And now you're in the New York Times

Gob bless the new york times for something to blog about. That's right. I wrote Gob.

This article is about three girls who were suspended for using the "V" word during a school forum - and I don't mean Valedictorian. It seems to me that if left unsuspended, the story would be what it should be - a non story. But, now you, Mr. Principle are in the New York Times.

The girls were told not to say the word, vagina, during the school forum because it is vulgar. They were suspended for insubordination, for dissent. Not only it not a vulgar word, as it is the actual word for something - it's not a euphemism, like fucking would be for sex - it's the actual biological, medical, term - it's the freaking dictionary. So, vulgar? It was what it is. Is the word Penis any less vulgar? It seems that it's not, although ask yourself if a male principal would have as much a problem with that word.
The second idea is that the students were insubordinate. There's something that doesn't sit right with me with that term. Insubordination is a term used in the military. These students signed no contracts. Not saying certain medical terms is not, it seems, part of the established school rules. The idea that we should use words like disobeying a directive, which is an order, seems wrong to me. You shouldn't be ordering students to do things. You should ask them to do things, and if they don't do them, then I think there needs to find a better term than insubordination.
The reason they weren't allowed to say the word that there could have been children in the audience. The last we want is children knowing words like vagina or earlobe.

Just let Kevin Bacon dance. You only get controversy when you don't let Kevin Bacon dance. There's certainly a gray area between what we should allow and we shouldn't allow - but then you need to think about it and make a decision. Harmless things like dancing and saying legitimate words aren't things we need to police. You only make a bigger deal out of it by prohibiting it. You only get kids more willing to dance.
A word is a signifier that represents a signified thing. The relationship between the thing and the word for the thing is completely arbitrary. So, who cares? Imagine if the word vagina was reversed with the word Rose.

"These vaginas smell lovely"

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.


There might have been more, but I gotta scoot.

-cjfer-