Illinois Religious Group Furious Over Sex Ed 'Vagina Dance'
Some group of shrill ninnies called the Illinois Family Institute is angry at Prairie Ridge high school teacher Jacqulyn Levin because she used a little mnemonic song called "the Vagina Dance" to help her sophomore students remember their anatomy lesson.
The Illinois Family Institute, a nonprofit ministry based in Carol Stream, posted an article on its website this week claiming Jacqulyn Levin, a health and physical education teacher at Prairie Ridge high school, taught students about female anatomy using "the Vagina Dance." The article states the dance, which the group said involved pointing to and singing about reproductive parts while prancing around the room, was set to the tune of the Hokey Pokey.
"Her selection of this inappropriate instructional activity demonstrated a lack of empathy for those who may have a degree of modesty and self-respect that Levin does not possess," wrote Laurie Higgins, director of the Illinois Family Institute's Division of School Advocacy. "Did she consider that some students might feel uncomfortable participating in or even watching this dance and that they might fear being ridiculed if they chose to opt-out?"
The kid who asked to opt-out was a boy who felt uncomfortable but was told he had to stay for the lesson. His father complained to the Illinois Big Babies coalition and thus the outrage. The dad makes his case:
"I am not a prudish person and I have no problem with scholastically based sex education," King said. "But the teacher used such a cavalier presentation method, and forced a student to participate when he requested to abstain from it. It is disrespectful to women and removes modesty about the reproductive parts."
Certainly I don't blame any fifteen- or sixteen-year-old kid for wanting the earth to swallow them up at the sight of their teacher doing something called "the Vagina Dance" and asking them to sing along. That makes sense and that's the real issue here, that it's oddly infantilizing to make high schoolers sing some dopey song. But it is not asking too much to want teenagers to know what their genitals are and feel comfortable with the fact that they have genitals.
Do you think that if the science existed the Illinois Family Institute and its ilk would opt to keep their children's genitals in a jar until their wedding day? I bet some of them would! Or would at least seriously consider it. I also wonder if members of groups like the Illinois Family Institute spend a lot of time at home by themselves, pointing at their genitals and weeping loudly. Probably!
