season. Think Brad Pitt in Fight Club and you know what most men in the gym are trying to achieve. Please do not tell me that women do not find it attractive. Since I have been working out significantly, my dating prospects zoomed through the roof.
Oh, by the way, the female orgasm plays can play a role in impregnation: the woman is more likely to be inseminated after an orgasm, so don't say that it has no reproductive function
--Bruce Garrison
(To reply, click
here.)
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This week, Chris Caldwell, Jodi Kantor, and Erik Tarloff examine three books about body image: Looking Good, The Adonis Complex, and The Vagina Monologues. Click here for a word on our format. To read this discussion from the beginning, click here. 
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Reader Comments From The Fray:
[Notes from the Fray Editor: All right, calm down everyone. Let's just say, the Fray reflected the Book Club. Strong words, strong feelings, and a lot of comment on sex, relationships and vaginas. And on childbirth, some of it from those who are never going to experience it. Yes, that Natalie Angier post (below) did provoke comment. Yes, the views held were somewhat, but not wholly, gender-predictable. Yes, having an opinion on what women think during childbirth is apparently a valuable debating skill. Yes, we at the Fray keep remembering how much we enjoyed those tips on making grilled cheese sandwiches that came with the John Le Carre Book Club a few weeks back.
Some nice posts below. A good discussion on phallocentric writing started here. And it was a relief that all Goatgut wanted to tell us tell us was that it's Visa which is 'everywhere you want to be'; whereas Mastercard is 'priceless'.]
Chris Caldwell says:
Demented perspective?!? Demented perspective??!! For the nearly two hours of delivering my kid, the only goddamn thing I thought about was my vagina, and my anus, too, because they felt like one and the same conduit throughout the ordeal. As Shulamith Firestone put it, childbirth is "like shitting a pumpkin," and for the average heaving vagina in labor, the baby counts for nothing until it has been expelled, ejected, dumped! Which takes forever! And then you still have to push out the placenta! Eve Ensler has it exactly right:
Chris Caldwell must have been watching a C-section
--Natalie Angier
(To reply, click here.)
I think the Adonis complex is lodged firmly (excuse the pun) in the upper-middle class. The upper class can woo and succeed on money and collections alone. The upwardly mobile, however, need an extra edge. Or perhaps I'm completely wrong, but has anyone ever studied whether non-college college-aged women are as susceptible to eating disorders as those in college?
Btw: what's the problem with the Vagina Monologues? They may not work as literature, but I don't know of anyone who's ever seen them (I haven't) and not enjoyed it. I also understand that a couple of rapists and Bob the Curious are the only males that show up, but isn't the whole point that it is not about men? I mean, who but the most cynical of Hollywood producers would insist that some vagina-loving men be inserted to counterbalance the vagina-hating ones?
--Fletch
(To reply, click here.)
Christopher Caldwell asks, "And what kind of sad person prefers power to romance?" Well, any person who has no power, or any person who has only a very indirect kind of power. Frankly, the power versus romance thing sort of smacks of the ethics versus a full stomach. Only the people who have the basics (and power is a basic for a human being, regardless of gender) have the time to focus on the nice things like romance. Is it sad that people lack these basics? You bet.
--Dea
(To reply, click here.)
Jodi Kantor and Katha Pollitt seem to see The Vagina Monologues as simply a female counterpart to something that men have always done--publicly exploring their sexuality and taking pride in their bodies. But where exactly do they see all this male celebration of male anatomy and male physiological functions? (That's why I've always thought Steinem's "If Men Could Menstruate" essay was the height of silliness. After all, men can masturbate, but it's hardly something that has been traditionally celebrated in our culture.)
Yes, one can find some passages in D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller and Norman Mailer exalting the generative and creative powers of male genitalia. (In Sexual Politics, Kate Millett cites a hilarious Lawrence passage on the mystical powers of balls.) Still, this is fairly marginal stuff. Kantor cites Portnoy's Complaint and There's Something About Mary as male parallels of sorts to Monologues. But these works, in facts, are expressions of sexual shame, not of "penis pride."
Since I haven't seen or even read The Vagina Monologues, I don't know whether or not it has a lot of male-bashing...I have to wonder, however: doesn't it bother Kantor and Pollitt that the play celebrates an adult woman's seduction of a 13-year-old girl? The girl is even shown saying, "if it was rape, it was a good rape." No need, I think, to ask anyone to imagine what the reaction would be if this was an adult male seducing a 13-year-old girl...
--Cathy Young
(To reply, click here.)
I take issue with the writers' assertion that women do not like the bodybuilder's body. The pictures to which the women so negatively reacted probably were of professional bodybuilders in full contest mode. Most men would never think that this level of size would attract many women. But show those same women pictures of professional fitness models, or Chippendale dancers, and the reaction would be quite different. These are men who are in reality very large and very defined, just not as much as the guys who do anabolic steroids for the whole off-season. Think Brad Pitt in Fight Club and you know what most men in the gym are trying to achieve. Please do not tell me that women do not find it attractive. Since I have been working out significantly, my dating prospects zoomed through the roof.
Oh, by the way, the female orgasm plays can play a role in impregnation: the woman is more likely to be inseminated after an orgasm, so don't say that it has no reproductive function
--Bruce Garrison
(To reply, click here.)