Do we need to unionize Sex Ed in our kids’ schools? How can we set a fair standard for talk about our bodies, our ovaries, uteruses and vaginas? Our Clitoris? Do we need to unionize as a sex?

I’m not suggesting that, per se, but after talking with this week’s guest, Cobie Smulders, about how difficult it still is for people (parents and sex ed facilitators in schools) to talk to their kids about menstrual cycles and vaginas in general, I think we need some sort of overhaul.

Do we need to unionize the uterus?

The fact is, periods are why (at least a huge part of the reason why) we are all here. Without periods, eggs, vaginas and uteruses, none of us would be here. So why the taboo about calling our body parts (and monthly menstrual cycles) by their names? Why the shy looks about explaining what a tampon is? “Oh, yeah, this is called a tampon. It’s basically cotton that absorbs blood flowing from my vagina so that I’m not mopping up after myself for five days a month while I bleed out tissue that my body no longer needs because it’s sloughing off what it doesn’t need to make space in there in case I decide to fertilize an egg next month and it needs to house an embryo.” Is that so hard?

My son has always known what a tampon is and what it is for. He now jokes, while going through my purse to find my phone to play Faily Skater, when he finds a tampon that it’s “oh, look, Mom, a chocolate bar!” But he knows exactly what it is and what it’s for. He knows how he was created (physically, we talk about the spiritual stuff too, but that’s a whole other blog) and how he was born. He’s 9. These questions have been coming since he was 2. I have answered all of them honestly and using the proper vernacular. Pulling no punches. But, also being sensitive that it’s a lot to process. So, bite sized nuggets for him as we go.

In our episode together, Cobie talks about how along her personal journey with ovarian cancer, she learned that ovarian cancer or cancer of any kind that was related to female organs, until fairly recently was called “stomach cancer” in social circles. People didn’t want to name it for what it was. There was shame around those organs in general, so to be sick in one was more shameful, I suppose.  

Men don’t have this same level of shame or censorship around their sex organs. Even with prostate cancer or testicular cancer. There is a lot of shame around the lessened vigor and possible impotence of their penises, but there’s no shame or blame around the body parts. It is what it is.

I don’t have a pat answer for any of this. It’s more of a conversation starter, really. But, I do think if we had a sort of Norma Rae figure on board here, she would say that our female organs and female bodies as a whole deserve fair treatment and equality.

Don’t call my vagina a pussy unless I’ve asked you to put your face in it. Don’t call my uterus my tummy. Don’t call my period my “womanly time.” Please.

And I’ll do my part to educate my kid on the actual anatomical names of things and if I don’t know, we will consult a medical resource to get the proper information.

We are all doing the very best we can and with the authentic information, we can do even more, especially for our kids. They’re the future of us all.

I love you. Keep going.

Xoxo,

Jennifer