Morning Roundup: The Vagina Dance

Beth Saunders

Pregnant woman bounced from a bar for being pregnant, pro-choice concerns over the filibuster, Exhale's work with women, and yes, the vagina dance.

Pregnant woman bounced from a bar for being pregnant, pro-choice concerns over the filibuster, Exhale’s work with women, and yes, the vagina dance.

  • A pregnant woman was asked to leave a bar in Illinois, despite the fact that she was drinking water and just wanted to eat pizza. Michelle Lee, who went out with some girlfriends, was asked by a bouncer if she was pregnant, and then told that she needed to leave because if “anything happened to you here, we would be responsible.” Hmm, isn’t that true of all patrons, gestating or not? And the point of insurance?
  • Pro-choice organizations are expressing concern over the possibility of filibuster changing rules in the Senate. From Politico, “’Our main concern is that traditionally, out of the filibuster, an automatic 60-vote threshold has emerged on abortion isues,’ said the staffer, noting that as a matter of informal Senate rules, no abortion-related bill or amendment proceeds without that supermajority support.” With an anti-choice legislation likely to come out of the House this Congress, the supermajority will be necessary to protect women’s rights.
  • Exhale’s work with the MTV special No Easy Decision was profiled in the New York Times, with a special emphasis on how the organization is neither pro-choice or pro-life, but exists to help women.
  • And, a special Friday exercise for you – what do you think of when you hear the words “the vagina dance?” Apparently an Illinois sex education teacher made up a rhyme with the parts of the female anatomy, to the tune of the Hokey Pokey, as a mnemonic device. A parent got upset, because he felt the teacher forced his son to participate, taking away “appropriate modesty.” Students in the class and the school say that it was not, in fact, an actual dance, just called that by some of the kids – not the teacher.

Jan 14

Jan 13