I had to write about this, mainly because I remember playing soccer against this high school, when I was in school (way back when). And this is just rad.
Saying the word "vagina" during a reading at a John Jay High School open mic session has resulted in suspension for three female students and has sparked a debate about censorship throughout the community.School administrators had warned the girls it would be inappropriate to say the word while reading a selection from Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues," but the students were willing to suffer the consequences.
What is exciting is that this has the school, students, parents and even a former councilman saying this is blatant censorship. The administrator is claiming that the girls had agreed to not say it and they did anyway, so there must be consequences. As a former school teacher, the best administrators are the ones that let harmless shit slide. Furthermore, isn't this about awareness and self-expression, as opposed to disrespecting authority? Shouldn't the staff be supportive of that?
The controversy in Cross River centers around the verse: "My short skirt is a liberation flag in the women's army. I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina's country."The words were part of a longer selection, which the three girls had divided among themselves.
Leading up to the performance, the girls had debated whether to say the word that they knew would get them into trouble. One idea they discussed was to not actually say the word, but rather hold up a sign with the word written on it.
Ultimately, however, they decided to say "vagina" because they did not feel they had the liberty to change a work of art.
All three girls read the final line together, as a sign of unity.
Either way I am impressed with these young women. Other thoughts?
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Saskboy is pissed about some girls getting suspended for saying vagina. This is me giving in to his call for arms, along with Tanya, Peter, The Yecart, Nicole, Rosie, Gordo, Larry, Cris, Ellie, Miss Cellania, Dan, and others. I like... Read More
Indeed, I wish that my college students had that kind of courage and commitment. Kudos to them and to those who stand with them.
Let me get this straight. The girls are in trouble for using the proper terminology for a part of the female body? This is even stupider than the furor over the sign advertising the Vagina Monologues in that one town. Would they also have gotten in trouble for saying tongue? Appendix? Leg?
Jeez, but this stuff is so stupid. Good for them for standing up for themselves and for basic common sense.
I'm pretty sure the kids of that high school probably use swear words I haven't even heard of in the hall on a regular basis, but these girls get suspended for accurately naming a part of the human anatomy?
Good for them. This insidious message that vaginas are dirty really makes me mad.
I am proud of those girls, whoever they may be. Good for them. I wish I had enough pride when I was in high school to do that. It's perfect timing though... I saw the Vagina Monologues last week at my university (and it was awesome). And today I'm wearing a shirt I got there, proudly displaying an anatomical drawing of "down there." Vagina pride all the way. :)
that is so unbelievably fucked up. what is WRONG with schools? and how can you agree to let students read a piece from the vagina monologues and expect them to not include the word vagina?
what they and their parents ought to do is throw a giant stink and demand an official apology. they deserve it.
but in any case, good for those girls. i'm happy to see people standing up for what they believe in.
In honor of the students...
hmmm...wonder what word they use to teach the students in health class.
Boos for the silly ones trying to suppress this work of art. The word is perfectly acceptable in any rational cultural conversation. Too bad there is no way to more tangibly demonstrate the support they deserve. Yays for the students.
I got suspended from high school for saying the word "fuck" twice in a monologue from a movie and stripping down to a bathing suit (the character was supposed to be getting naked). The dumb thing was, the monologue was only seen by the 20 students in the drama class, I'd done the EXACT SAME monologue the year before and faced no consequences, and several people (males only) had monologues prior to mine that were peppered with apparently appropriate words such as "cunt", "shit", "jerk off", and, of course, "fuck." Yeah, that totally seems fair.
The fact that someone can get in any kind of trouble for saying the word "vagina" is pretty sick. It's a medical term, for Christ's sake! Ugh.
This is just more of our country going back in time.
Perhaps the point is, is that if we can't even say the proper medical term for it, then that dirty bit of women men (and lesbians) love so much won't exist? Kinda like in Harry Potter where no one speaks of He Who Shall Not Be Named.
Perhaps we need a similar moniker for the ------
Wow. I'm amazed and impressed at these girls. Good for them for speaking up and taking a stand. How sad that the administrator can't recognize the courage of these incredible young women.
The really distressing thing here is that they did not get in trouble for using a crude or slang term. They used the proper term. Therefore, they are being punished not because their means of expression was inappropriate, but because the administration deems the idea off-limits.
The ACLU files suits on behalf of students whose free speech rights are suppressed all the time -- remember, folks, that the public schools are agents of the State. This is actually censorship: the State telling people what they can't say.
(And before anyone starts with the kids-don't-have-rights nonsense, the Supremes held otherwise in Tinker v. DesMoines back in 1969. Free speech does not end at the schoolhouse gate.)
ha! i wonder how that school would have handled the penis game (consisting of two people saying "penis" back-and-forth in gradually-louder voices...the loser is the one who gets noticed). ah, good times at ledyard high.
I'm planning to write a letter to the high school's principal. In this great and free nation, 6-year-olds shouldn't be taught to fear the word vagina, and 17-year-olds should definitely not be suspended for it.
VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA!
Anyway, the high school website.
I remember when I was in the eighth grade and we were going over sexual parts and we each got a sexual word to say. I was the one that got to say 'Vagina' in front of everyone and while I was embarrassed then, I'm definitely not embarrassed to say it now.
It's funny, too, that I went to a Catholic elementary school and I recall getting great sex ed. from there. I wish that was the same for all catholic schools now.
I'm proud to be the owner of a vagina! woot!
Elbow!
...am I suspended now? If not, I'd like that principal to explain, in detail, why one body part can be mentioned and the other cannot.
Hooray for budding young feminists!
thanks so much for posting that, hdawg. i'm going to write now, too . . . i think it would be a good idea for everyone to do so! if for no other reason than to stand in solidarity with the girls who were suspended.
These girls have real guts -- kudos to them! I just hope this experience cements their feminist tendencies instead of squelching them.....
I can only hope that one day my daughter will have the guts to stand up for herself (and the names of all her body parts) in such a manner.
Great job, ladies.
They seem to be making a family-friendly, there-were-small-children-present argument on the school website... I can see no sense in the idea that small children should not hear the word vagina. Male organs - being on show - are something even the smallest kids know exist, and have an all manner of words for. Do they think that a part of young girls' anatomy should be kept a secret from them?
Congrats to the girls with guts! If I were still in High School, I'd definitely convince some of my female friends to do that in front of the school (it doesn't seem terribly appropriate for me, a male, to recite the Vagina Monologues).
Would they have been suspended if they'd said "penis"? I remember Geraldo Rivera talking about the runaway bride from Georgia and the consensus between himself and the mayor(? don't remember exactly who she was) of the town was that ladies didn't use that sort of language. So, what does that mean? Ladies don't have vaginas?
Wow. And they say feminism is dead among young women.
Honestly, I wouldn't have had the nerve to risk suspension over this in high school. I was too obsessed with keeping my record spotless so I could get into the best university that was the farthest away from home. I commend them.
It is [vagina] so insane [vagina] that a medical/biological term [vagina] cannot be uttered [vagina] by those who [vagina] have one [vagina].
Good for these brave souls!!
I wrote the Principal of John Jay a letter. And I CC'd most of the female administrative staff for fun. It went something like this...
Principal Leprine,
I wanted to let you know that as a student, a woman, and a person, it appalls me to know that you have suspended three girls for using the word "vagina." This is not a slang term; it is an anatomically correct term for a part of the body. It is no different from an arm, a leg, a foot, etc. But in our country and our society, a girl's vagina is seen as a dirty and unspeakable part of her body. You have reinforced this idea by telling these women they are not to speak the word "vagina." If the girls chose to use a slang word such as "cunt," this kind of action would be expected. But in trying to speak of their bodies and respect themselves, they have been told their opinions and their words do not matter.
Women every day are told their opinions don't matter. They are told it does not matter they still make only 78 cents of every dollar a man makes, which is no different than it was twenty years ago. They still make up over 98% of domestic abuse victims and 96% of rape victims. They are still told their bodies are not worthy enough if they aren't skinny and covered in make-up. They are still told they aren't capable of doing things men can, like being electrical engineers, CEO's (women make up less than 12% of CEO's of Fortune 500 Companies), or even President of the United States.
Do you know what it's like to look up and see that you have no role models because no woman has reached the top in this country yet? Do you know what it's like to make less of a paycheck than every man you've ever met? Do you know what it's like to look in the mirror every day and wish you could look like another person – a skinnier, smarter, stronger, prettier, happier version of yourself?
Do you know what it's like to be told a part of your body is too dirty and too "inappropriate" to be talked about? Do you know that is part of why women often don't get adequate healthcare – they are too afraid to ask about their bodies and about their vaginas?
We do. We feel this every day. And I hope you understand that you send the message to every girl and woman in your school that "vaginas" aren't good enough, aren't appropriate, aren't normal. Normal, acceptable things can be mentioned out loud.
Kudos aspendarlin!
Very well put.
I'm going to post this three times, so that Elle's trolling comment on an article which is 5 months old isn't in Recent Comments anymore, and I won't feel the urge to respond.
Or not!
Anyhoo, VAGINA!!!!
(just wanted to get that off my chest)
aspendarlin did a better one, BUT...
"While I understand that the young women who performed a part of "The Vagina Monlogues" were suspended for insubordination, I do not understand why they were told not to use the word "vagina" in the first place.
The daily announcement on the site's homepage says that you respect students' first amendment rights, but how is that so when you censor their performances? What's more confusing is the fact that the word "vagina" is not a slang term, but a perfectly acceptable biological name. Why censor it? Young children are often taught the scientific names of body parts.
Without the word "vagina", the performance would have lost all meaning. The very purpose of the play is to encourage comfort and understanding of the human (specifically female) body.These students were insubordinate, but they were given little choice in the matter: Either have their performance censored to the point of being meaningless, or get in trouble.
-Becky [LASTNAME],
High School Student (CA)"
Also, I may have sent it to the wrong place. Should I have sent it to the governance board?
While I understand that vagina is both a medical and a sexual term, and one usage does not negate the other.... while I understand (and really believe) that schools are about education and not some idealised version of the world... while I really think that men who said that their penises have dominion over the world would be out of line... and while I'm the biggest prude going...
...none of that negates the huge "YOU GO, GIRL!!" from me.
School policy does not require restriction of all speech. I find this incredibly amusing, coming directly on the heels of the Supreme Court's negation of the Ninth Circuit's Poway High decision. It is not for administrators to try to make an idealised, Pleasantville-like school atmosphere, whether the censorship be for either liberal or conservative beliefs.
I cannot agree more with aspendarlin when she said that she could understand this if it were a profanity, but not an anatomical term. Suspension is waaaay out of line - this would not have happened if a guy said, "dick" in class or in the hallways.
A PS:
When I was in high school, I took a lot of crap from fellow students for starting a GSA. Thankfully, the faculty was unbelievably supportive - we had something like seven faculty advisors, all of whom were really willing to help us out. I was - and still am - incredibly grateful for that and saddened that these girls lacked that administrative support.
We did get a lot of complaints about our posters - our very tasteful, well-drawn posters, because we really put time into this - one teacher complained that they were anti-religion or something. Everyone wanted us to take them down (apparently, things like "Gay teenagers are 2 to 5 times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers" is offensive - frankly, I'll never understand hypersensitivity, from either side), and our response was that the solution to their disagreement with us wasn't censorship, it would be more speech. Put up your own damn posters. Put on your own play.
The point of all of that is... if someone thinks that "vagina" was used in a sexual way (the way in which, for example, "elbow" cannot be used - or at least I really hope so!), the solution isn't censorship; it's counter-speech about using anatomical words in an anatomical matter.
And if the counter-speech sounds lame, it's probably because the person making it needs a life.
Rant over.
First of all, I must say that I am totally surprised of the fact that you can suspend students because of words (incitement to crime is another story). Almost every time, I log on to Feministing, you have a hair-curling story. It is hard for me to understand the size of the culture gap between Denmark and USA.
Don't you have freedom to express your opinion? Suspending students because of a word like Vagina is so far out that I really don't know what to say (and it would also be far out even if they had used a "naughty" word). The school administration using the explanation that they were suspended because they were disobedient is almost as bad.
I wonder how the administrator would have reacted to my high school Spanish teacher.
The class was giggling over some conjugated verb that sounded like penis, so she said "I don't see the big deal. So it sounds like a male body part, so what? PENIS PENIS PENIS, VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA. See, I said all that without giggling or blushing. Now get back to work."
I'm picturing my principal doing trying to spend someone over that. If it's anything like his FCAT (state testing) speches, it would sure be hilarious.
"How dare you say VAGINA when I TOLD you NOT to!" (yes, he really talks like that. Almost every other word is yelled. Or all dull and monotone.) In that situation, I'd get a referral for laughing at him.
susspend*
my letter:
Dear Sir,
While I am sensitive to the pressures that you face as a school administrator attempting to walk the fine line between the free exchange of ideas for educational purposes and protecting your students from outside harm, I am compelled to write to you to encourage you to admit that you made a mistake in suspending the three students who performed a scene from The Vagina Monologues. You write in your open letter to the John Jay High School community (of which community I am, admittedly, not a member) the following: "The challenge is to balance the rights of student speakers and the sensitivities of the community." The rest of your letter follows in the same vein, repeatedly referencing the "sensitivities of the community" in paraphrase.
What, exactly, is the community so sensitive to Mr. Leprine? Your students used a word that is the medical term for a part of the female body. The administration's actions to stifle them before the show - by telling them not to use the word - and to discipline them afterward for saying vagina indicate that you and the rest of your administration identify that word and the corresponding body part as dirty, shameful, and not properly mentioned in polite company. The younger siblings and other members of the audience whose tender ears you attempted to shield are improved by having heard the word and seen the skit. It has brought them closer in touch with the reality that women have vaginas - not hoohas, not peepees, not "down there"s. Those vaginas are not dirty, not shameful, and have just as much right to be named in an artistic skit at a high school as any other part of the body.
You also write that the girls had promised not to use the word, thus the suspension is for "not following a directive," rather than for the content of their speech. Sir. Your administration's actions to quash their speech, in advance of the show, demonstrate that your "not following a directive" rationale is thin pretext. You didn't want them to say vagina. They said it. Now they are suspended, in a classic example of a content-based regulation of speech.
Your actions have conveyed a message of shame to your student body and your community. I suggest you remedy that message with an apology to those young women and a retraction of their suspension.
Sincerely,
[ekh7q]
Why oh why do people continue to think vagina is a dirty word (http://abirdandabottle.com/2007/02/19/censorship-comes-to-the-third-grade/)?
I know of no better way to make sure that teenage young women feel uncomfortable in their bodies than to tell them that their body parts are inappropriate words.
Why oh why do people continue to think vagina is a dirty word (http://abirdandabottle.com/2007/02/08/people-vagina-is-not-a-dirty-word/)?
I know of no better way to make sure that teenage young women feel uncomfortable in their bodies than to tell them that their body parts are inappropriate words.
apparently, things like "Gay teenagers are 2 to 5 times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers" is offensive
I happen find that fact very offensive. That's why organizations for gay youths are so incredibly important.
More on-topic, it's obvious that "vagina" is a naughtier word than "elbow" because you can walk around any high school with your elbow uncovered, but not your vagina.
In light of that, NAVEL! NAVEL, NAVEL, NAVEL, NAVEL, NAVEL! I'm such a rebel.
it really seems schools are just going haywire these days. my cousin just got the highest grade in the state in a statewide math test, but was denied entry into a top science high school because there were already too many asian kids. how is that fair?
They told her that? Is that even legal?