The Education of Jackie Sims

Apparently Jackie Sims of Knoxville, Tennessee, has never read porn.

At least, that's my conclusion, based on her claim that the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is pornographic, as reported in The Huffington Post.

I actually own this book, by Rebecca Skloot.  And I've read a bit of porn in my day.  And I would never equate the two.

It's the story of a poor black woman who went in to try to get treated for cervical cancer.  Instead, without her knowledge or consent, samples her tumor were taken.  The cell samples thrived in petri dish, while Ms. Lacks died a horrible death.

The cells are still alive to this day.  Ms. Lacks died in 1951.



It's a terrible story about a dark and barbaric chapter of American medicine, but Ms. Sims seems to have read a different book.

"I consider the book pornographic," she said, adding it's the wording that bothers her most.
-- WBIR, September 9, 2015

 Maybe it's this passage, where she tells her cousins Margaret and Sadie about her pain.

"I got a knot inside me."
"A what?" Sadie asked.
"A knot, she said, "it hurt something awful - when that man want to get with me, Sweet Jesus aren't them but some pains."
-page 14

 Or maybe it's this passage, admittedly gritty:

She filled her bathtub, lowered herself into the warm water, and spread her legs.  With the door closed to her children, husband, and cousins, Henrietta slid a finger inside herself and rubbed it across her cervix until she found what she somehow knew she'd find: a hard lump, deep inside, as though someone had lodged a marble just to the left of the opening of her womb.
- page 15

 It's a frank discussion of a poor and poorly educated woman dealing with a terminal disease in a time when poor black women didn't qualify for what limited assistance was available.  She was married at 15, impregnated, infected with syphilis, and given minimal treatment for her cancer.

Graphic?  Barely.  Pornographic?  Only if you're delusional.

She states that her 15-year-old son was uncomfortable reading some of the passages.  At fifty, I found passages in the book uncomfortable, too. Not because I was popping wood, mind you. Because what she went through was dehumanizing.  It's not fun learning how callous the medical establishment was towards Ms. Lacks.

But education isn't supposed to be comfortable.  It's supposed to challenge your preconceived notions of the existing order, and it's supposed to stretch your conscience.

Besides, at his age, he's having pornographic thoughts all on his own, and learning about teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and cervical cancer can only make him think twice before acting on them.

One hopes that the Knox County School board will all read the book, and continue to allow it in the High School curriculum.

And perhaps Ms. Sims should read 50 Shades of Grey to get an idea of what actual pornography looks like.

“I pull him deeper into my mouth so I can feel him at the back of my throat and then to the front again. My tongue swirls around the end. He’s my very own Christian Grey-flavored popsicle. I suck harder and harder…"

Now THAT's pornographic.