BlogHer - Hurry! Censor your vaginas before you get suspended! - Comments

I'm clutching my bathing suit area in horror...

JulieBoBoolie — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 15:53:07 -0500

honestly, what a joke. I'm sorry that these girls had to get a side education about fascism and ridiculous sexual prudery while trying to learn something. It's a shame...the play really could have elicited some great thinking and discussion. Hopefully it can now?

Vagina.

Today Show

A Elliot — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 15:24:40 -0500

I think the suspension is ridiculous. I put it right up there with people who are banning Susan Patron's The Higher Power of Lucky.

I saw the three girls, the principal and Eve Ensler on the Today show last week. Eve said that she was sure that terms like "rape" were used and no one even baited an eye. I would have to agree with her. Apparently another student used the f-word without any consequences. "Vagina" is the name of a body part and not a crude or crass word. I'm sure every student in that high school at one point or another had a biology book or even perhaps a sex ed book, gasp!, that had the word "vagina" in it. I know that the real concern was that there might be little kids in the audience. From the interview with the girls, it seems like no one thought that was very likely to happen ahead of time and in reality there were no little kids present. Even if they were, so what? My 3 year old knows the word "vagina" and I know my 8 month old has heard it before. Why would I be concerned about the legitimate name of a body part? I think it was an excuse that the superintendent was using to hide his (and probably others') discomfort with the word "vagina". I have seen the Vagina Monologues twice and it's excellent.
A. Elliot

heh

Denise — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 06:29:20 -0600

Imagine teens at high school reclaiming cunt. I love it. But alas, no. darn it.

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High and Flamingo House Happenings

Would the school have

evilslutopia — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:32:09 -0600

Would the school have preferred they said "cunt" instead?

Ridiculous.

I think they should censor the word "elbow".

The Evil Slut Clique
Evilslutopia

First, if the moron of a

viciousrumours — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:08:52 -0600

First, if the moron of a principal didn't want them to use the word "vagina", perhaps he should have just told them they weren't allowed to do the monologue at all. As backwards as that would have been, it's still a right he has.

Second,if people think that by simply saying a medical term it's going to cause teenagers to sit up and go,"Oh, that's right, I was going to go out and become sexually active tonight," they all need their heads examined.

Well that and they need to stay away from my three year old, who already refers to the parts of the body in the correct terms. He says "penis" when referring to his own body. He knows I have "breasts" ... "vagina" hasn't come up yet, he's only three, but when he has questions, you can damn well better believe I won't be calling it a "va jay jay" or anything stupid like that.

People need to unclench. Seriously. Sit down, take a deep breath, have some tea and realize that saying the word "vagina" isn't going to make the teen pregnancy rate go up.

I hope all 3 of those brave

LizaWasHere — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 07:41:56 -0600

I hope all 3 of those brave young women get offered scholarships to Smith -- or the women's college of their choice.

Honestly, how ridiculous. But it goes along with the YouthRadio commentary on NPR this morning, where a student in Maine documents the fact that practically none of the parents of her peers have spoken to their teenagers about sex. Do we really think not hearing the medical terms will prevent young people from using the body parts? Puh-leez. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7770258

Liza
Founder & Coordinator, LesbianFamily.org
Personal Blog, LizaWasHere

My Short Skirt

Denise — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 07:36:40 -0600

My Short Skirt is Michelle's FAVORITE Vagina Monologue. She's seen the play three times (last time was a couple of weeks ago) and she was so happy that My Short Skirt was included - it isn't always.

It's a fabulous monologue for teens and young adults, male and female, to see and hear and discuss.

My short skirt does not give you permission.... it's really a very powerful monologue. If you go search youtube, you can find some video clips of women performing it. Really, go see for yourself. Here's one link http://youtube.com/watch?v=c06P_UXLoEs

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High and Flamingo House Happenings

Saw this on local news

Nordette — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 06:56:22 -0600

Hi, Jean. I saw this on the local news and thought, "Can we get any more backward?" I was impressed with how articulate the girls were about this matter at such a young age. They have a sense of conscience about preserving literary integrity.

Totally did not buy the "they were suspended for insubordination" crap. Usually you don't jump to suspension for disobedience over saying a word.

"Cutesy" names for parts of our anatomy in high school, ridiculous! Even in pre-school it makes no sense to me, but I may feel this way because my mother taught us to use the correct names for all our body parts and that was quite some time ago given that I'm 47.

Heard this story, and really, just shook my head.

"Love is liquid. Brew and be drunkards!" ~~Nordette And here's a link to the blog.

Hurry! Censor your vaginas before you get suspended!

Jennifer Satterwhite — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:53:06 -0600

Three girls were suspended by their Cross River, NY, high school for defying a ban on saying the word "vagina" during an excerpted reading from the play The Vagina Monologues. No, I am not kidding. In this year 2007 the word vagina still causes such an uproar that three honor students were suspended for using it in context!

Seriously? I mean SERIOUSLY suspended for using the word vagina in a reading of The Vagina Monologues? Should they have said something less "offensive" as "vajay-jay" made popular by the hit show "Grey's Anatomy" or perhaps said "The V-Word" or how about "My Private Parts...you know, down there?"

Now, had they been using the word to just spout off something for shock value that is one thing, but these are honor students who were reading from the well know feminist play that many, many actresses and women have been a part of reading.

And they get suspended.

Their defiant stand is being applauded by the author of the well-known feminist play, who said Tuesday that the school should be celebrating, rather than punishing, the three juniors.

"Don't we want our children to resist authority when it's not appropriate and wise?" said author Eve Ensler.

The three honor students, Megan Reback, Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson, included the word because "we knew it was the right thing to do. Since we're comfortable saying it, we should make other people comfortable saying it," Levinson said.

From day one our children have learned that there is nothing wrong with using the correct anatomical words for their body parts. A leg is a leg. An arm is an arm. A vagina is a vagina. (Even if it is more fun to say vajay-jay!)

These young women took turns reading the excerpt until they came to the word, then said it together.

What excerpt did they read?

"My short skirt is a liberation flag in the women's army," they read. "I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina's country."

Oh, the horror. They said v-a-g-i-n-a!

The suspension has prompted allegations of censorship. But Principal Richard Leprine said Tuesday that the girls were punished not because of what they said but because they disobeyed orders not to say it.

In a statement, Leprine said that because the event was open to the community, including children, the word "vagina" was not appropriate. He said the girls had been told when they auditioned that they could not use the word.

Reback said Tuesday that no one in the audience was younger than high school age."

And? No really...and? I mean, even if there were people there younger than high school age, should they be forbidden from hearing the word vagina? Trust me, I have a kindergarten daughter, a tween and a teen (none are in high school yet) and they have heard words much more offensive and much more vulgar and used in ways that are certainly not in the context of a play.

All three of these girls have not only the support of their families but also of the author of The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler. Ensler said the girls were "right for "standing up for art and against censorship."

Now, if the girls were told not to use the word, then there may be a leg to stand on in discipline. However, isn't the bigger issue WHY they were forbidden to use it in context of a play excerpt they were reading?

What do you think? Are we back in the days of trying to come up with cutesy names for our anatomical parts? Or are we just supposed to pretend we don't have them?

Face it, whether or not you like the word, vagina is not a "bad word" or a vulgarity. Whereas "censorship" should be.

BlogHer Contributing Editor Jenn Satterwhite also blogs at Mommy Needs Coffee, Mommybloggers and Aggroqueen.