PearsonsGCSE textbooks are the bane of teenagers’ lives; you’re forced to carry them around with you everywhere you go so it’s almost impossible to escape their torture.
In fact, they’re so agonising that just the thought of rifling through a revision guide right now is giving me the shivers. No thank you.
But this time it isn’t the teens who are having problems with the school-issued books, it’s the parents – as an image inside one of them has caused concern.
PexelsIn particular, an illustration of a pregnant woman with Brazilian-style pubic hair has caused outrage, with parents referring to the hair as that of a ‘porn star’.
Angry parents took to social media to vent about the picture, which appeared in a GCSE Human Biology revision book by publishers Pearson Edexcel – resulting in calls to withdraw the 2017 version of the book.
One person tweeted:
Disgusted by @Pearson_UK and @PearsonSchools for publishing this image of a pregnant woman with a Brazilian in a GCSE textbook. Utterly disgraceful. They should formally apologise. SHAME ON YOU
Disgusted by @Pearson_UK and @PearsonSchools for publishing this image of a pregnant woman with a Brazilian in a GCSE textbook. Utterly disgraceful. They should formally apologise. SHAME ON YOU pic.twitter.com/Rty7PEWkda
— Glacius White (@glaciuswhite23) February 9, 2019
While another fumed:
A group of us have just discussed it in the pub & there is a strong consensus that it really is outrageous. Also, it’s just so unnecessary for the diagram. Somebody sat there and drew this. What were they thinking?!! And who signed off on it?
My friend Glacius just spotted this. A group of us have just discussed it in the pub & there is a strong consensus that it really is outrageous. Also, it's just so unnecessary for the diagram. Somebody sat there and drew this. What were they thinking?!! And who signed off on it? https://t.co/dljXM8iLcf
— James Mannion (@RethinkingJames) February 9, 2019
Parents also took to Mumsnet to discuss the illustration, with the consensus being that the image should have depicted a non-waxed pubic region.
One person wrote:
It’s well-known that there is already huge pressure placed on teenage girls in terms of the appearance of their genitalia. There has been an upsurge in consultations about labiaplasty for instance.
Here we have a school textbook that depicts a woman with pubic hair that looks like it comes straight out of a porn film. It’s also a style that requires significant expenditure and upkeep and generally has to be done by a salon rather than at home.
PexelsAs reported by the Daily Mail, Pearson have said the image was replaced when the textbook was reprinted in May last year, so it no longer appears in the most recent version.
A spokesman said:
Clearly, we did not mean to cause offence with the original version and we would be happy to provide the updated version free of charge to any student or teacher who would like a replacement.
I wonder how many free textbooks the publisher will be handing out in the next few weeks?
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