UNITED STATES: I [heart] my vagina

After attending a March performance of the play The Vagina Monologues, Carrie Rethlefsen and Emily Nixon decided to make "I [heart] my vagina" badges and wear them to their Minnesota high school, to spark discussion about sexual violence and women's rights. When the school's principal tried to ban the badges, telling Rethlefsen that she was "giving an open invitation to guys", the students refused to take them off. With the honours-level students barred from one class, and threatened with suspension, their classmates took up the cause, producing 100 t-shirts, women's sizes saying "I [heart] my vagina", and men's sizes saying "I support your vagina". The principal responded by threatening that, if a single student wore the shirts, Nixon and Rethlefsen would be expelled. The students plan to wear the shirts en masse in the first week of May. The American Civil Liberties Union has said it will take legal action if the school penalises the students.

From Green Left Weekly, April 27, 2005.

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From GLW issue 624