Philosophy Now Forum

In American you can't say vagina.

http://wwmt.com/news/local/w-mich-subst ... ing-lesson

Hobbes' Choice wrote:In American you can't say vagina.

http://wwmt.com/news/local/w-mich-subst ... ing-lesson

Ha! In the early '70's my students were using a lot worse language than that, and not getting expelled for it.

Since the lady was canned and not stoned, and since O’Keefe was not painting literal vaginas, there are other aspects of art-history equally relevant to O’Keefe’s work and obviously more appropriate to that community’s standards regarding distractable 13 year-olds.

Coming in to teach for a day and talking about pussy to kids … she had an agenda.

Cirque du Solei Cancels North Carolina Shows Over Public Facilities Act — Plans Shows In Dubai, Where Gays Are Put to Death
http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/ ... -to-death/

Then again, in Idaho a lot of people are dying because there is a law that respects religious freedom to the point that sect members can let their children die or be disabled by sending them to faith healers without prosecution.

Texas teaches creationism in science classes.

Australia is still approving developments that will damage the Great Barrier Reef, which has already been damaged by warmer waters. Their treatment of refugees is questionable.

Never mind Africa, the middle east and Asia and their own long lists of culpable acts. Always a lot of crazy and immoral stuff happening in the world.

Hobbes' Choice wrote:In American you can't say vagina.

You can't say vagina because it's America. I agree. You can't say vagina also in Saudi Arabia, in Tibet, and in Myanmar.

But you can and do say vagina in Sweden, in England, in Hungary, and in Australia.

This is truly a philosophy of culture/language. The North American culture protects the young from sexually explicit detail, and it does that with suppressing or trying to suppress the word usage of adults. This is a culturally established norm.

There are cultures, very remote and very isolated, in which kids at any age are introduced to sexual behavior. And guess what: they don't develop complexes or psychological damage because of it. Instead, the suggestion lingers, kids in protective cultures develop psychological damages due to the sexual thing being a taboo.

Mind you, most psychological damage comes from unwanted sexual advances. It is the (male) kids who get approached by, and have to give in to, the sexual demands of coaches, priests, etc. As an adult I find it repulsive for me, to have to give in to unwanted sexual conduct. So much for me, a straight person, to a homosexual conduct, as for a gay person to heterosexual conduct. There is no difference.

So the sexualization of kids in the remote and few-and-far between communities happen, presumably, with consent by the kids. This is possible and natural. I, from my memories and what my family told me of my conduct in times I don't remember, have behaved that way, as a young kid. I did not get scarred. My brother tells me that at a community outing one summer, when I was two years old, approaching three, everyone sat around a long picnic table. Suddenly someone realized I'd gone missing. They called my name, they checked under the table, and there I was, hugging the naked legs of a good-looking woman, and kissing her knees. For some reason the woman never said a word during the kissing event.

So why don't we want to say "vagina" in American schools? Because.

That is the randomly developed norm and custom. Of course it's not random, by other standards, but from the psycho-sexual behaviour point of view, it is random.

hajrafradi wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote:In American you can't say vagina.

You can't say vagina because it's America. I agree. You can't say vagina also in Saudi Arabia, in Tibet, and in Myanmar.

But you can and do say vagina in Sweden, in England, in Hungary, and in Australia.

This is truly a philosophy of culture/language. The North American culture protects the young from sexually explicit detail, and it does that with suppressing or trying to suppress the word usage of adults. This is a culturally established norm.

There are cultures, very remote and very isolated, in which kids at any age are introduced to sexual behavior. And guess what: they don't develop complexes or psychological damage because of it. Instead, the suggestion lingers, kids in protective cultures develop psychological damages due to the sexual thing being a taboo.

Mind you, most psychological damage comes from unwanted sexual advances. It is the (male) kids who get approached by, and have to give in to, the sexual demands of coaches, priests, etc. As an adult I find it repulsive for me, to have to give in to unwanted sexual conduct. So much for me, a straight person, to a homosexual conduct, as for a gay person to heterosexual conduct. There is no difference.

So the sexualization of kids in the remote and few-and-far between communities happen, presumably, with consent by the kids. This is possible and natural. I, from my memories and what my family told me of my conduct in times I don't remember, have behaved that way, as a young kid. I did not get scarred. My brother tells me that at a community outing one summer, when I was two years old, approaching three, everyone sat around a long picnic table. Suddenly someone realized I'd gone missing. They called my name, they checked under the table, and there I was, hugging the naked legs of a good-looking woman, and kissing her knees. For some reason the woman never said a word during the kissing event.

So why don't we want to say "vagina" in American schools? Because.

That is the randomly developed norm and custom. Of course it's not random, by other standards, but from the psycho-sexual behaviour point of view, it is random.

Good post. It's always seemed the case to me that sexual repression wherever it occurs leads to abuse, and dysfunction.
Start with Queen Victoria, fig leaves, and the covering-up of table legs and you get Jack-the-Ripper, rape, prostitution and wife-beating.
Desire shall always find an outlet.

Walker wrote:Since the lady was canned and not stoned, and since O’Keefe was not painting literal vaginas, there are other aspects of art-history equally relevant to O’Keefe’s work and obviously more appropriate to that community’s standards regarding distractable 13 year-olds.

Coming in to teach for a day and talking about pussy to kids … she had an agenda.

You've further insulted the teacher and compounded the crime of the West Michigan School board. And you evidence is Bevis and Butthead.
Which of the two are you?
In the UK B&B are not funny, because saying "penis" is not funny. It's a word to describe a very small part of your body. It's funny in the USA because sex is taboo.

The only agenda here is your sick mind's attempt to support the establishment's policy of sexual repression.

Hobbes' Choice wrote:..."penis" is not funny. It's a word to describe a very small part of your body.

Interesting. In my country "penis" is to describe a rather very large part of your body. "Your" referring to the general "you", as applicable by gender.

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

Walker wrote:Since the lady was canned and not stoned, and since O’Keefe was not painting literal vaginas, there are other aspects of art-history equally relevant to O’Keefe’s work and obviously more appropriate to that community’s standards regarding distractable 13 year-olds.

Coming in to teach for a day and talking about pussy to kids … she had an agenda.

You've further insulted the teacher and compounded the crime of the West Michigan School board. And you evidence is Bevis and Butthead.
Which of the two are you?
In the UK B&B are not funny, because saying "penis" is not funny. It's a word to describe a very small part of your body. It's funny in the USA because sex is taboo.

The only agenda here is your sick mind's attempt to support the establishment's policy of sexual repression.

Geeze Hobbes. Uptight you is.

Evidence indicates that your critique is an in-your-head projection.

Hilarious Benny Hill Moments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epKqu_VHbQU

The Meaning of Life (8/11) Movie CLIP - The Penis Song (1983) HD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLNdMY1JlR0

*

There's lots more to say about O’Keefe than pussy.



http://hyperallergic.com/294243/art-tea ... fe-lesson/

Uh huh.

hajrafradi wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote:..."penis" is not funny. It's a word to describe a very small part of your body.

Interesting. In my country "penis" is to describe a rather very large part of your body. "Your" referring to the general "you", as applicable by gender.

No, when I said "you" I meant Walker.

Walker wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

Walker wrote:Since the lady was canned and not stoned, and since O’Keefe was not painting literal vaginas, there are other aspects of art-history equally relevant to O’Keefe’s work and obviously more appropriate to that community’s standards regarding distractable 13 year-olds.

Coming in to teach for a day and talking about pussy to kids … she had an agenda.

You've further insulted the teacher and compounded the crime of the West Michigan School board. And you evidence is Bevis and Butthead.
Which of the two are you?
In the UK B&B are not funny, because saying "penis" is not funny. It's a word to describe a very small part of your body. It's funny in the USA because sex is taboo.

The only agenda here is your sick mind's attempt to support the establishment's policy of sexual repression.

Geeze Hobbes. Uptight you is.

Evidence indicates that your critique is an in-your-head projection.

Hilarious Benny Hill Moments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epKqu_VHbQU

The Meaning of Life (8/11) Movie CLIP - The Penis Song (1983) HD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLNdMY1JlR0

*

There's lots more to say about O’Keefe than pussy.



http://hyperallergic.com/294243/art-tea ... fe-lesson/

Uh huh.

One day, when your brain starts working, and you understand what is going on, then I'll have a conversation with you. Until then (I won't hold my breath), keep taking the pills.

Yep, the bluster is about you backing yourself into a corner with your preconceptions of intolerance and eagerness to denounce, only to learn that your source is a news story about a public school teacher with pussy on the brain teaching kids.

No doubt you can drum up something else to fit the agenda.

Maybe not today in this screwed up rendition of the USA, but once you could use proper 'clinical' terms to describe the human reproductive system. At least they did in my high school. But then the early 70's were 'the' days! Not to slight the 60's by any means! Times, they are a changing, and not necessarily for the better! Whenever the 'facts' of life are avoided, it makes at least some of Freud's ideas absolutely correct! When mankind is ashamed of/denies the facts of his existence, he has a very serious problem.

Walker wrote:

Yep, the bluster is about you backing yourself into a corner with your preconceptions of intolerance and eagerness to denounce, only to learn that your source is a news story about a public school teacher with pussy on the brain teaching kids.

No doubt you can drum up something else to fit the agenda.

Tu quoque.

SpheresOfBalance wrote:Maybe not today in this screwed up rendition of the USA, but once you could use proper 'clinical' terms to describe the human reproductive system. At least they did in my high school. But then the early 70's were 'the' days! Not to slight the 60's by any means! Times, they are a changing, and not necessarily for the better! Whenever the 'facts' of life are avoided, it makes at least some of Freud's ideas absolutely correct! When mankind is ashamed of/denies the facts of his existence, he has a very serious problem.

It seems to me that kids of all ages have a personal interest in the ability to name the various parts of their own bodies. Calling a vagina a tootoo or some other ridiculous euphemism is absurdly prurient.
The piece of art in question is, even for 8th graders, obvious an image of a vulva or vagina. And the eighth grades is a really good time for kids to understand the sexualised world in preparation for the time when they themselves face puberty. If this does not happen the result is ignorance and sexual repression which makes kids more vulnerable to abuse from adults. Knowledge is power and all kids need to know what it means when uncle Ernie takes them behind the garden shed and shows them his willy-winky.
Ignorance is not bliss but an impediment to safety.