In February, the Ugandan government stupidly banned a scheduled performance of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” that country.
The Uganda Media Council demanded that changes be made to the performance before it could go forth. Specifically, the UMC wanted the performance to emit all references to homosexual acts. The play’s organizers refused, and the performance was canceled.
The UMC issued a statement saying that,
The play promotes illegal, unnatural sexual acts, homosexuality and prostitution, it should be and is hereby banned.
Ensler for her part told the BBC that Uganda is afraid of vaginas,
There is obviously some fear of the vagina and saying the word vagina. It’s not a slang word or dirty word, it’s a biological, anatomical word.
No word on whether or not the version of the play that was to be performed in Uganda included the scene of in which a 24-year-old woman has sex with a 13-year-old girl and the girl proclaims that “if it was rape, it was a good rape”, which has been cut from most recent U.S. performances of the play (presumably we’re all afraid of young vaginas or “good rape”.)
Sources:
Uganda ban on Vagina Monologues. The BBC, February 18, 2005.
Don’t mention the V-word: Uganda bans Monologues. Jeevan Vasagar, The Observer, February 20, 2005.