I was playing Rock Band last Fall semester with Bryce and when I got to create my band member I named her "Vagina," because it was funny to me.
I was warned by the game that the name wasn't "classy" and I wouldn't be listed on the leaderboards.
Ok, so putting aside the fact that it is supposedly a game for all ages --
no, wait, fuck that. Let's NOT put that aside.
Vagina.
Penis.
Labia.
Scrotum.
These are not bad words. They are words to describe human genitalia. (Actually, used to describe more than that, but for this case -- specifics.) Kids SHOULD know these words and what they pertain to: they should be taught the facts of life without use of euphemisms, because when you use euphemisms you disrespect a child's intelligence. On a more practical note, Gods forbid your child is molested and has to testify -- if she's saying "wormy"* instead of "penis" or "furzy"* instead of "vagina," guess what happens to your case? Defense attorney is not going to care that your child was molested: defense attorney is going to try and get her client off the hook. I should know, I was raised by attorneys.
But, ok -- parents these days expect the world to do the parenting for them, so it's no surprise that there are bans on words that aren't, in any form, "bad" (and I happen to be in George Carlin's, Gods rest his soul, school of thought with regards to bad words in general).
So let's move on to the wording: "Vagina isn't 'classy'". (I haven't tested if they would say the same for "penis", but I would not be surprised.) This is...a classist statement. It relegates human sexuality to the lower class, and denigrates the lower class by assigning human sexuality to it (an interesting bit of tautology, really, but what else do you deal with when dealing with the myriad sexual issues that pervade in modern Western society?). Labelling anything as "classy" or the opposite is a classist statement, and using it for sexuality or sexual terms furthers the Victorian belief that sex = bad.
This is silly coming from a video game whose very existence furthers the motto of "Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll" (I mean, just LISTEN to some of the songs my Gods). Why not change the wording to something more truthful: "We can't give this game its 'Teen' rating if we display the word 'Vagina' on the leaderboards, so consider changing your character's name."
Because, obviously, 'vagina' is worse than 'fuck', which is the catch-word of today's teen generation.
*For the record, those were my euphemisms for penis and vagina when I was a young child, but it was I who came up with them, as my parents were cool with in-house nudity.
