Three girls get suspended for saying "Vagina"

in a country where public breast feeding is still quite often looked upon as a taboo...and giving birth vaginally is more commonly referred to as 'natural'...are you shocked?

tooferz wrote:

in a country where public breast feeding is still quite often looked upon as a taboo...and giving birth vaginally is more commonly referred to as 'natural'...are you shocked?

There's a thought. I listened to the vagina monologues on cd once, and it was incredibly thought provoking. I wanted to contact my closest women friends (twin, and our best friend) but I was in Seattle, they were in Maryland, and it was already late late my time. Hopefully, one day we will talk about it.

That's a real shame that girls were slammed down because they said "vagina."

angelica wrote:

And nice work to you, Jeanie. There are many people on this board that come off as completely oblivious to the degrading nature of using the terms for women's genetalia as an insult--using them in a derogatory way. These people seem unaware as to what that derogatory view of women's gentitals says about themselves. More power to awareness!

People who can't take a vagina joke are pussies.

Ahnimus wrote:

You know I was joking

Nah, I'm serious about it not being taboo. It's such a fundamental function of human beings. Children should know without having to learn from their friends. It shouldn't be such a shocking epiphany for them. It's not taboo in other cultures and rape rates are lower, people are more mature with their sexual decision making. And yea, no words should ever be taboo, words are so frail anyway, they can be cracked.

I completely agree. We basically start our kids off by promoting unhealthy shame directed to select parts of their bodies. No wonder such parts can cause so much trouble later in life.

And are you winking at me in the vagina thread, of all places?

gtbrown77 wrote:

I think that the term "natural childbirth" actually refers to a woman giving birth without the use of pain medicaitons. Which does, in turn, make it a vaginal birth, but not exactly what the term "natural" is referring to in this case.

That's how I define the term too, but I've met people who think that a birth where the mother is confined to bed flat on her back with an epidural and a monitor attached to her baby's head is "natural" as long as the baby comes out of the vagina.

drifting drifting left..... further and further or are we turning right harder and harder.... we are going so many different ways on so many things it makes me sick.... i have a penis i put it in vaginas is that bad.... it all makes me so mad...

tooferz wrote:

that was my point. this country is so uptight, they insist mothers cover feeding babies heads to avoid seeing breast...and say natural rather than vaginally.

my teenage daughter's friend had to ask me about tampons because her mom explained them as... "you put them in your hoo ha..it has pictures on the box, you can figure it out". that's just unreal to me. it is also perpetuating the feeling of embarrassment and shame that got the 3 girls suspended.

how is it that the word penis is so much more accepted, rhetorical question, i know why, it's cause we live in a patriarchy and men can't deal with 'women's issues', funny how men squirm at the mere inuendo of periods (i only bring this up 'cause mine hit the other day on the morning of a ski trip, where i was picked up at 7 am, and i was in so much pain i curled into a little ball in the car and couldn't hold a conversation, i needed to complain about it, so i did, to the other girl, the guy however covered his ears and sang, although this was supposed to be somewhat funny, i think the humour was to cover his embarassment. on that note why do pad/tampon companies continue to try to force products on us that will keep us clean, like the new whipe attatched to the always pads, as though we are somehow filthy unclean untouchable freaks)

remember when you were around 12 and there was that stupid game played at camp/the cafeteria where someone said 'penis' and then each person had to say it louder, until the last person has screaming? (or maybe that was just my summer camp), yeah, it was great, got us over the giggle-fits, but why wasn't a 'vagina' game ever played where we yelled vagina at the tops of our lungs? why is 'vagina' so much more taboo than 'penis'?
anyway, i know i'm off topic, but the suspension of these grils for saying 'vagina' is so completly medieval that i don't even know where to start.

on the breast feeding bit, that's also assbackwards, do the ppl who are trying to ban public breast-feeding not realize that they were (probably) breastfed too? i remember the first time that i saw a woman breastfeeding without covering up. it was in a small village in laos where there were no cars, a bunch of us hikers were sitting on the floor of her hut having lunch and she came over to sit with us and unwrapped her top and stuck the baby on and continued talking in complete comfort. i realised how important this was (not just the whole idea of lack of shame, etc), because i didn't know how to breastfeed, i thought you just plopped the kid on, but she kept switching breasts, and doing a variety of other things to make herself and the kid more comfortable. the whole idea of learning from your community about things like that became very apparent to me (instead of learning in a restricted school environment, this was something that the girls would learn about more naturally). on that note, i will probably not sit on a bus without covering up somehow, why? same reason i won't go topless at a beach, b/c some idiot will sexualize the whole thing and stare at the boob, and not think of it as a natural part of life

I didn't read the whole thread, sorry if this has been mentioned...

They were suspended because they agreed (well in advance) NOT to say the word Vagina and they did it anyway... they didn't stay true to their word. (any kid should be punished for that.)

Their suspension was one day and in-school.

With that being said, they shouldn't have encountered any trouble from the school in the first place... the whole situation is dumb.

Jeanie wrote:

Jokes yes, derogatory terms no. Like anything.

Who cares if you use a vagina euphamism as a derogatory term? We use all kinds of words as derogatory terms. Is it less offensive to call someone an arsehole? We all have arseholes.