Jonathan "Song a Day" Mann's latest is "The Vagina Song," inspired by Michigan's legislative fight, in which Republicans have censured a woman Democratic lawmaker for using the word "vagina" in an abortion debate.

the VAGINA song (Song A Day #1262) (Thanks, Jonathan)

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I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: abortion • gender • mi • music • politics • Sex • videos

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Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

irksome

I expected something along the lines of a Bob Marley cover but was pleasantly surprised.

“… and we hope you like vagina too!”
- irksome
  
  Everybody sing! “Vaginavaginavaginavagina..!”
  - chaopoiesis
    
    Not everybody – just the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Singing “O Vagina!”. To Handel’s Messiah.
schlocktober

She didn’t just use the word vagina, she referred to her own vagina in attempt at humor. It was unprofessional. What reaction would we have if a male politician said, “I’m glad you are all so fascinated by my penis…”?

I’m usually the first one to jump on conservatives for being backward (they obviously could have managed this scenario better), but this person made a lame joke about her anatomy in the middle of a legislative hearing.
- http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my
  
  What reaction would we have if a male politician said, “I’m glad you are all so fascinated by my penis…”?
  
  Even if it were in the middle of a legislative hearing about penis-related laws? There would be a foofaraw, perhaps, but I guarantee you they wouldn’t ban him from speaking for two days.
- anwaya
  
  Context matters. Her use of the word vagina was appropriate: a bunch of men were legislating what she could do with her body, and that shocked other women in the Assembly.
  
  Your complaint is that it was “unprofessional”. She is an elected representative, and I expect, statistically, that slightly over half the people she represents are women. Why shouldn’t she shock those male Republican Michiganders, who “unprofessionally” shock women with their legislation dictating what women can and can’t do with their bodies?
  - schlocktober
    
    Was the debate up until that point about vaginas in general, or was it specifically directed at this person’s vagina?
    
    Vaginas and “my vagina” are two entirely different items to be discussing in a formal hearing.
    - blueelm
      
      She personalized it because it is personal, a personal attack on people like herself.
      
      If that fact is “offensive” then the offending laws are the things that should be attacked.
      - http://northierthanthou.com/ northierthanthou
        
        Exactly.
    - http://northierthanthou.com/ northierthanthou
      
      And the difference is actually the human being that owns it. Claiming a vagina was precisely what it took to remind these guys that the organs they sought to control belong to real people.
    - Mitchell Glaser
      
      Really? You are going to split hairs about the difference between her saying vag and my vag? That’s infantile. Men can say all kinds of racist, violent, sickening things in a governmental meeting and not get censured, and she did none of those. How dare they silence her!
- http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair
  
  What reaction would we have if a male politician said, “I’m glad you are all so fascinated by my penis…”?
  
  Well, that would depend on if we had just passed a law about looking inside of your penis
- http://nelc.livejournal.com/ NelC
  
  You’re off-message, Schlock. The official line now is that she was banned for referring to rape with her “No means no” comment.
- http://northierthanthou.com/ northierthanthou
  
  It wasn’t simply humor either. It was an attempt to bring the abstract questions home. The fact of the matter is that the bill in question would take control of her reproductive rights, and the people behind it needed to be reminded of exactly what a power play they were making.
dcorbett

On a similar note, I saw an interesting discussion between Bill Moyers and Jonathan Haidt (Hate?) on how liberals and conservatives both see the world. I found the chart on differences in values very interesting.
http://billmoyers.com/episode/encore-how-do-conservatives-and-liberals-see-the-world/ You can also hear JH’s abbreviated view on TED.

Not sure how JH would interpret this situation however. Are they being hypocritical of the sanctity of the vagina?

I certainly don’t understand them! That’s the problem with us liberals!

:-)

Any thoughts apropos to the BM/JH discussion?
IronEdithKidd

I saw an update to this story on the Detroit news this morning: Lisa Brown will be joined by the author of the Vagina Monologues today on the steps of the capital building in Lansing.

Seems appropriate. ;-)
http://twitter.com/TheArduinoGuy Michael McRoberts

He has clearly recorded this unaware that his half naked girlfriend is in the background, having a piss up to 0:28 then walking around semi-naked after that.
- slayer1
  
  Thanks. Totally did not notice. Now I feel creepy.

Vagina song

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