Quickies: “Virginity” is not an actual thing that exists
In other news, many children's songs have racist origins in minstrelsy and it's time to stop teaching them to children
Those of us in the midwest are freezing our asses off in this record-breaking cold weather this week, so pour yourself a warm mug of hot chocolate while you read through today’s quickies.
First up, while everyone has been talking about the story last week about rapper T.I.’s comments about how he asks his 18-year old adult daughter’s doctor to check her hymen, Jessica Valenti is here to remind us that there is no such thing as virginity.
Also on Medium, Dr. Katya Ermolaeva has a piece about how some children’s songs such as “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” “Oh! Susanna” and many others have their origins in music from minstrel shows. In many cases there have been just slight changes to the songs lyrics in order to cover up their racist origins. Dr. Ermolaeva argues in her piece that it’s time to stop teaching these songs to children.
On the topic of coming to terms with the racist history of minstrelsy and the many cultural things it inspired, the new season of the “You Must Remember This” podcast with Karina Longworth is about Disney’s infamous movie Song of the South, one of the few films that is soon to be noticeably absent from the new Disney streaming service. It’s a truly fascinating look at the state of race in Hollywood in the 1940s and I highly recommend you download it via your favorite podcast app.