"The Vagina Monologues" is promoted as a play with an ultimate goal to raise awareness regarding violence against women, according to www.vday.org. However, if we analyze this play for its actual content, it is easy to see how it fails this objective as it glorifies and celebrates rape and prostitution, identifies women with their sexual organs and sends an overall anti-male message.

In a sketch entitled "The Little Coochi Snorcher that Could" a 16-year-old girl (age 13 in the original version, but 16 makes it better somehow) describes how an older woman intoxicates and sexually molests her. Some versions of the play also have the young girl describing this experience as "good rape." According to any feminist or legal definition of rape (e.g. sexual activity forced upon someone unable or unwilling to give consent, sexual activity with a minor, use of alcohol as a means to coerce a victim) this sequence fits right in. However, in the play, the sexual abuser gets a pass because she is a woman. Imagine the outcry if the attacker were a man. Is there such a thing as "good rape?" I think we can safely say no.

Another scene called "The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy," features an attorney-turned-prostitute who caters exclusively to women. The play treats lesbian prostitution as an acceptable alternative to a real job: "There was nothing like this in tax law. There was no props, no excitement, and I hated those blue corporate suits." This specific monologue goes directly against the argument that working in the sex industry dehumanizes women. For a play that is supposed to empower women, doesn’t this sound counter- intuitive?

A third monologue involves an actress leading the audience in the chant of a vulgar word for vagina as a means of reclaiming the obscene term. What exactly does the vocal repetition of such a word have anything to do with raising awareness about female violence? Oh wait, now I remember. Nothing.

As an aggregate, "The Vagina Monologues" has an anti-male bias. There is not a single positive male figure in the entire play, and men in general are portrayed as creeps, rapists or sex abusers. In fact, men are banned from acting in the play outright, according to the official V-Day guidelines. One could posit that hosting this event actually violates the Albion College Diversity Statement, which condemns discriminating by gender.