Yesterday a highly amusing thing occurred. Something which I laughed about, but then felt I should save the poster from hate messages. The local library put an event up. Salt Paintings. Sounded exciting. Sadly it's just for kids, so I won't be going, as with most of their events. However, I didn't know it was just for kids until I looked at the description. It's a really good thing that I did. (Yes, these are the real messages, I just whited anything and everything out that would identify them). I won't underline it, just read it. When I showed it to The Sister she had her reading concentration face on, which then that quickly turned to the open mouth of surprise face. My reaction was reading, getting excited about salt paintings, then a super confused face because what did they really mean, reading rest of sentence, figuring it out, laughing spontaneously for the rest of the day anytime I remembered this. It still makes me laugh. If for some reason you're brain is correcting things for you (because brains do that), it states that "The kids will learn about ABORTION..." and then I start laughing hysterically again. Contrary to what my dad has been brainwashed into thinking, no library is going to teach any kids about abortion. (Fox News has him thinking everyone is out to teach kids about this). Obviously they'd made a mistake and meant to put the word ABSORPTION, as in absorption rates, as in absorbency. Ya know, which things will soak up liquids and which won't. I was laughing, but I had to save them. I had to message them discreetly (not as a comment to the event) to let them know. Not everyone would find it as amusing as I did and there would certainly be parents or just bored busy bodies that would have ripped them a new one over that. Because they wouldn't be able to separate the buzzword that elicits feelings versus the simple human nature of error. Now, it shows my type of mind that I would find this hilarious. Not that abortion is hilarious. I don't find it to be murder, but it's still a complicated thing for a woman to go through. The process of abortion isn't a laughing matter, however, inadvertently using the word in an event for kids, is highly humorous. Perhaps you don't think so? You'd probably be the person to rip them a new one. If you just don't find it funny, but wouldn't be the person bitching about it, then that's OK.
Obviously I wouldn't intentionally put words in front of kids that they have no business knowing about. They're young, too much information that's meant for adults complicates their childhood. It's wrong. Being an appropriate age and learning about your body (right before you're going through puberty) is perfectly acceptable. No reason to keep kids in the dark. But there's a fine line. Sex and all it's dealings are complicated and there's no need to rush a kid towards that knowledge. Even that's a touchy subject I've found. My dad (as I said, whose been brainwashed by Fox News) is all in a tizzy over grammar school kids learning about sex ed (including abortion). Sex ed hasn't changed much. It might have gotten better, but it hasn't changed. They're not actually teaching kids HOW to have sex, nor are they teaching them about abortions. They're teaching kids about their bodies and that always leads to how babies are made (in a scientific, non sexualized manner, mind). He had no response when I told him, "Dad. Your own wife, my mother, had a lady come and talk to us about this in Girl Scouts when we were this same age. All about how are bodies are changing and how they work. It's just logical to know before hand, instead of well after the fact." "Did you have to watch a projection film in school about human bodies and human sexuality (non sexual - I had to reiterrate for him) and about how babies are made?" He still couldn't answer, but it was basically a yes. "Yeah, we did too dad. And though it was basic and I didn't need all the details it was still missing vital information, so I hope they have updated the film, at least a bit. We've not discussed the whole sex ed thing since. But how many more people are out there who don't think their kids need to know how their own bodies work? Probably a lot. Probably a lot of them are forgetting that they themselves had similar talks and saw similar films. Here's the thing. I don't know how much of the film has changed or not, but I can bet the left side of my body that they are not pornographic as Fox News said. Humans have sex. Humans like to have sex. I don't know why. You're human, you ask yourself honestly and figure it out. Nothing will stop a human wanting to have sex if that's what they want to do. I don't think we should be talking about making babies so much because I don't believe that we should be a baby making society, where a woman's only sole purpose in life is to create new life. There's more to women than that. So, showing teenagers how babies are made and that's that, really does no good. You need something to go along with it. It was always "wedded bliss and baby making. You'll have to wait, but isn't that wonderful? A new life." That's not going to work. Most of my class just rolled their eyes. Teenagers don't want wedded bliss. They want to finish high school, get a boyfriend or girlfriend, hangout with their friends, and most of them definitely want to fool around, or either go all the way. All this is doing is disassociating that sex can always lead to pregnancy. They're only thinking, "Marriage? That has nothing to do with me, so I don't have to worry about pregnancy/babies." And don't even try lying to yourself that you weren't messing around or yearning to mess around as a teenager because we all know it's not true. Just because you don't want to think about your kid doing the same things you did, will not make your kid abstain. No, if they're going to discuss baby making, they'll need to, logically, discuss truths instead of fabricated myths and they'll need to discuss contraceptives, or there is absolutely no point. I still highly doubt that pre-pubescent kids are getting this baby making or contraceptive talk, because they're not even there yet. I'm pretty certain they are only learning about their bodies. You're going to get hair, your boobs are going to get bigger, you'll start bleeding, etc., etc., etc. I don't know the "about your body" talk or film that boys get, though if we're going to have men policing women's bodies, then perhaps girls should learn how boy bodies will change and they should certainly learn about ours. The myths and misinformation I hear and read about spouting from men mouths is beyond ridiculous. I'm female and I have learned a lot and I'm still not going to claim that I'm expert on the female body; though I know a hell of lot more than some people out there. I even know more than my own mother whose been married and had a lot of sex (or I'm guessing my parents had a lot), several miscarriages, two births, and has gone through menopause and everything in between. So men should stop claiming to be experts on women's bodies. But yes, I think there should be better talks about sexuality; something more conclusive than just abstain or marriage = babies, because it's doing no one any good. I think abortion has a place in the sex ed talks to, as in real information, discussion, and access to contraceptives leads to less abortions. They're hearing the word bandied about anyways, they should know sort of what it is, just as you think it's a good idea to tell them scientifically what sex is about or how their bodies are starting to change. I didn't say this should certainly come up in the prepubescent talks, but perhaps the age 14 how sex works sex ed talks. Ignoring things do not make them go away. So, of course I wasn't offended over what was said, as I knew it was a typo/autocorrect mistake. But I also know that there are fellow adults out there (my age and older) who would have seriously flipped their lids over that statement, not bothering to realize that it was a mistake. Simple human error or proof-reading, but not seeing, as I already said our minds are want to do. I'm guilty of this. Everyone is guilty of this at some point in time, whether it's a buzzword or not. I also happen to live in a place where a lot of the population is on the band wagon that abortion is murder or that all women want to have them because their fun?, because that's what they think "choice" means? I live in a place where a lot of the people can't step away from a buzzword (because to them it is a buzzword) and see the situation for what it really is. The library really didn't need that kind of heat. I like the library. I support the library. I don't want a mob of angry parents beating down their door or ringing the telephone lines into the ground over a simple typo. It still makes me laugh though.
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AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
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