I just say with a head teacher and argued with her that her fanny diagram was incorrectly labelled - and it's all the fault of you harpies..

[ProudVulvaOwner]

MyY2 child had their 'correct names for body parts' lesson today - all about labelling the external genitalia. We were forewarned they would be learning new words - penis, testicles, and vagina.

As a longstanding mumsnetter and part time feminist, I emailed in to ask how they would be labelling vaginas on pictures of external bodies - surely they would be labelling vulvas? (For avoidance of doubt, I was and am happy for my child to learn all the correct words and what they bits they refer to 'do', but today's lesson was specifically on the outside bits')

Anyhow, I was told this was the wording on approved DfE materials and they had to use it.

So like the true feminist mumsnetter I am, I queried this and asked to see the materials. Sure enough, some plonker at an organisation called 'Jigsaw' who supply DfE approved PSHE materials has labelled all external girl bits as a 'vagina'. Boys bits were correctly labelled.

So I made no progress at all in changing the vocab in the lesson, and have had shared several unforgettably minutes with a nice, but entirely bemused Headteacher looking at a fanny diagram and arguing that it was mislabelled and yes it DOES MATTER. It was not 5 minutes either of us will forget 😳. Thanks for that, Jigsaw 😡

You know for once I'd really like the daily wail to report this thread. Well done OP. Heres something i dont understand - surely a HT must have a gcse in biology? Or double science or something?

Vulvas do not appear in GCSE biology.

They did in mine! 1997.

The specification has changed a bit over the last 20 years.

And not on my O level 10 years before. Vaginas were mind you.

I am at a teacher (in)correcting a boy on the number of orifices a woman has.

That sort of things stick with you. I still remember losing a mark on a test because the science teach insisted that yeast wouldn't rise in the fridge. I knew it bloody did because mum used to bake our bread and let it rise overnight in the fridge before baking the next morning! Her credibility was severely reduced.

I was determined to teach my dd the right words. Go me and my modern parenting. All went great until my dd started talking about her vulture. I gave up but still don't allow front bottom.

Oh VulvaHeadMistress I do hope so! She and I (or possible you and I) have had chats on similar subjects in the past and I'd always had her down as a member of the sisterhood.. (albeit one who never wants to hear the word vulva spoke in her office again)

I judge Jigsaw for spelling "discreetly" wrong as well.

That sort of things stick with you. I still remember losing a mark on a test because the science teach insisted that yeast wouldn't rise in the fridge.

Did you say you had observed it does rise?
I mean, I can understand a teacher assuming that their book learning is correct, but if you can counter that with actual facts, a good teacher should try to find an explanation for why. Not punish a child for paying attention to reality.
(It's that sort of thing that gives rise to the trans cult. If you are told again and again that what you can see with your own eyes is wrong, that somewhat conditions you for believing that biological facts are illusionary and opinions are facts.)

Great thread! I've just had a similar conversation with DD5 about this. She doesn't believe me about the vagina/vulva thing though :(

Write to dfe. Write to their pshe team. Government depts have to write back and At the very least that would be a smashing letter to get back.

Well done OP.

She said that teaching the word 'vulva' and the distinctions between it and a 'vagina' was for a later key stage, but it was ok for 'vagina' to cover it all for now. I bet boys learned that they had both a penis and testacles though.

I presume they do mean discretely as in separately naming the parts (which they're clearly not doing) rather than discreetly as in covering the whole thing in a modest veil and (Les Dawson stylee) mouthing "them bits down there..." while hoiking their collective bosom in a pearl-clutching manner.

I think I've got that the right way round - my aide-memoire has always been "discrete: the "e"s are separated from one another." Please don't tell me I've got it backwards all these years.

But yes, how come boys get to know about penises, testicles, scrotums... and girls just get one word, not even applied correctly? (I luffs DS's teacher from last year - she even taught them about the clitoris.)

They did indeed fuzzyowl - there was plenty of room on the printed material to cover this.

The poor headteacher. Well done you.

I have to confess though that it was only on MN that I learnt the difference between the vulva and vagina.

I've just had a similar conversation with DD5 about this. She doesn't believe me about the vagina/vulva thing though

Your daughter is 5 years old, or your 5th daughter?

A 5 year old who doesn't believe her own mother is pretty strange - has she heard the word "vagina" that often already?
That'd be somewhat disturbing.

Hooray OP! (BTW, post upthread has just made me think of the O level biology howler: "one of the differences between the male and female reproductive systems is that in men the sperm travels to the outside of the body down a tube called the vast difference.")

Oh wow. My son's school uses Jigsaw materials for PSHE and he's in year 2. No mention of body part labelling from his school though.

I have to confess though that it was only on MN that I learnt the difference between the vulva and vagina.

I can't blame you, the wrong usage is so epidemic you almost have to make a conscious effort to resist it. (Back in the time before women put glitter on their vulvas and described that in a way that seemed like they put glitter tampons in their vagina, it was rather easy to use correct terms, because the word was rarely used ... oh, and shaving. Women who shave their vulva and then claim they shave an internal organ are very weird. Like if I said "My bowel crack itches", or whatever.)

I honestly don't think we were taught the word vulva at school, a long time ago. I sort of absorbed the knowledge like osmosis.

A 5 year old who doesn't believe her own mother is pretty strange

Aged about 6, I asked my mother, a midwife, where babies came from. She decided to go into entire reproductive process, Fallopian tubes, the whole 9 yards.

I didn't believe a word she said.

(I luffs DS's teacher from last year - she even taught them about the clitoris.)

Likewise DH's teacher, in a boys school, over 40 years ago. Seriously!