It Started with "Vagina", and then My Head Asploded!

Originally posted on 03/06/07

It all sounded so straight forward. It was a news story about three high school girls that got suspended for saying the word "vagina". What could be simpler, right? Easy equation: censorship = bad. This article contains so many examples of things that are wrong with this society and species. Bear with me as I super glue the skull fragments and lumps of gray matter that exploded in all directions when I read this article. Here is the link, have super glue standing by: http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070306/NEWS02/703060363/1018&GID=xi+6X4FdPrduoI2j4z90HCGbIVUKXnx7c7Gbd64k1iw=

Ok, as I am running low on glue I will endeavor to narrow my focus.

Now, the story is this: Three high school girls, during a school's "open mic", read a selection from Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues". As a result of the use of the word "vagina" in the passage, the three girls were given in-school suspensions.

Now normally this would be a no-brainer for me to rail loudly and possibly incoherently against the basic stupidity of both the society and the species in general. This time however, there is a snag that has me slightly conflicted. The school is claiming that the girls agreed not to say "vagina" and the fact that they broke their word is why they are being punished.

The reason this has me conflicted, admittedly only slightly, is my basic distaste for lies in general and lairs specifically. In this world, the only thing we really have, that can not be taken away from us is our word. Everything, up to and including your life can be taken from you, but not your word. No one can "make" you break your word once freely given. Now don't get me wrong, I am a realist and I do realize that in the world we live in, some lies are necessary and that not all lies are equal but I still have that basic visceral reaction.

Now let's play devil's advocate for a moment and say that the girls did agree not to say "vagina". Shame on them for lying. But an even bigger shame should be felt by the school for asking them not to say it in the first place. Let's ignore my basic belief that words are just words and that there is no such thing as a "bad" word. Was this a slang word? No. Was this one of those words that are generally considered a "curse word"? No. Did the saying of this word cause any harm what so ever to those within ear shot? No. Was this word an accurate biological term intended to describe an aspect of human anatomy? Yup. Is a school the sort of place that one should learn and, indeed, be free to use accurate biological terminology? Again, yup. Now explain to me again the reason a school, a supposed institution of learning, should ask any student not to use a word that, realistically, should have no connotation other than its definition? Seriously, explain that one to me.

The school sighted the fact that there would be small children in the audience. So what! Lord deliver me for those that rally under the battle cry of: "We are doing it for the children!" I love children, I really do. I hate what parents make them into today by abdicating their responsibility to be parents, but I do love children. I have a little secret for you though, some of those little children that they were protecting, actually have vaginas. Maybe it is just my crackpot theory (I certainly have enough of them) but wouldn't it be a good thing if they knew what they were. Just a thought.

The fact that a school would choose to stifle knowledge and expression in order to avoid offending some prudish, self-righteous morons or indeed to indulge in their own "moral" point of view is unconscionable. It also should be a big red flag that the system is not working. Does anyone know what we do with systems that don't work? If you said "ignore them" welcome to the human race.

As I said, there were many red flags in this article but this is the one I wanted to discuss first. The rest will have to wait until another time. Fortunately for me, there is no statute of limitations on my bitching. Now if you will excuse me I have to go scrape a chunk of cerebellum off my wall. Cheers

Rant over... for now