Intersex Advocates Educate Playgoers
Date: January 4, 2002
Publication: Just Out (Portland-based LGBT newspaper)
Three intersex advocates held an educational outreach in conjunction
with opening night of The Vagina Monologues Dec. 27 on the sidewalk
in front of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts.
At issue is a segment of the popular play in which writer Eve Ensler
tells "a wonderful vagina fairy tale" she heard in Oklahoma City.
The monologue involves a father consoling his 14-year-old daughter,
who just has learned she was born without a vagina.
"We're gonna get you the best homemade pussy in America," he tells
her. "And when you meet your husband he's gonna know we had it made
specially for him."
Emi Koyama - one of only two paid intersex activists in the world -
calls Monologues fun and insightful but says this particular segment
is misleading. She helped hand out 350 fliers explaining the
condition, which is known as vaginal agenasis.
Koyama works for the Intersex Society of North America, which seeks
to end shame, secrecy and unwanted genital surgeries on children.
She notes the segment also suggests that women's bodies are made
solely for husbands and that they should be altered to match what
men desire.
"Many intersex people who saw the play found this monologue - and
the roomful of laughter following it - hurtful if not outright
offensive," Koyama says, "We went home feeling sick or in tears,
while all other women talked to each other endlessly about how
empowered they felt."
According to Koyama, the goal of the outreach was not to protest The
Vagina Monologues but to raise awareness and visibility. Similar
actions have been held in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Boston.
"This is not just a play; this is a movement," Koyama says. "I want
to make sure that it accurately reflects intersex experience."
Koyama's efforts seem to be paying off: When The Vagina Monologues
plays next month at Portland State University, she will be able to
set up an informational table and to insert the fliers into the
programs. Promoters also have agreed to write a letter to Ensler and
to donate some of the proceeds to Intersex Initiative Portland and
the Survivor Project.
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