The Scrotum Monologues

I am so happy. As a male (for the most part), I've felt rather left out when it comes to vile, nasty and obscene body parts worthy of censorship. But lo and behold, I do have a scrotum. And the appearance of that word in a children's book has set off an uproar. While it probably doesn't carry the same baggage as vagina, at least I feel us guys are making some progress towards equality now.

The inclusion of the word has shocked some school librarians, who have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools, and reopened the debate over what constitutes acceptable content in children’s books. The controversy was first reported by Publishers Weekly, a trade magazine.

The scrotum mentioned in the book is actually attached to a dog, not a human, but I doubt it would make any difference. We certainly can't allow our children to know that our body parts have names.

Pat Scales, a former chairwoman of the Newbery Award committee, said that declining to stock the book in libraries was nothing short of censorship.

“The people who are reacting to that word are not reading the book as a whole,” she said. “That’s what censors do — they pick out words and don’t look at the total merit of the book.”

Wendy Stoll, a librarian at Smyrna Elementary in Louisville, Ky., said: “I don’t think our teachers, or myself, want to do that vocabulary lesson.”

No, of course not. But you probably never had an issue with teaching a child about a "pee pee" or a "tinker bell."

Look! It's a nut sack!