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 😡

Well done and a fist bump from another vulva loving person.

I didn't believe a word she said.

My gran, towards the end of her life, once confided in me that her reaction to being told the facts of life for the first time was "I don't believe you. The King and Queen wouldn't do that..."

Datun, you disbelieved her because it sounded just too weird.

But if there's two options of what a body part can be called, then one would think a child would believe the person they know best, i.e. their own mother.

The only way I can imagine it being otherwise is if the child heard "vagina" used so damn often to mean vulva that she thought that more credible.

(I mean, there's heartbreaking posts about children who come home from kindergarten with horrible gender stereotyping, but I would think that's because they bombarded with it, and their peers also believe it to be true ... but I can't imagine 5 year olds discuss vaginas that much.)

Oh, my Y1 DD does "jigsaw" lessons, which we had worked out was PSHE, but didn't realise it was an actual company called Jigsaw which supplies the materials.

I will email them if you don't! It's really not very complicated to label the outside bit of a girl "vulva". And to say the inside bit is "vagina". Love the analogy of labelling a face "nostril"!

If you are going to email, then please can you post their reply?

Perhaps it's the word, Vestal?

Vulva. It's an add one.

Or is it a known thing? That kids who know too much (vagina) at a young age is a red flag, maybe?

if anyone's going to complain to jigsaw (and I hope they do) may I recommend twitter- not that I use it myself, but I'm told by those of a younger persuasion that it's a very effective way of complaining- I suppose because it's quite public.

I told my sister many people referred to the vulva as the vagina, and she simply did not believe me.

Maybe we are all in our own vulva terminology bubbles.

Maybe we are all in our own vulva terminology bubbles.

I envy your sister. I sure wish I never had heard of "vajazzling"

I'm up for challenging this - who do we contact and how?

I told her about this video, supposedly education, where having described the vulva as the vagina, they have to resort to calling the actual vagina the 'intercourse hole.'

(there's no nudity shown, in case anyone is concerned. It's the presenter from Queer Britain on BBC 3)

This is so silly I'd think it parody, but when it comes to misogyny, nothing is too weird to be true.

Interesting, how they call it "intercourse hole" and not, say, "birth hole".

That has caused me to look up the definition of birth canal. Apparently it is the combined vagina and cervix.

Can I just say, I'm a 44 year old educated mother of one, I've heard as a conversation recently with a group of female friends and we are all confused about where we actually pee from. I started the conversation that until I had my son 15 years ago I thought we peed from our clitorus as that is where the wee sensation is, but when I had a capheter just before full labour, I realised they inserted it lower down so the vulver just inside your vagina. All my friends looked puzzled and said you do pee from your clit. Maybe jigsaw came to my school many moons ago and fucked up my labelling . Please enlighten me

"Had" not heard

You wee from your urethra. It is below the clitoris and above the vagina.

At school we referred to our vaginas as "Faj" and tampons "jam rags" grotesque thinking about it now. Good old 1980s comp school terminology ...picture the film "Bob Sue Rita too"

Sorry yes urethra I meant it's late

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.babble.com/pregnancy/women-dont-pee-out-their-vaginas-and-other-little-known-facts/amp/

Just read the above I'm in order now folk, the above post does back up my thoughts that I wasn't alone in being confused

Well done OP! I can't imagine this sort of error would be taught about boys' genitals. Please do follow up with jigsaw.

I'd prefer the vagina was called cunt and not vagina as the etymology of vagina is a sheath - so meerly something to hold a sword. The etemology of cunt is ancient and therefore argued about but many say and its roots mean things like "knowledge" or "divine femininity". Certainly not a plain old sheath, defined by its rationship.to dick.

Mayne don't go to the governors with that one just yet though

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.

Sheesh. No wonder grown women are confused. Every time this subject comes back up, I have a vivid flashback to the documentary scene in which (a mid-testing, pre-diagnosis) Jade Goody was sitting on a hospital bed, talking about earlier conversations with her GP, completely lacking a vocabulary to coherently describe her symptoms.

I am just AGOG at how wrong this is!

Private education providers = us level of education.

Vestal, DD is 5, not fifth DD. Also I'm her father rather than mother, so she probably has a better reason for not believing me, I don't actually own these organs after all.

I don't think her mother would want to have these conversations with her, she still uses front-bottom which I'm not comfortable with. Vagina while not correct is better than that.