Even in the world of Puppets

A few evenings ago, my girlfriend and I had an official date night. We had been looking forward to this for some time because
1. I had been in rehearsals since the beginning of October and we were looking forward to conversations longer than "hellogoodmorninggoodbyehellogoodnight" and
2. Because we had tickets to go see the touring production of Avenue Q currently showing at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit. I love going to Detroit to see theatre. I love going to Detroit to see anything. I am a big Detroit fan. Although the average out of town visitor might not ever notice it, Detroit is chock-a-block with amazing innovative artists and musicians. There are converted warehouses full of small artists communities, out of the way clubs bursting full with cross-genre, cross-cultural, cross-generational music, and breath-taking old theatres and concerts halls whose architectural splendor is worth the trip alone. I love theatre in Detroit and it's been awhile since I've seen a musical. The last time I was in the Fisher Theatre was in 1998 when (yes I can say it now), 2 of my friends and I camped out in the lobby for 12 hours to get rush tickets to see RENT for 10 bucks. We got first row seats, met the cast after the show and had a hell of a time serenading passing business people with "Seasons of Love" Now, I don't think I would sit through the national tour of Rent if you paid me 10 bucks, but we were young and we were passionate about theatre. It doesn't get much better than that.
So, going into see Avenue Q I was really excited. I was in Detroit, I was with my fabulous girlfriend on a real date, I was in the beautiful Fisher building and we had excellent seats. I was further excited about the show itself. A Tony award winning production that used sesame street style puppets? That included such hits as "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist", "Mixed Tape", "I'm not wearing underware today"? Oh heck yes I had to see this!
Overall, I was pretty delighted by the production. The mix of people and puppets, the talent of the puppeteers, the cool retro sesame street-esq cartoons, the " I can't believe I am watching 2 puppets go at it"-ness of it all. I especially loved a song in which the main character sings about finding his purpose. There are moving boxes in the background with cartoon eyes and simple flaps for mouths. They begin singing back up and are taken up by puppeteers who move them around in various patterns singing cool hamonies. I love simple things like this. A box with drawn on eyes and a flap becomes animated and a great piece of theatre. Julie Taymor (director and designer of the Lion King on Bway) says one of the thrilling things about theatre is "the sensation of life being breathed into an object by the addition of human imagination" Groovey.
I was enjoying the production but then I started to get a little...irked. Little things that kept piling up in my brain, that I kept excusing for the sake of good theatre. It started with the song "The Internet is for porn" A funny song, which introduces Trekkie Monster, a porn obsessed monster. The more the song went on the more the ewww face crept up on my face and the face of my girlfriend. The young female monster is made to seem silly for not wanting to hear about porn (pile), the dirty porn obsessed monster keeps taunting her about all the great things on the porn sites (singing about the greatness of tits and ass to a woman...pile), telling her that all men, even her friends look at porn (pile), even the guy she is crushing out on jerks off to it (pile)...
After this song we are introduced to the puppet Lucy The Slut. She sings a sexy song while the boy puppets motorboat her boobs. She trashes the other women, and Trekkie goes off to jerk off to her...(pile pile pile)
Later, when our young heroine is saddened by the fact that the boy she loves slept with her while she was wasted, dumped her because he didn't want to be tied down, and then sleeps with Lucy the Slut..she is told by another character basically "Well, honey boys are dumb like that. Most of the time you'll want to kill them, but we should love them anyway" It was straight up "Standing by your Man" Remember ladies, it doesn't matter how much he fucks up, we should forgive him and love him because he can't help it (pile pile pile).
So, I know...why should I get sooo irked and upset. Why should I let this color my night at the theatre? They were puppets for crying out loud, why can't I just loosen up? Believe me, I was asking myself that all during the walk out to the car. But then, my girlfriend and I turned to each other and said..."But why?" Why does that have to be in there? Why can't we have a really great really raunchy and faboo show that is hilarious and creative and inventive without it having to have all of THAT in there. Why did we have to break women down into tits and ass, into good girl and slut. Why did we have to have a character rubbing his face in her boobs? Why did we have to see him jerking off to porn? Why? Why is it that we have to take women down in order to be cutting edge or risky or even sexual? Why can't we challenge ourselves? Why can we be so creative and still revert back to this?
I left the theatre asking Why....again....why is this so normal, so accepted, so cool? Why am I (as a female) still at the butt of a lot of the jokes...
Just why...why did those piles have to be there too? Why can't we have an amazing innovative piece of theatre, an amazing night out in Detroit without feeling, without being reminded by the male majority that as a female, whether I am human or puppet...I am viewed, always, as... less than.

pile pile pile

-QC

p.s. (There were other populations of people at the butt of the jokes as well. I am speaking from the experience of my own identities, but always welcome other's observations too)