aaryn belfer.

You know Fonda’s delivery and tone were so matter-of-fact that I can see where the censor might have snoozed through it. The apology seemed overblown…particularly since the next segment was on how to keep your love alive.

Posted by Mrs. G. on 14 February 2008 @ 8pm

Oy. How is that a “slip” anyway?

Posted by the end of motherhood on 14 February 2008 @ 9pm

I would like to know what Joy Behar’s response to that apology was.

Go Fonda.

Posted by Cheri on 15 February 2008 @ 12am

Like Mrs. G said, her delivery was straight dead-pan. And really, I didn’t find it offensive because it wasn’t used in a derogatory manner or directed at anyone in particular. She was just stating that she already is widely despised and to appear in a vignette with a distasteful title might just add to her problems. She was being funny and I thought it made perfect sense. Of course, having been married to Ted Turner at one time and being as politically savvy as she is, I find it difficult to believe that she doesn’t know the words that earn fines from the FCC. Still. She’s just one of those women who says what’s on her mind and then takes the punches. I really admire the fearlessness. A lot.

Posted by Aaryn on 15 February 2008 @ 7am

Did you see Viera’s reaction over there on the right? Haaaaa. Delicious. I love live televised awkwardness.

Posted by Melanie at BeanPaste on 15 February 2008 @ 10am

It’s not a “vulgar” term, it’s a title! Of course I don’t find this surprising - a student in one of my grad school classes (not undergrad, I went to (the all women’s college) Smith, we talked about vaginas, um, all the time) announced the annual performance of “Vagina Monologues” and the little bastard of a professor screamed “Don’t use that word in my class!!!” In his biology class. Sad. So in a way I’m not surprised cunt caused such an uproar when biologists don’t like to hear vagina. Anywho, thanks for posting the video, I missed it live!

Posted by allison on 15 February 2008 @ 1pm

Posted by Yiftach on 15 February 2008 @ 4pm

I’m sure that between that segment and the apology there were about 5,000 phone calls from horrified midwestern housewives. I gotta say, there’s a difference when a man says it and when a woman says it—many years ago I filed a complaint against a male co-worker (pre-CityBeat!) who had a penchant for snarling “cunt” whenever he got a phone call from a difficult female client. I sat only a few feet away from him—I didn’t think it would bother me as much as it did. But it did. Jane’s utterance, however—no prob.

Posted by KellyD on 16 February 2008 @ 10am

That’s the thing about it, Kelly, that I was saying. The whole point of The Vagina Monologues is to reclaim, respect and honor the vagina in all of it’s terms. Ensler interviews hundreds (thousands) of women to create that play and so, the vignettes are in their words. When Fonda used the term, she wasn’t using it to insult someone—as was that awful co-worker you used to have—but just stating the name of a play she was going to be in. And that, I think, is why it isn’t bothersome. I agree, they probably did get tons of phone calls from people who would rather not have the conversation with their children (or spouses…or even with themselves) about what that word means, where it comes from and why it carries such an offensive, negative connotation.

Posted by Aaryn on 16 February 2008 @ 12pm

1. from Eve Ensler:

“Let me just say something about that word,” she said. “The whole point of the play is to reclaim that word, and to make that word beautiful, and to make that word powerful, and not denigrating, and not ugly.”

2. any “offended” audience should have been prepared and shuttled their poor innocent selves and their sheltered children out of the room… the topic was THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES. doh!

Posted by Jenn on 16 February 2008 @ 10pm