Imaginif

Correct names for body parts is important in the fight against child sexual abuse. Many parents appear to have fear around calling a vagina a vagina and an anus an anus. Instead they make up “cute” names: box, willy, peach, whistle, etc. See Google mail, because Google’s got a doodle, not a penis.

Predators know this and they also use “cute” names to trick the child into accommodating bad touch by making the inappropriate touch appear cute and normal.

An adult woman, sexually abused as a child, always viewed Boxing Day as the worse day of the year. Although subjected to non-penetrative (inappropriate touch) sexual abuse for some time, Boxing Day changed it for her.

The incestuous perpetrator suggested that he put something in her “box”, that Boxing Day was particularly for that. Already groomed to accept that her Vagina was a “box” and sanctioned by a day that was named after the specialness of little girls, the child was penile raped on Boxing Day. It took her a long time to re learn that Boxing Day was about something different, something good and decent, and that other little girls didn’t get the same treatment on that day, or any other day.

Had this child known correct terminology she may have known that the predator was tricking her. In the subsequent court case, her case may have been won if words and actions had not been confused, manipulated and supported by fact that it was indeed Boxing Day on the day of the alleged rape and that the child had somehow imagined that Boxing Day was about her box.

We don’t call an arm something different. Call a vagina a vagina and a penis a penis because that is what they are. Ignorance is not innocence. By giving our children the correct information we are protecting them, not spoiling their innocence. It is the perpetrators who will often use a child’s ignorance and rob them of their innocence.

For some protective play ideas on how to introduce using correct terminology for private body parts, check out Private Parts: What to Call Them? Also check out  our BITSS of protective behaviour articles and all of our protective play ideas over in our shop.

For a lovely story written by a parent blogger have a look at Private Parts
by Booby Juice
and this beautiful post from a fellow Aussie blogger about her Christmas flashbacks.

This article, in parts, has been moved over from Megan’s previous blog site:
Child Protection: Serious Business