Some felt offended. Others felt empowered. Regardless, the shock value of the Untamed Shrews' guerrilla theater performance in Food Court Tuesday has more people on campus thinking about this women's theatrical group than ever before.
At about noon, Shrew member Sally Rosenthal '95 shouted from the balcony overlooking the eating area, "If God had meant women to give blow jobs she wouldn't have given us teeth." Then she bit off the end of a cucumber and spit it over the railing.
Next, she and seven other members of the group read a poem about a woman who altered her looks to please a man and ended with the words, "Hey you, fuck off."
The goal of the performance was to "get people to come to our show who wouldn't normally see it," Rosenthal said in a later interview. A discussion follows each Shrews performance so the audience can talk about reactions to the skits or to other experiences, including the show in Food Court.
The group, made up of 13 women this term, performed Tuesday and Wednesday nights this week, drawing approximately 50 people each time. Last term, with about three times as many students on campus, about 10 people came to the Shrews' first performance, Rosenthal said.
The Shrews read excerpts from works by women of all backgrounds, including several true stories written by members of the group.
"The best weapon I have is my voice. If I shock people by using it, that's just too bad," said Corey Fleming '95 in a self-authored monologue she read during Wednesday night's performance.
Despite the increased turnout at the scheduled performances, and the applause from some women in the Food Court audience, several people left the room during the lunch time display and others said they were shocked and offended.
"I was pretty offended. It's not exactly the kind of stuff I wanted to hear at lunch," one male '95 said. "I understood the message they were trying to convey but did not agree with the way they did it."
The student said the Food Court performance "definitely did not" make him want to attend a Shrews performance.
But members of the Shrews, a group known for its in-your-face style of dealing with women's issues, said they expected that reaction.
"The response just shows people aren't willing to listen," Shrew member Nadia Bowers '95 said. "If you're offended by it, maybe you should look at why that offended you."
Though several members of the group have expressed uncertainty about their choice to include the quote at the beginning of the piece, they all supported vocalizing their ideas.
"In order to make a point, sometimes you have to shock people," Shrew member Ali Ruff '95 said.
Bowers agreed. "What we did was an exercise in freedom of speech. We chose to be vocal. I wish people would respect that."
She said the First Amendment guarantees all groups the right to perform as they did. Food Court Manager Beth Jones agreed, though she said she objected to the profanity.
"I'm all for it -- the more people who can use these spaces the better for us and for them." she said. Following the show, Jones said she asked the group not to use profanity if they performed again and members agreed to provide a script before their next unscheduled performance, she said.
A couple Shrews members said they are sure other offensive phrases have been used in a College facility, but the difference is that they stood on chairs and shouted it to the entire room.
"This is probably one of the more benign things said in Food Court," Bowers said. "What was different is the fact that we said it out loud."
Several Shrew members said a performance like the one in Food Court would not have been as shocking at colleges where more groups are as outspoken as the Shrews.
"It's such a conservative campus that anything out of the ordinary looks radical," Ruff said. "It needs to be shaken up. Different people's view points need to be heard."
Rosenthal said the Shrews have toned down their act somewhat since they first began in 1991. "We have become more visible and a lot more mainstream," she said. "We've reached more people."
Several of the skits are satirical, taken from advertisements and magazines articles seen as degrading towards women.
The skits each term are chosen by the individual members of the group, Rosenthal explained during the discussion following Wednesday's performance.
"You need a mix," Bowers said. "You can't lose the shock value," but the message comes across better if you can relate to it, she said.
This term most of the readings deal with gender relations, but some terms skits cover women's health issues, such as breast cancer and eating disorders.
"We choose the issues that are really personal to us," Fleming said. This term she reads a piece in which a 16-year-old woman is coerced into having sex with her boyfriend, a piece which she said is based on her own experience and journal entries.
"I know so many women with similar stories and I want them to know they're not alone," she said.
Several members of the group said they hope to reach people in the audience by detailing accounts of rape and harassment, rather than by just spouting off statistics that sometimes seem to put reality at a distance.
"It's one thing to hear statistics. It's different to hear a story," Shrew member Lauren Lieberman '95 said. "I hope this brings things closer."
Of the approximately 50 students at each performance, approximately15 men were in Tuesday's audience and about 25 in Wednesday's. Though members of the group said they were pleased with the turnout, Ruff said she found it interesting that men seemed to dominate the discussions afterwards.
She pointed out that if women do not share their ideas, it loses sight of one of the main objectives of the performance: to help women be more vocal and not worry what men think about what they say.
Some students who participated in the discussions worried that the Shrews were seen as a "male-bashing" organization. While many skits had to do with harassment of women by men, members of the group assured the audience such criticism was not aimed at men in general.
"I wouldn't want it to be seen as a male-bashing group," Ruff said. "I'm in it for the empowerment."
One of the skits this term deals with the gang rape of a woman by fraternity brothers, but members said the message was not aimed solely at fraternities. Others though said the Greek organizations tend to foster a male dominating attitude and a loss of individuality.
"The dynamics of the Greek System affect how we perceive women's issues," Shrew member Lisa Kocian '95 said. "The basis of our social system is going out, often to a fraternity house -- a guy's house."
Kocian said every sorority on campus, but only two fraternities, are co-sponsoring one of Shrews' four performances this term.
