‘3D version of the clitoris goes around the classrooms’
Patricia van Liemt is a radio presenter, writer and mother of Maria (12) and Phaedra (9). Every Friday she writes striking, honest, funny and above all recognizable columns about her life and motherhood.
‘Does a woman have to take out her tampon before she can urinate?’ I asked two male colleagues. Admittedly, it was a somewhat off topic over lunch, but we had just come out of a conversation that already had a feminist edge, and I jumped at the chance to test this anatomical knowledge. When I pop this stuff out, I usually know within seconds if I’ve got the right audience for me. This kind of questioning can go two ways: the audience is impressed and is willing to step on my feminist wagon or I get a few rotten eggs in the form of ‘Jesus, is that really necessary, Patries?’ to my head. My audience was in good shape today and receptive as they were, they had to think about it for a while. And that is also the crux, because they had doubts…
Week of the Spring tickles
Fortunately, our children will receive sex education at school this week in ‘De Week van de Lentekriebels’, a national project week in which they learn about resilience, relationships and sexuality. Hallelujah! This year’s theme is ‘What do I like?’ and Rutgers (you know, the party that used to be called the Rutgers Foundation) has researched that learning positively about relationships and sexuality from an early age is more likely to result in a more positive self- and body image later on. And that’s nice. In addition, you learn to communicate better about your wishes and limits and our children learn to treat each other more respectfully. And the normative is immediately silenced. As a mother, I am happy with that.
Read also: Patricia about pregnant weightlifting: ‘Women must assess for themselves what they can handle’
Criticism of sex education
Unfortunately, this does not apply to all parents. The criticisms on social media are therefore not of the air. Moral conservatism in particular is rampant. For example, under the guise of emancipation, we would normalize the sexualization of children. Yes, that sentence is quite something. I know. There are therefore parents who decided to keep their offspring at home this week. I would like to ask these parents to think about it again next year, because every child is entitled to reliable information that fits their environment or developmental stage. Moreover, we also know from research that children have questions about sexuality. What I totally applaud is that a 3D version of the clitoris is going around the classrooms. Because it’s not a pin on the vagi. No, it’s a real organ!
Hmm. Maybe I should ask the school if I can borrow this 3D clitoris. At least then my colleagues and I will have something to talk about during lunch…
Would you rather listen to Patricia’s column? Which can. Every Friday between 2 and 4 pm she reads it on Wild FM.
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