March 8, 2006

Please, No More Vaginas

On February 1, three women filed a suit against Wal-Mart in Massachusetts. This time, it was not about getting injured on a slippery floor or about the corporate giant not paying its cashiers a luxurious living wage. With the backing of Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, and Jane Doe Inc., the women sued about Wal-Mart’s refusal to sell emergency contraception in its stores.

In essence, these women want to know for sure that when they intentionally have unprotected sex, they can drive to the nearest Wal-Mart and purchase emergency contraceptives. In a planned experiment, the women went to Wal-Mart and were turned away after inquiring about the “morning-after pill.” Afterward, they went to other pharmacies and got their prescriptions filled. Nevertheless, they are going out of their way to sue Wal-Mart for not encouraging dangerous and promiscuous sexual behavior. Their families would be so proud.

This suit is not about rape, as some of its backers might claim. After all, a rape victim would, and certainly should, get to a hospital soon after her tragic incident, something that she can do with the help of family, friends, emergency services, or even on her own. But for some reason I find it hard to believe that a woman who has just undergone the traumatic experience of rape would speed over to Wal-Mart for her emergency contraception. Are Wal-Mart’s low prices really on her mind at that point in time?

This publicity stunt is instead about promoting wild sexual activity and moral degradation. The three women argue that emergency contraception is among “medications that are commonly prescribed to meet the usual needs of the community.” Really? Since when did unprotected sex become so rampant and acceptable that emergency contraception has become “a usual need of the community?” Forcing Wal-Mart to stock the morning-after pill is not only an atrocious encroachment on business freedom, but implies that sexual adventurousness, particularly unprotected sexual escapades, is part of normal American life.

February kept this trend of attacks on principle alive and well, as the month slowly transformed from a celebration of black history to a festival of, umm, vaginas. V-Day, or Vagina Day, is a growing nationwide festival revolving around the glorification of female sex organs and sexual activity, and takes place mostly in cities and on college campuses around the country.

The central event of V-Day has been “The Vagina Monologues,” which smears men and exploits female sexuality in order to raise awareness about violence against women. Is it me or does it not sound reasonable that a self-defense class would at the very least be moderately more effective in preventing violence against women than discussing the magnificence of vaginas?

V-Day, however, is not enough for the latest generation of feminists. In many places this year, it has evolved into V-Season, where college students and young people have to put up with Vagina-related activities for days and weeks. According to the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute, such activities include wearing t-shirts that read “I love my Vagina,” distributing vagina lollipops, holding orgasm workshops and erecting giant inflatable vaginas on campuses. And these self-proclaimed “Vagina Warriors” claim to be protecting women against violence. Surely, drawing so much attention to their sex organs will contribute to the development of a safe and secure environment.

With the glorification of pre-marital sex comes the need, for some at least, to make amends. Appropriately, stories have come out in recent weeks about the growing success of and demand for a relatively new operation – hymenoplasty. The operation can “revirginize” a woman by stitching her hymen back together. Although only a few doctors at this point are capable of performing such an operation, American women are flocking to what they see as a way to make up for past behavior.

Clearly, the focus that has been placed on the body part itself has led American women to miss the point of sex and virginity. While many seem to believe that the painful process of “revirgination” signifies satisfactory compensation for the past, they fail to understand that the question at hand here is morality, not physical virginity. Between glorifying vaginas and sexuality, offering the ability to “revirginize” women and seeking to ensure that the effects unprotected sex can be negated at the local Wal-Mart, our culture is turning into the promiscuous feminist’s dream world. And that was just February.