Her original letter was 600 words long (300 word limit) but even that letter didn’t make that much sense. What the bigger letter did show was that it was a hit piece designed to attack my campaign. (See my response to their survey here).

Basically, because I don’t think all children should be forced through comprehensive sex ed at age 6 even over the objection of parents, I’m really trying to control women’s bodies. Go figure. Just thought the connection between the letter writer and the campaign for thorough training in sexual technique was interesting.

Anyway, these types of events (as too with Vagina Monologues), I think, make a cause-effect connection between fear and shame over the female body, and hatred of women/violence against them. But that is too easy. For example, it raises the question: which causes which? The vast potential for sin, and its numerous effects on the world, makes this too difficult to give a blanket answer.

Perhaps, as you say, some people are demanding unequivocal acceptance of their desires. Perhaps this is due to the perverse way, I think, in which we human beings try to drown out our consciences with an even louder clamor of our increased sin!

John Paul the Great has an excellent analysis of shame in his theology of the body catecheses. Shame has the important purpose of hiding those aspects of the body in which sexual value is most invested and cause each sex to objectify the other person. As with the rest of these events, the purveyors of the ridiculous are oblivious to the reality of the fallen human person. They actually work at cross purposes to their stated intentions.

However, another possibility is that they are simply unwilling to acknowledge that there are negative consequences for certain actions and proceed to make Quixote-like demands that their desires be accepted without any attendant consequences.

The purpose, I think, is to make people “face” it (the anatomy of the woman), in order to eliminate shame, and then this will eliminate hatred/objectification of women (via the love of genitals). At least this is the argument behind The Vagina Monologues.

But how can focusing on one part of the woman’s body be the best way to stop the objectification of women?

Mary Martha - Thanks for the note. I will pass your comments on to Dawn.

Wonder - there is a link to both of the articles. I think that you are correct in terms of knee jerk reactions. This is not unusual for especially young people. What is particularly sad is the student newspaper which is supposed to be preparing students to be journalists prints such nonsensical garbage.

Good for Dawn and the Newmanites! They’re bright lights on a campus that can, at times, appear very dark.