Hestia Homeschool for Young Wild Women

All right, I had already gone to bed, nursed the baby to sleep, brushed my teeth and laid down in the comfy bed with my daughters when...what popped into this Home Educator's Head?  Vulva Puppets, that's what.

Now I had seen these (much larger than life) handmade Flowers of Womanhood before, and I always liked them. As an Earth Mother, a childbirth attendant, and a Mother, I have seen a lot of vulvas and each is individual to the woman. I don't like porn, but I am sure there are plenty of other vulvas out there to see, should I be so inclined. I have various reactions to them, given the circumstances. I know that there were times when changing my daughter's diapers I almost felt tearful, thinking that my Immortality was there beneath my gentle cleaning...these were the Passageways of my grandchildren-to-be. It seemed an eternal link to the past and to the future.

And then there was the time when I was at the park with my friend Jenny, and she asked me how I managed  not to stare at one woman's unshaven armpits and leg hair at a birth I was attending. (It doesn't concern me one way or the other).  I told her, imp that I am, that it was easy when you are trying not to stare at her bottom, and she snorted her soft drink up her nose laughing. (Later I attended the birth of her third child).

The other night a woman came onto Late Night with Conan with a vulva puppet. Bad parents that we are, our little darlings were still awake and we all howled at how embarrassed and inept Conan was. He was afraid of the basketball sized vulva puppet.

Then, as serendipity would have it, the very next day I could have used one of my own (puppet, that is.)

Now as you might expect, sex education here at the Hestia Academy for Young Wild Women is pretty darn open.  There is nothing that is off topic or unmentionable.  The girls have been able to draw their own "flowers of womanhood" for years, although Tabby still refers to Shelby's "flipper flappers" rather than using the term labia. Well, I try.  Unlike people who think that the best way to preserve a daughter's chastity is to try to keep them free from the knowledge of sex, I live in the Real World, where the neighborhood kids have heard of stuff that sometimes I haven't. (Usually involving small rodents). So we talk about everything, freely.

Neighborhood kids,the street kids mainly, have often bizarre ideas about (1) sex practices (2) anatomy and (3) contraception. Since I am open and easy to talk to, these topics come up. Just this week alone I told one young man that (1) women DO not pee out of their vaginas (2) there is more than one kind of condom and he better make sure he uses it all the time (3) that douching  with Sprite is not a healthy idea (4) even if he can convince his fourteen year old lover that anal sex is a good idea, that he can not travel back and forth between both openings without making her ill...and so on.  The most interesting part of the discussion--for me at least--was when he asked about what the "sandpaper stuff" inside her vagina was.  Sandpaper?

I had to think a bit. Oh, the G spot, I told them.  Some how I had missed this topic.  Everyone was interested. The young man quit snickering and sat up and paid attention.

This is a young man I know well, having practically lived at our house on and off for the past three years. He is on his third lover, and he is barely sixteen.  He rolls his eyes at me, but considering that both of his parents are alcoholics that are in and out of jail all the time, he needs some guidance. I can't make him be abstinent. I can help teach him not to cause more babies. 

I do know that I am not worried about my girls and too early sexual activity.  I think girls need to understand their cycles, their bodies, and the idea of infatuation. I spend a lot of time on this.

The other day I was at the Party Source, buying balloons for the Baby Bug Shower.  The young checkout girl looked sadly at the baby stuff and told me that she wanted to have a baby but couldn't get pregnant.  I have never met her before, but this happens to me almost every day...(people tell me EVERYTHING. Fortunately, I am nosy...I mean, err...interested). I looked around. It was a slow Sunday afternoon--Kentucky does not allow the sale of alcohol on Sundays. So then I asked her if she knew when she was fertile--about her mucus.  She had a vague idea, but it was wrong. I spent about ten minutes teaching her about how to check cervical mucus, good positions for concentrating semen around the cervix, and a few other tidbits--like not letting her husband take long hot baths or get into hot tubs.  She is only twenty two. I think she'll be fine. :-)

I was talking about this with my daughters, who were amazed that a woman might not know her own body.

Imagine that.

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• #3 Comment from onemoretina 
  1/8/06 9:01 PM | Permalink

      My mother had a very tough time discussing anything that had to do with sex, or our bodies.  Thank goodness I don't have the same problem with my kids.  Tina http://journals.aol.com/onemoretina/Ridealongwithme
• #2 Comment from my78novata 
  1/8/06 4:44 PM | Permalink

  yes its new and alot of women dont know thier own bodies its almost shameful
• #1 Comment from sugar1337 
  1/8/06 9:37 AM | Permalink

  I agree that teaching young people about their bodies is a gift and not something that should be thought of as bad or feared.