Friday, March 09, 2007

Vagina

This is a blog post from my friend Alex about vaginas, The Big Lebowski and my son. It's more than worth a read.


Shin, Armpit, Little Toe, Vagina, Forehead...



Let's get one thing fucking straight: My girly body parts are not dirty, shameful or inappropriate for children. I'm not talking about pictures of vaginas (which aren't necessarily any of the above), any sort of sexual context or making anyone discuss vaginas against their will. I am talking about the WORD vagina, which names a part of the human body.

I am not surprised by this story at all. Sadly, I'm not even disappointed because I would absolutely expect nothing less. Three high school students in NY are possibly facing suspension for saying the word "vagina" in the context of a reading of "The Vagina Monologues." Their principal is a man. Big surprise. His name is Dick. I am not kidding.

The three students are on the Today Show this morning with Eve Ensler. Meredith handled herself with the usual airheaded idiocy. "But children were going to be present." I love that the president of the school board (also on the show) said that he has no problem with the word vagina and has heard it more in the last few days than ever before.

The point here is not if they get suspended or not, although, it would be an injustice. The point here is that there was even a question that the word in the context of a empowering phrase in a monologue that includes the word vagina may be offensive to hear. Ridiculous.

I think this point is well explained in the words, of Maude Lebowski. Let's consult the text:

MAUDE
My art has been commended as being
strongly vaginal. Which bothers
some men. The word itself makes
some men uncomfortable. Vagina.






DUDE
Oh yeah?






MAUDE
Yes, they don't like hearing it and
find it difficult to say. Whereas
without batting an eye a man will
refer to his "dick" or his "rod" or
his "Johnson".



As an aside, my godson Elijah, who was about five at the time and who says his r's with a little difficulty, overheard me quoting the above passage. He responded matter-of-factly: "I don't have any twouble saying vagina, but I do have a little twouble with my r's."

Amen, Elijah. You're the product of feminist parents. Should all children be so lucky. Obviously Principal Dick's parents weren't.

12 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Have any problem with your son using the word "cunt"? After all, his mother has no problem saying "dick".

Muerk said...

Hi, sorry to swing over to your personal blog from RH (it's Tess Rooney here btw). But I'm about as conservative a Catholic you can get (although very left wing, sigh... as a Kiwi it's hard dealing with US definitions of where people should sit on the political spectrum).

Aaaanyway. My four boys aged 3, 5, 7, 8 all know about vaginas. We sit there and read anatomy books with clear cutaways of reproductive areas. Vagina is not a "bad" word. Neither is penis, testicles, labia, vulva etc.

Cunt and dick otoh are not acceptable words in our family because they are negative words and used to insult.

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Harry834 said...

joints, teeth, vagina, heart, muscles, anus, eyes

I've had all these examined in my yearly physicals to see if everything was in tip-top shape.

Actually, that's almost true, but only because I'm a man. But the main point is that you should know your body, love your body, and take care of its health.
For your body is your greatest treasure and nothing to be ashamed of. It is to be embraced with the spirit.

Harry834 said...

Anyone who doesn't understand this is essentially anti-health care.

M. Simon said...

You might want to look up "pudenda" in a Spanish dictionary.

And deleting spam would be good too.

M. Simon said...

OK I'll save you the trouble "pudenda" means "ashamed".

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