Vaginas Speak

Doing my usual reading and linking I came across this: http://www.abandonedstuff.com/2007/03/07/vagina-now-suspend-me/

Sigh.  What is the world coming to. I read the news bit about the teenagers being suspended from school for saying the word vagina. I had a momentary twinge of frustration, that was tempered by the sense that the conservatives continue their tirades and are getting their way. They ban books too, you know….

I think we have become pretty complacent about these things since the last decade or so when the religious conservatives have gained both social and political power. Because still during that time too, we have seen the discussions of LGBT issues, and the words around that come into common usage.

So tell me what is so scary about the word vagina? How different is it from elbow, or bellybutton?  Oh, its a word that people don’t use because its about “down there” ?  It is about your “privates”? And why, pray tell are they so private? Oh its because of sex and we can’t talk about sex unless we talk about “you can’t” or “for heteromarriage and procreation only”!

Maybe if we spent more time teaching our children what the body parts are called, what they do and how to take care of them, and how to be responsible, there would not be such problem.

Maybe if we stopped teaching our children that correct usage of body part names is crude, there would be less of an issue.

Maybe if we took all the mysteries away, there would be less curiosity and more responsibility.

I have a challenge for you. How many euphemisms do you know for those “private parts”?  Boys as well as girls, and all the parts that get nicknamed…..vaginas, penises, breasts, anuses….any others welcome too.

If you have a list on your blog, please leave me a link in my comments? I would love to see your list. (my list will be later….as I have to leave for work soon)

~ by Cris on March 8, 2007.