Thank you for that! This is the best start to a Friday.

I say make this a regular feature, the f-you X.

Would it be in bad taste for me to copy this url and send it to Principal A-hole and all the teachers?

Cause.... that's pretty much what I want to do :)

EXCELLENT!!!

I wonder what word they teach in biology class at that school?

Houhou?
C-U Next Tuesday?
The Birth Canal?

I will write them a little nastygram, but from home because I don't want my work's DNS domain to get tracked.

As they say back home: this is some bullsh*t right here.

Jessica, you're pretty much made of awesome. :)

Omg, please do this every Friday.

(My Vagina, is TOTALLY Disruptive, though not obscene.)

jessica,

your vajayjay is most definitely highly disruptive and, if i were the principle, i'd confiscate it.

in other news, apparently the parents flipped out a lot as well... because, you know, kids shouldn't be discussing "adult" matters, like having bodies.

i'd love to see the paper... is there a pdf anywhere?

heights and blessings!

TGIF!

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I LOVE this Friday Feminist Fuck You thing. Seriously. Love it. I just made my roommate watch it with me & we both looked at each other and said "Fuck the vagina haters!"

Love, love, love. This, you and, probably above all, the blessed words "fuck you."

I've had that happen before. In college, our school newspaper investigated criticisms of our board of trustees and the college president. Mysteriously our newspapers disappeared from the distribution spots all over campus, and we had a go-round or two of issues pointing out the disappearing papers. This, sadly, was back before teh Intertubes had really spread to everybody, so unfortunately we weren't able to raise much awareness of our being censored. (Particularly since our primary vehicle of communication was the censored one.)

But this high school commits the double whammy of not only censoring, but encouraging people to view women's bodies as obscene or dirty. Yay. Just what we need more of.

Oh, this weekly vlog is so going to rock. Jessica, can I just tell you how much I love you and the words vagina and fuck right now? Seriously, this was such a great start to my day!!!

Oh, awesome. I'm so glad people like it. We're going to switch off and have all the Feministing gals get in on the fun. It's putting our potty mouthness to some good feminist use. ;)

I completely agree that a diagram of a vagina is harmless, educational, and probably necessary for teenagers to see. There is nothing wrong with what was printed in the paper.

BUT. I am sure the principal and administration anticipated outrage from the parents, which is why they were proactive.
You KNOW some parents would be appalled by something like that, and would throw shit fits all over the place, trying to get the administration fired/arrested/hanged. The principal and co. were probably just trying to avoid that sort of controversy and remain on the good side of the prudish, vagina-fearing parents.

I LOVED this! Can't wait to see installment #2 next week!

p.s. Jessica, you totally remind me of Sara Bareilles, the one who sings "I'm not gonna write you a love song." Or she reminds me of you, whatever. :)

Yeahhhhhhh! I not only love the idea of having Friday Feminist Fuck You videos, but the explanation monologue was ace yet informative too. And I LOVE love love the captions/subtitles. They make me ROFL. Keep it up. :D

that was fucking awesome.

hehe, snatch.

While I really like the v-log idea, and agree with the "fuck you" sentiment.. I wonder if this can't be done from another perspective. I wonder this for a couple of reasons. Firstly because it was the adminstration/faculty that was censoring this newletter, and the title says fuck you GC highschool, which to me includes the *students*, who are clearly the ones trying to raise awareness, fight censorship, etc.. And secondly because it might be more appropriate (productive? positive?) to *congratulate* and shed some positive light on the *students* involved, who, as Jessica said, "weren't taking any shit" and wore their tee shirts to school the next day in protest.
Just throwing that out there, thinking that maybe as feminists, we can *highlight* the unconventional and subversive activism students and young people engage in (which I know feministing is great at) as the headline, instead of making the focus of the vlog the oppressive adminstration - perhaps we could focus on those supercool feminist students and the way in which THEY said *fuck you* in their own way...
thoughts?

Yes!! This is awesome. PLEASE do more of these! I feel like Friday Fuck Yous were the destiny of feministing. There's something about a woman looking directly at the camera, making a point and saying 'fuck you' that just seems so strong and perfect. I want to post this video everywhere :D

Abby, I hear what you're saying. And we post a lot on the amazing feminist action women take - in our interviews and in everyday posts. And who knows, maybe we will do some vlogs about that too. But I think a nice "fuck you" is occasionally (or frequently) in order - plus it releases some of that healthy feminist anger. ;)

As for the title, I feel like it's clear from the video that when I say fuck the high school, I mean the administration - but I'll try to be more specific in the future.

HA! Yes! Thanks for that, Jessica.

THAT. IS. AMAZING!

and I'm totally posting it on facebook.

As a newspaper/journalism student in high school, this is amazing of you. However, I hate to say that the school administration is legally allowed to do this since they are considered the publishers of the paper and the publishers can do anything they want.

do you mind if i post this in our new fan club facebook group? (join up, everyone!)

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7951639350

That was wonderful! Can we reclaim the word CUNT too? Why should that be a bad word? :(

Is that a Mucha behind you? I love Art Nouveau.

Is there a reason why videos here run download very slow compared to the same thing on youtube? If it's a bandwidth limitation on the site, maybe better to just post a link?
Also, any chance of a longer lens on the webcam? I find close up shots with a short focal length lens look a bit odd - even unflattering.

Jessica--

Great work.

My high school students are remarkably bright, but also much more immature than, say European kids. Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet get them all giggly and embarassed.

I successfully tell them, "There will be male and female nudity. It is a normal part of life: Can you handle it?"

Of course, this means their giggles are stifled: but the topic of menstruation came up in class once. More than a few boys said, "gross," and one professed ignorance. I told them that you need to know about the human body, and there's nothing bad about it. One girl said, "Yeah, that's right!"

I'm vaguely reminded of on Scrubs, after Turk and Carla's baby is born and he says "I'm not even telling Izzy she HAS a vagina until she turns 18." It was a joke. Unfortunately the subject of this video isn't.

Oh, and keep up the subtitles. I love them, they remind me of The Word on the Colbert Report.

P.S. lizadilly, I love the girl-crush Facebook group. I think I shall join.

A few years ago when I was a staff member of my high school newspaper, we ran oppossing viewpoints on the Vagina Monologues. While we didn't include graphics of a vagina, the articles received no backlash. There wasn't even a gasp of shock. I used to consider my high school rather conservative, but after hearing about this situaiton, I'm rethinking that.

I would just like to say that I LOVE this more than anything in the world! I go to Cleveland, I am on the journalism staff, and I wrote the article that accompanied the headline "Have a Happy Vagina Day!" (with the diagram, of course) on V Day and the Vagina Monologues. This was a bunch of bull shit if you ask me. Its all over and done now, but before we put out an issue, it has to be reviewed now; you know, for "obscene" content such as vaginas and the like.

I wish the principle would see this!
Thank you so much!

I'm gonna go ahead and guess that if there were "Penis Monologues," they'd be banned too, but grats on thinking your axe wound is the center of the universe.