Bad Reputation

By Penny Arcade, NY

Scene three  

women betray women, brain stem, erotic dance

"Big Spender" plays.

The girls enter upstage.

Red lights illuminate the chorus line. They stand, facing the back of the stage, in a line. On cue, they begin dancing, stepping toward the audience, looking over their shoulders, hands on hips. The girls are wearing heels, boots, short shorts and bikinis. Penny steps onto stage right, clutching a microphone. All are swathed in red light.

Penny:

You see a girl with bleached blonde hair, 6 tattoos and 4

All:    

visible

Penny:

piercings.  She's dressed in bondage gear. You ask her what she does and she tells you she's  majoring in economics. 

The girls begin speaking, one by one. As they deliver their lines, each dancer comes forward, look at the audience.

Catherine:

Hey, cowboy...

Julie/Linda:

Wanna dance?

Holt: 

A little dance won't hurt ya...

Viva: 

You just got a studio for $1,500

Kelly:  

That's such a steal.

Patti:  

Are you an actor? You look like an actor...

Barbara:  

That is definately Fringe material.

Jodi:

I just got a job at THE Coffee Shop

Jodi walks across downstage

Penny:

I told a "downtown" girl with a bad girl image I was doing a bad girl show that was about being in reform school when I was 14....

Jodi: 

Wow! You're a real one!

The audience laughs.

Penny:  

a real what?

Penny is confused.

Jodi:  

A real bad girl.

Penny:  

And you what were you doing at 13?

Jodi:

I didn't have the nerve to be bad.

I saw what happened to girls who are bad.

Girls exit. White spotlight replaces red lights. Penny steps into the spotlight. Center stage.

Penny:

I've done everything except beg on the street and kill someone.

Do you think that will interfere with me getting my own sitcom?

Spotlight off.

"Honey Pie" plays.

Spotlight on.

Penny screams. Her voice pierces the air, the microphone amplifies her scream to an unbearable, deafening pitch. She shakes her fist in the air, her mouth a frown, teeth bared like a feral dog. The atmosphere in the theatre reaches a painful frequency. 

Penny:

"I HOPE YOU GET RAPED and when you get raped, don't come crying to us." and I walked back to her ... I said, "I know you feel very strongly about pronography but you're wishing me to be raped.   Isn't that a bit competitive."  Meanwhile it's a red light and men are hanging out of their cars laughing at us and I said "Oh this is great! Is this is how you empower women?"  I didn't realize then what was really going on?   But fifteen years later I have realized what it is, i   t's the brain stem

"Brain Stem" plays. The music is childish, tinkling, reminding us of an instructive film from the 50’s that play in the classroom.

Dancers  come out in lab coats for a lecture demonstration. They hold up a giant white board, illustrated with the human brain. The image is like a coiled mass of sausages, or fecal matter, a lump of a thing held up by a stem. Frontal lobe, motor cortex, central fissure, sensory cortex, occipital lobe, cerebellum, Medulla oblongata, spinal cord, temporal lobe, lattoral fissure, pons, temporal lobe. Penny points to each part of the brain as she narrates.

Penny:

Yes.  The brain stem.  It's the brain stem, the primitive part of the brain.  Here it is the modula oblangata, the cereballum, the occipital lobe, the sensory cortex, the central fissur, the motor cortex, the frontal lobe, the lateral fissur, the temporal lobe, all oh these from the modula oblangata up, are relatively new to human development.     Italians of course, only have this part.     Points to the modula oblangata.  Apparently nothing above this part has been neccessary by evolution.  Now listen up, in a woman, the modual oblangata whispers a message continuously from about the age sixteen, depending on the culture you grow up in, and it gets louder and louder as you get older untli you're in your forties it is screaming,  the brain stem says "protection.  Protection.  Protection."  In a man the whispered message starts around the age of thirteen, fourteen, fifteen but stays completely the same until death, it says, "beer, pussy, chips".   The idea that we are living in 1999 and no longer subject to our biological survival as a species is ludicrous - competition is in our chemistry.  Women compete against each other, it's in our biology.  That's what I hate about second wave feminism they said biology didn't count and yet we're run by our biology.

Penny aims the pointer out towards the audience. She paces in front of the illustration. The dancers, some wearing spectacles and holding notepads, look on quietly.

All:

What?  Explain that!  Proof! 

The dancers toss the board and crowd around Penny.

Penny:

Biologically, women are programmed to compete with women for men for protection, and yet we don't even know it.

Some girls speak up in defense.

Jodi: 

Now we have our own apartments!

Holt: 

Our own jobs!

Viva: 

Our own money!

Patti:

Our own friends!

Penny:

But the biological mechanism  is still in place so -

we're not competing for men anymore, now we're just competing!  It's in there, it's our impulse.

They chime in, agreeing now with Penny.

Barbara :

Women hardly ever stand up for each other.

Webb: 

Or promote each other.

Penny:

There is a deep deep suspicion between women.  That's why there's been so little progress for women's rights.

Linda:

Women have to like a women personally in order to listen to a woman's ideas.

Catherine:

That's why feminism hasn't progressed. 

Holt:

Women can not tolerate a strong woman.

Viva:

They can not tolerate a woman who stands out in any way.

The setting is classroom-like. Penny is the instructor. The dancers are her students, asking questions and interrupting with pointed comments.

Penny:

Because biologically women have a herd mentality.

All:  

What?

Penny:

Did you ever look at field of cows?  15 cows, one bull, we haven't gone past that.   Do you think it's because of men that feminism has failed to be embraced by the widest margins of society?? The one thing that feminists won't talk about is how women betray women, and that is the real failure of feminism.

"Night Logic" plays.

The lights dim, red lights go on. The dancers are now wearing midriff-baring outfits and belly dance to the music. They shake in Penny’s perimeter.

Penny:

I use erotic dance because I believe it is the most powerful feminist art form. It's the only thing created by women that can control men, as opposed to the millions of things designed by men to control women.  Erotic dancing comes from temple dancing, belly dancing, sacred dancing

Now after three generations of second-wave feminism and after 4 generations of mind-numbing feminist theory you have four generations of college-educated women who walk around with a politically correct feminist (so they think) check list trying to turn college theory into real life.

Now you have the girls coming in who are post-feminist, not offended by go-go dancers or prostitutes. We haven't even the achieved the goals of feminism, but now we have post-feminists.  I don't know, is it a breakfast cereal or an afternoon snack.  They say "We're not offended by go-go dancing or prostitution, I took a belly dancing class at Crunch.  We don't judge them on a moral issue it's just sad because what these women are doing is representation, they're succumbing to the male gaze, to the patriarchy.  I am so sick of hearing about the patriarchy.  The patriarchy.  What is this 70BC? Are we ruled by a council of men with long white beards?  It's 1999.  The patriarchy is made up of men and women.

One dancer steps forward.

Webb:

Penny, what's the male gaze?

Penny turns to the crowd.

Penny:

The male gaze. The look that objectifies a woman.  That trance like gaze.  You feel it?  Magnetic.   It's how men look at women and turn women into an object.

Now women don't have a gaze, that is to say, women don't look at others opportunistically. As if only men objectify.   We all objectify people. When we love someone suddenly his or her nose, or hands or profile   become the most beautiful thing in the world. When we are in love we obsess about someone's ear or chin. It's not restricted to genitalia.

Many women object to erotic dancing because they think the dance moves don't come from a feminine impulse.  Yet, with the help of these lovely ladies, here tonight, now, yes,  I can prove without a doubt that erotic dance is a purely female phenomenon

Penny walks off stage.

Bad Reputation

Scene 8

Now the art world is obsessed with transgressive art.  Big retrospectives for Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarovich.  All of them merchandized into the latest tragic art world figures.

Jack Smith said, "The more essence an artist has, the more soaked in tragedy and failure an artist is, the more they dangle that artist in front of the public, because it increases the vampire thrill".

Two dancers dressed in gothic lingerie, dark eye makeup, black lips, heavy metal jewelry, walk up behind Penny holding a frame.

Penny:

In 1997  I was asked to be on a panel with Nan Goldin about transgressive art.  I spoke to Nan on the phone and she asked me "By the way Penny, what is transgressive art?"  I replied "Well Nan, transgressive art is what academics call, what you and I call, real life!"

"No Mona Lisa" plays.

The two girls place the frame in front of Penny so that she is inside. Penny places her hands on her hips. She grabs the sides of the frame and starts dancing inside of it. More lights go up, there are dancers to the left who mimic Penny’s moves. The girls holding the frame shake it from side to side and turn it sideways. Penny keeps on dancing inside. All dancers are wearing black lingerie, boots and heels. Penny and the girls begin a singing/dancing number.

Penny:

No Mona Lisa

I am magnum mouthed

Honey snatched

My flavor changes constantly

All:

No Mona Lisa

Three girls on the right behind Penny hold smaller frames up to their faces. They face the crowd, raising and lowering the frames on cue.

Penny:

I stroll like a sailor

Bullets pass through me and I keep moving.

Everyone is dancing, Penny steps out of the frame to stage left.

All:   

No Mona Lisa

Penny:

I don't hang around

All:  

No Mona Lisa

Penny pauses for a brief moment. She mimes pushing an object out in front of her. Everyone dances.

Penny:

No sidelong glance 

Supposition, preposition,

Have no place in my communication

When I talk   when I talk  when I talk  when I talk

When I talk you know exactly what I mean

Mona Lisa has no mouth

No cunt

She stops at the waist

Penny draws an imaginary line across her midsection with her hands. The dancers and Penny are all moving across the stage simultaneously. There is a bevy of bodies across the stage swarming, disorderly, rebellious, rowdy.

Webb:

I hate that    bitch

All:

No Mona Lisa

Penny:

I don't price down

Preview

Or  go on sale

No auction

All:

No Mona Lisa

Penny:

I read the writing on the wall behind me

All:  

No Mona Lisa

Penny turns around, walking through the dancers, circling, meandering across the stage.

Penny:  

I don't hang around

But if I have it for you

You are lucky

You can take it to the track

You can take it to the bank

All:

You can deposit it

No Mona Lisa

Penny makes her way back to the middle of the stage. Two dancers hold the large frame up and Penny walks behind it, passing through to the other side.

Penny:

I cannot be catalogued or dissertated

I cannot be viewed from a different angle

A different perspective

I cannot be seen in a different light

All:

No Mona Lisa

Penny:

I am no collectors item

All:

Collectors item

Penny:

No curators pet

All:

Curators pet

Penny:

No Mona Lisa

Dancers pretend to scrawl writing in the air.

All:

She reads the writing on the wall behind her

Penny:

When I'm in love

All:

When I'm in love

Penny: 

When I'm in love

All:

When I'm in love

Penny:

I stay wet all the time.

The two dancers holding the large frame trap Penny inside of it and she struggles, dancing.

All:

No Mona Lisa

Penny:

No side long manipulation

I never had a father,

I never learned how to be that kind of whore

Penny throws her hands up into the air, continues dancing.

All:

You need a Daddy

Penny:

To practice that kind of stalking

All:

You need a Daddy

Penny:

I never apprenticed to my mother

I wasn't well for that center of attention and protection

I was nobody's baby,

Nobody's angel,

Nobody's princess

All:

No Mona Lisa

Penny points to the audience. Everyone continues dancing.

Penny:

I grew wild,

Uncultivated,

Ungroomed,

Unprotected,

To a position of power

I know what you want

When you want it     how you want it

I deliver without a sermon

My religion has no pope

All:

No choir 

No hope

Penny: 

I'm a loner

You are lucky

All:

No Mona Lisa

Penny:

I never learned how to simmer contentedly

The dancers dance in a circle around Penny. They fall to the floor, some clutching their small frames, kicking their feet out and up into the air.

All:

Contentedly

Penny:

I boil over continuously

All:.

Continuously

Penny:

Hot sweet syrup between my legs

Everyone motions to their crotches.

All: 

Hot sweet syrup between my legs

Penny:

When I'm in love

All:

When I'm in love

Penny: 

when I'm in love

All:

When I'm in love

Penny:

I stay wet all the time

All:

I stay wet all the time

Penny raises her voice, still singing, still dancing.

Penny:

I  I I I I I I I I I II

IIIIIIIIIIIIII

I stay wet all the time

All:

I stay wet all the time

I stay wet all the time

Mona Lisa has no mouth

No cunt

All dancers gesture towards their mouths, their crotches, their waists.

Penny:

She stops at the waist

One by one, all dancers toss their frames aside.

All:

I hate that bitch

I hate that bitch I hate that bitch I hate that bitch I hate that bitch  hate that bitch I hate that bitch I hate that bitch I hate that bitch

Penny raises one hand high. She pumps her fists, standing in center stage.

Penny:

Mona Lisa sits

I stand

Two lightening bolts in my fists

A crescent moon over my cunt

I don't need special lights,

Special glass

Or a smoke free environment

I am 3d

You can touch me.  I

A spotlight shines brightly on Penny. Dancers crowd around her, fall to their knees facing the audience.

All:

Touch back

Talk back

Spit back,

Bite back,

No Mona Lisa

Penny:

No cryptic stare

All:

No Mona Lisa

Penny:

I am a loner

All:

No Mona Lisa

Penny:  

I tell you the truth

All:   

No Mona Lisa

Penny:  

I am ruthless.

Penny falls to her knees, joining the dancers. All snap their heads up and look directly at us.

All:

You are lucky.