Pajiba

those librarians can lick my scrotum for all i care, we live in america, folks, get over it. its either the kids learn it in a book and a teacher can explain it, or they'll learn it from their dirty friend....either way, they learn it.

and on the subject of britney spears, i must admit, im a little shocked that it was anna nicole that died, and not spears. i was sure she'd be the first one out.

You know what Britney really needs? She needs a faux funeral. Yes, a faux funeral where all her friends can gather and pay respects to her. A faux funeral where she can rest in a casket and listen to friends pay their eulogies and witness what her absence means to them. Has she not seen the movie Empire Records? Either someone needs to send her the DVD, stat, or she and Robin Tunney need to do lunch.

I feel as though it was a publicity stunt to get attention.. and it sure worked.. britney has become an out of control parent who needs help..her life is a mess and she doesnt know how to deal with it.. so, it is easier to get the negative attention for the whole thing.. I only feel sorry for the kids involved..

I'll play devil's advocate here - most of the librarians in my life are very pro-First Amendment/expression, generally. Their objection to the book may not be motivated solely by prudery. Perhaps they are just being realistic about how most kids in that age group will react to the word "scrotum" in a book. My own reaction at that age? Hysterical laughter that would've negated any value the book had to offer - and I was a good student! I didn't attend the most enlightened public schools and can say with confidence that any classroom I was in would've been completely disrupted by an explanation of what a scrotum is - ESPECIALLY a dog's scrotum! Were I a third-grade teacher, I certainly wouldn't want to be tasked with explaining the relationship of the scrotum to the penis not because I don't think the kids should know what a scrotum is, but because I know damn well I'd never hear the end of it either from the kids or their parents.

I'm sure the book is wonderful - those Newberry people know what's up. Maybe a compromise would be to keep the book on the shelves for the kids who want to read it without actually reading it aloud to them?

That said, can't even imagine my parents' reaction were I to go to them asking what a scrotum was. Kind of humorous to consider, actually.

Okay, I am the mother of two girls - aged 10 and 4. Of the book in question, that article says this:

The book's heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

"Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much," the book continues. "It sounded medical and secret, but also important."

This perfectly captures the way kids at that age react to this sort of secret weird information. Intrigued but in a detached way that is ready to be completely grossed out by the answer. My 10 year old calls all her body parts by the correct names, but still thinks sex sounds icky and hilarious and she really doesn't want to talk about this. Because knowing the names for things doesn't change the fact that she's 10, it just means she doesn't have some weird superstitious magical weirdness going on where she reacts to "vagina" as if it were "Voldemort." I think, just from the quoted part of the book, that she'd really empathize with Lucky.

This is like that crazy story from a couple of weeks ago, when a theater in Florida (I think) changed it's marquee after receiving complaints. The theater was advertising The Vagina Monologues, but after a complaint from someone who didn't want to "explain to her grandkids" what that meant, they changed it to, I kid you not, "The Hoohah Monologues." How is that better (and how does that not completely go against the entire point of the play)? I will never understand this fear of body parts. Why is a "vagina" scary and wrong but a "hoohah" or "private" or any other vague euphemism okay? Girls have hands, elbows, butts, shoulders, feet, vaginas, and necks. Boys have hands, elbows, butts, shoulders, feet, penises, and necks. They are just body parts, they have names, and there is nothing wrong with the body part or the name for it. The only thing wrong is when grown ups - parents, grandparents, school librarians, teachers - feel like it protects children somehow if we pretend that their belly buttons morph seamlessly into their thighs. All that does is teach kids that there's something wrong with them (because they do have genitalia), that genitalia is dirty and wrong, and that they can't fucking talk to you about any of their concerns or fears or pressures, because obviously you don't want to hear that nasty talk....

This fucked-up fear of the word "scrotum" - wtf? "I don't want to have to give that vocabulary lesson"?!? YOU'RE A FUCKING TEACHER. You don't have to teach sex ed to third graders - you just have to tell them that a scrotum is a pouch or sac of skin that holds the testes, which are a part of a male mammal's body. God knows, if you're daring, you might even say "penis" in your explanation, or you could just clarify where a scrotum would be on a dog, as that is what the story is about. Let the snickers die down, give the class an arched eyebrow that conveys how very silly they are being about it, and move the fuck on. And when the parents complain, and the school board wants you out, stand up and shout "IT'S A PART OF A BODY! A DOG HAS A HEAD, EARS, LEGS, PAWS, A TAIL AND A SCROTUM! THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH SAYING IT!"

And for fuck's sake, there is nothing less sexual than a dog getting bitten in the scrotum.

Jesus. H. Tapdancing. Christ.

I wanted to add something constructive to the "scrotum" discussion, because nothing pisses me off more than censorship, but Edith did such a good job, all I can add is amen.

Jesus. H. Tapdancing. Christ. indeed.