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[–]slushpilot 16 insightful - 2 fun16 insightful - 1 fun17 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

I wonder if this saying speaks to women's insecurities about their body, so while this message is a good response to beauty standards and most people would agree with acceptance of "all shapes, sizes and colours", it's also a trojan horse for people who literally mean all shapes, including male genitals.

[–]MarkTwainiac 17 insightful - 1 fun17 insightful - 0 fun18 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

The organization that made the Tweet is an Australian one whose aim is to provide kids with sex education; apparently it's funded by the government. But there's a very big difference between telling kids that women's genitals vary a great deal in appearance and telling them that women's genitals can look like virtually anything, including penises and testicles and neon-colored Christmas trees as tall as a four-story building. Just because the intent might be to teach kids things that are true and to their benefit to know, it still doesn't excuse exposing kids to such sloppy thinking and imprecise use of language. Kids, after all, take in not just the explicit lessons they are being taught, but the implicit ones too.

Nobody who sees fit to publish a statement saying that "women's genitals come in all shapes, size and colours" has any business being involved in teaching, especially not to kids. Even if the "all" were changed to "many" it would still be inaccurate and misleading. Kids are very knowledgable about, and attuned to, colors, shapes and sizes - these are some of the first things they show interest in and learn about. Look at the vast array of colors on the color wheel, or in a box of crayons, chalk or paints - the reality is that women's (and men's) genitals actually come in only a small handful of the hues found in either nature or the human-made world. Same goes for shapes and sizes.

[–]Shesstealthy 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

neon-colored Christmas trees as tall as a four-story building. dies

[–]slushpilot 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh well that explains a lot. I didn't realize the target audience for this message was children. Wow.

That makes it worse, but I think parents will go along with it because it sounds like every other anti-bullying mantra, and suggests that it's to help young kids with personal insecurities (which they DO NOT have at that age: remember this is about genitals) — and not realize what this underhanded message actually implies.