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 😡

My 4 year old DD suffers from a sore vulva because she's not very good at wiping after the toilet. DH had a hilarious phone call from my very prudish MIL one evening while she was babysitting and we were were out - 'DD says her vulva hurts?' DH said it was clear MIL wasn't sure what a vulva was! He glossed over it and said to put some cream on her labia - then quickly explained what the labia were. I was in stitches, which didn't help matters.

Poor old MIL thought babies came out of your belly button until after she was married.

Pudenda is also correct. It means 'external sexual organs' and lacks the sexual context.

Well done OP. I think it's absolutely wrong to deprive children of the words they need to talk about their own bodies. Failing to name the different parts just sends the message that it's all a bit embarrassing and we shouldn't look at it in too much detail. No one would suggest avoiding to tell children they have a throat as well as a neck - why would they, they're just body parts. But the vulva and vagina are hidden and secret. Which of course is great news for abusers - that's just how they want it.

It has to be the fault of the education system. Which is being perpetuated!

Teaching health and social care to teenagers I have had to correct the one about peeing from your vagina (although orange is the new black has helped).

And that deoxygenated blood is red. Cutting yourself does not oxygenate you blood, that's just blood coming out of your vein and meeting air.

Oh and then we have the battle of departments.

Me: arteries take blood away from the heart, veins return the blood.

Biology: Arteries transport oxygenated blood, veins transport deosygenated blood.

No wonder the kids are confused.

Helpful and speedy response from Jigsaw:

"We totally understand the issue and we will probably add vulva as an additional label on the materials ready for next year's Changing Me time in Summer 2. When Jigsaw was written just a couple of years ago there was much resistance to even teaching the words we HAVE included that we decided to move this forward a step at a time, so I am quite pleased we may now be in a position to have more body parts words accepted.

There is no intention of the current word list being misleading but rather we were trying to focus children's learning on the parts of the female body most relevant to understanding puberty (where the bleeding comes from) and where babies come from, hence vagina. Teachers would be explaining that the vagina is inside the female body as part of the lessons."

Good response from Jigsaw to be fair

That is a good response but it is truly staggering that people are resistant to teaching correct anatomical terms.

I'm 31 and only really learnt what a vulva was from MN. I've never heard anyone use the word in real life.

Crikey, your biology department must be a bit shit, sashhh. I distinctly remember being taught in O level biology (gawd that dates me!) that the pulmonary artery transported deoxygenated blood returning from the rest of the body from the heart (hence artery) to the lungs, and the pulmonary vein then transported the oxygenated blood from the lungs to the heart ready to be circulated round the rest of the body. (Though in fairness, according to my chemistry teacher, oxyhaemoglobin is a brighter red than de-oxyhaemoglobin, and carboxyhaemoglobin is brighter than either thus "giving corpses which have died from carbon monoxide poisoning an unusually healthy look"... that was one of those school moments you never forget!)

Well done OP, we are all very proud of you. And you are... er... a ProudVulvaOwner!

That's a good answer from Jigsaw, it makes some sense now.

Quite refreshing to get a response that sounds so candid and open.

Yes I thought so. No arse-(or vulva) covering there. They're also helpfully contacting the school to let them know there's no reason they can't amend the materials if the context of the lesson means it would be more appropriate 👍

Excellent OP - good work!

Sorry, didn't finish. And thus, if one of the other potential cells end up with two Xs, the one that ultimately survives, could have none.

Ah, thanks!

I probably learnt that in school at some point (we did learn about X and XXX and what it means) but forgot the details.

I would like to say I learnt the correct term for vulva at school, but am not sure that actually happened. I found an old sex ed book from the 80s in the attic and that's probably where I know most anatomy from.
(It was a very feminist book, from a recent point of view, but might actually have been the norm back then)

Bravo! Now I dare you to go and see the HT again - request a meeting about "Your Vulva Issue" and this time count how many times you say the word

Vulva is not sexual.

They're also helpfully contacting the school to let them know there's no reason they can't amend the materials if the context of the lesson means it would be more appropriate

Hahahaha. I would love to be there for that conversation.

Well done OP! And well done Jigsaw, good response.

M0stlyBowlingHedgehog

I'm supply so it isn't in all places but has happened a few times.