President Wildes’ recent e-mail to the annual fund mailing list about the campus performance of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” stirred up some old memories of my own experience on stage at Loyola.
When I starred in the 1989 Loyola production of Adelmo Dunghe’s “The Hour of Our Death” (a pretty routine AIDS play about a dying young man and his homosexually-inclined priest pal), there weren’t any actual protests, but ours was a small, “experimental” production, defiantly staged in spite of whatever administrative types or wealthy donors might be thinking at the time. This being New Orleans, the Times-Picayune reviewer gingerly genuflected at the pew, saying “Credit Loyola for allowing dissenting voices to be heard.” Credit Loyola? Were we supposed to be grateful that no one put the kibosh on our edgy little drama? For the record, we weren’t, and thought anyone who even clucked their tongues in our direction could go directly to white hot hell (in 1989, that mostly meant antagonistic, stupid frat boys who, having surfaced at Loyola after stints at local Catholic high schools, still invoked Jesus’ blessing on the cover sheets of their term papers…so much for critical thinking).
“The Vagina Monologues,” on the other hand, has been performed all over the world, and has deeply affected thousands of people who have felt alienated from their own bodies. So why the apologia from the university president? Wildes is, of course, simply trying to stem the tide of lost donations from those who prefer their monologues genitalia-free. Ensler’s work is anathema to everyone who continues to support Catholic doctrine; after all, there aren’t many entities more emblematic of systematic suppression of women than the Church. I say the Jesuits are especially loathsome because, despite the higher standard to which they hold themselves, they neglect to take any kind of leadership role, or act as agents of much-needed change on behalf of women all over the world. And why not? Because, despite their reputation, the much-heralded Society of Jesus is just as gutless as any other order, and just as beholden to their superiors in the Church hierarchy.
When I showed up at Loyola in 1986, I thought things might possibly be different based on the Jesuit “way of thinking.” I was wrong then, and the freshman who arrive later this year are in for the same 4-year master class in hypocrisy.
Rob KenneyBBA May 1990″Varsity Drag” columnist for The Maroon
