This morning in my sociology class the good doctor asked the class to say "Penis!" together, because a room full of 18-19 year old students at this school suddenly gets very quiet when sex comes up and GET READY FOR THIS HILARIOUS PUN READY?OKAYHEREWEGO they need a little lubrication before they can really get going. (Which honestly, I think is SO WEIRD. Why would you not want to spend fifty minutes talking about weird sex things? I would like to take entire courses on weird sex things, frankly, but I don't believe in paying tuition for things I can learn in real life unless I have to.) I feel like I want to point out that I really like this professor and I really enjoy this class. But today I got a little sad, because you know what happens after a whole class says "Penis!" together: The whole class says "Vagina!" together. (Who else remembers doing that in seventh grade sex ed? Otherwise known as the best class ever? I haven't got the faintest idea what I learned in seventh grade math but I will always, always remember my sex ed teacher telling us girls that we "shouldn't bother having sex any time soon because it won't even be any good for you until you're practically thirty." PURE GOLD.) Only no, it did not. The whole class did not say "Vagina!" together. Some of the class said "Va-jay-ay" together. (I did not. I said "vagina" but you couldn't hear me over all the awkward/horrified quasi-adult mumbling.) As my future ex-husband - known in some spheres as my math professor - once said: "Why would you take something beautiful and make it stupid?" He was talking about numbers or something, who even knows, but... I forgot what I was saying. I love him so much, you guys. Anyway:
Then I spent the rest of the class being a little sad, even though I am sure that the professor loves vaginas very much and probably didn't mean to hurt them. The whole discussion kind of shocked me, actually, because 98% of the class said their parents had either never talked to them about sex or they'd gotten, like, "a talk." And obviously I am aware that not every household is as open as mine was growing up, but I'm pretty sure I've never been in a situation with so many people so uncomfortable with/maybe just not used to talking about sex. So I learned something today, you guys. I am learning at college. I AM AS SHOCKED AS YOU ARE.
Then I spent the rest of the class being a little sad, even though I am sure that the professor loves vaginas very much and probably didn't mean to hurt them. The whole discussion kind of shocked me, actually, because 98% of the class said their parents had either never talked to them about sex or they'd gotten, like, "a talk." And obviously I am aware that not every household is as open as mine was growing up, but I'm pretty sure I've never been in a situation with so many people so uncomfortable with/maybe just not used to talking about sex. So I learned something today, you guys. I am learning at college. I AM AS SHOCKED AS YOU ARE.
But anyway, the main point of this is, why the reluctance to say "vagina"? Penis is fine, but not vagina? I mean, I don't have the energy to get all Vagina Monologues on you right now because it's almost snack-o'-clock and I just spent five hours going cross-eyed in the face of my TI-84. If I didn't like the professor so much and if I thought the class was stupid I'd probably have been pissed off, but I do and I don't and so I just got sad in general for the word "vagina" because so many people don't like it. AND THEY SHOULD. The End.
(I have stressed some things in bold, in the event that this comes up in a search while any certain people are demonstrating the disappearance of certain others' backstages.)
