Mississippi schools are slut-shaming girls by comparing them to Peppermint Patties

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last updated 8 January 2015

As a state with one of the highest pregnancy rates in the country, Mississippi could probably stand to rework its sex education program. So it's no surprise that after decades of silence, the state passed a law in 2012 that requires school districts to teach sex ed. What it doesn't require, however, is the explicit slut-shaming of sexually active girls.

According to Marie Barnard, a Mississippi public health employee and parent, more than 60 percent of Mississippi public schools have adopted a new curricula that asks students to pass around a Peppermint Pattie as a stand-in for sexually active girls. The chocolate's becoming dirtier represents the idea that women become unclean after having sex with multiple partners.