COLUMN: Try something a little less comfortable
What makes you uncomfortable? Being in certain places? Being with certain people? When these people say certain things? Why does it make you uncomfortable? I ask only because this week I was walking down the bottom floor of the TSC and noticed a few people wearing purple boas around their necks. You may have seen this as well.
This was a clever marketing ploy conjured up by Utah State Universities very own L.I.F.E. (Love Is For Everyone) organization in an effort to advertise an upcoming event, The Vagina Monologues.
Again, I ask what makes you uncomfortable because these are the things that usually are real to us. This may be difficult to understand, so allow me to re-explain. How many of us aren’t our real selves all of the time? It is really easy for us to put on a face for a day, a week, a month, or years. My point is this, no matter what we make ourselves out to be, the same things will always make us uncomfortable, scared or nervous.
Those feelings are feelings we can’t escape. We may be able to hide them on the outside, but we still feel them on the inside. The Vagina Monologues, a controversial topic indeed, will do just that. They will make you feel uncomfortable, embarrassed (for yourself and the performers), and possibly make you want to leave the room, but with that feeling comes a sense of reality and a better understanding of something you may not have known prior to attending.
Some of the moments most imprinted in my mind came from shocking scenes and words that made me feel something. Whether it was being scared, feeling nervous or a sense of excitement, I had to be out of my comfort zone for it to help me to experience a real change. Some of these feelings sparked from controversy, but is controversy bad? It has such a negative connotation.
We hear critics and newswriters all of the time talk about controversial movies, songs with controversial lyrics, or people violating well-understood and established social norms. Think of some controversial moments in history that led to changes that have shaped who we are as a nation: Rosa not giving up her seat leading the way to a Civil Rights movement that would lead the way to desegregation laws, or Michael Sheppard’s murder bringing national and international attention to the contention of hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels.
What I am trying to say is this, the name of the monologue might make you uncomfortable, and I can guarantee, after having listened to some of the monologues myself, that I already know that you will feel uncomfortable while listening, but that’s OK. The point of the event isn’t to just let a bunch of people talk about uncomfortable things to make you uncomfortable. It is to gain awareness!
One of the acts in the monologue is a compilation of testimonies of Bosnian women subjected to rape camps. Nobody else is talking about these kinds of things and they can’t be ignored. I, for one, am grateful for controversial topics because they help change the world. They shed light on issues that would otherwise be lost or swept under the rug. This event is one that will make you uncomfortable, it may even offend you, but its message is one that you will never forget, and that is why being controversial is OK.
Keenan Nuehring is the ASUSU administrative assistant.