Menu Close

Fear the Boob

ban boobs

Axios reports:

Lamar CISD, a school district about 30 minutes from Houston, Texas last fall removed a section about Virginia from its online learning platform used by 3rd-5th graders.

….

The reason: The bare breast on Virginia’s flag, a picture of which was included in the lesson, violated the district’s recently adopted ban on any “visual depictions or illustrations of frontal nudity” in elementary school library material.

Here’s the picture in question:

virginia breast

Who is driving the objection to this benign picture of the Virginia state flag? I have no doubt that Evangelical Christians are behind the outrage. Evangelicals are ALWAYS behind culture war battles. Do they really believe anyone — including children — will be harmed by this picture? Keep in mind, Texas is the same state that wants to legalize high school students carrying handguns. Let’s see, which is likely to cause more harm — boob or gun? If you have to think about this question, you are an idiot. Guns can and do cause harm. I don’t know of anyone who has been harmed by the passive portrayal of a boob in a school lesson for third to fifth graders.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

7 Comments

  1. Avatar
    CarolK

    I’ve seen the Virginia flag a lot in my 70 years and I never noticed the bared breast. I’m not even sure that the figure is a woman.

    • Bruce Gerencser

      According to Wikipedia, it’s the only state flag depicting nudity:

      The standing allegorical female figure of virtue is shown having vanquished tyranny, symbolized by a fallen king at her feet. She has an exposed breast in the manner of classical depictions of Amazons. The motto Sic semper tyrannis means “Thus always to tyrants.”

      It is one of six US state flags (along with Florida, New York, New Jersey, Wyoming, and Idaho) with a depiction of a woman, and the only state flag in the U.S. depicting nudity.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_and_seal_of_Virginia

  2. Avatar
    Sage

    yeah, I mean, a boob is much worse than a dead body depicted on a flag.

    Texas has some serious issues, and it just keeps getting worse.

Want to Respond to Bruce? Fire Away! If You Are a First Time Commenter, Please Read the Comment Policy Located at the Top of the Page.

Discover more from The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading