Censured Rep Hits Back With Vagina Monologues

Playwright Eve Ensler coming for Vagina performance tomorrow
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 17, 2012 7:16 AM CDT
Censured Rep Hits Back With Vagina Monologues
Lawmakers and actresses will perform "The Vagina Monologues" on the steps of the Michigan Capitol tomorrow to protest Lisa Brown being censured for saying "vagina."   (Shutterstock)

Hide your legislators—vaginas are coming to Michigan. After Rep. Lisa Brown was banned from speaking in the House of Representatives for using the word "vagina" in a debate about a new anti-abortion law, Brown and eight other female state legislators will protest by performing The Vagina Monologues on the steps of the Capitol tomorrow, along with several local actresses and the play's author, Eve Ensler, reports the Detroit Free Press.

"No one is throwing these words around (in the Legislature) without a rational context. If these men can't handle the debate about women's bodies, they shouldn't be taking away our rights" to abortion access, said state senator Gretchen Whitmer. Brown was especially upset that the Republican representative who said "vagina" was offensive and an improper word to use in front of women was a biology major in college. "These lawmakers—predominantly men—have no problem passing laws about my vagina. But when I dared mention its name, they became outraged," wrote Brown in an editorial in the Detroit Free Press. (More Lisa Brown stories.)

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