Her Womanly Woes
Author Lynn Enright is an empowered feminist – and is therefore crushed and rendered tearful by a commonplace word:
I realised that by not using the word vulva, I was doing myself and my genitals a disservice… Using the words vulva and vagina interchangeably isn’t a harmless linguistic quirk: it’s actually a technique for diminishing a woman’s sexual agency.
Ms Enright invokes fellow feminist Harriet Lerner, who claims that the common usage of vagina is an act of “psychic genital mutilation.”
*raises hand* Do men care what their bits are called?
Do men care what their bits are called?
I can’t speak for the entire tribe, you understand, but my impression is that for men it’s not generally a priority. Though I suppose the word bits might seem insufficiently grand. As opposed to, say, Pleasure Cannon.
LOL
Doesn’t Jeremy Clarkson call his “gentlemen vegetables” or something?
Doesn’t Jeremy Clarkson call his “gentlemen vegetables” or something?
Mr Clarkson’s rhetorical flourishes have been noted here before.
Do men care what their bits are called?
As long as term isn’t accompanied by laughter, no.
As opposed to, say, Pleasure Cannon.
I swear, when I first read that, my brain interpreted what my eyes took in as “Pleasure Canyon“.
And then I thought, “Holy Peter! How does David know one of my ex-girlfriends?”
* Trigger Warning *
While exploring David’s link, do not, I repeat DO NOT, click on the link “Me and My Vulva: 100 Women Reveal All” unless you are prepared to encounter the Bearded Wall of Clam™.
Taken one at time okay, but 50, side-by-side…
Do men care what their bits are called?
As long as the adjectives are sufficiently laudatory, the noun does not matter.
But Pleasure Cannon is my new favorite.
Do men care what their bits are called?
The entire article is basically bollocks, but it is not a question of calling bits something, “vulva” and “vagina” are two distinct terms for different structures. Interchanging the two is just more on the March of Dumbnity, and is on a par with calling a penis a prostate, (or the nape of the neck a coccyx).
I can guarantee if you go to a doctor complaining of a problem with your vagina, you will get a different exam than if you say there is a problem with your vulva (though you might get a 2 for 1 deal) – vulvar cancer is very much different than vaginal cancer, for example.
People say vagina for two reasons: 1) they are ignorant of the difference (not like they teach this stuff in schools anymore); 2) they don’t like the word, “vulva”. For the latter they could substitute pudendum(a, not s for the plural, thank you*).
*(We all have to be pedantic about something…)
What is it with gays and women who (apparently find it mandatory–or is it a compulsion) talk incessantly about their genitals? A banality. Like a tune you can’t get out of your head–I don’t want to think about their body parts.
I find it about as tasteful–as in disgusting–as those who perform their personal grooming in public.
they don’t like the word, “vulva”.
What do you expect when your name rhymes with a part of the female anatomy.
Mulva?
2) they don’t like the word, “vulva”
As Ms Enright concedes, outside of a specifically medical context, the more accurate term now sounds a little mannered and pedantic. Maybe it shouldn’t, but it does. Either way, denouncing the more common alternative as “diminishing a woman’s sexual agency” and an act of “psychic genital mutilation” seems… faintly unhinged.
…more accurate term now sounds a little mannered and pedantic.
With that I disagree, deliberate misnaming things is just lazy and sloppy language resulting from lazy and sloppy thinking and part of the Dumbing Down of All The Things – for the feelz.
…seems… faintly unhinged.
If by “faintly” you mean “completely and irrevocably”, I agree completely. However, there are scads of euphemisms for both parts if one doesn’t care for the anatomical terms, but the bits remain no more interchangeable than the names.
In related news, I wonder who will be the first person to be sack for having nude images of Dr Bateman on their work computer / phone. Twitter is a work app for me and I haven’t been free of her, on any check, for the last few days.
At least the most recent tend to be from the tv so suitably obscured.
Do men care what their bits are called?
Let’s see now…
Lizard…no
Dragon…no
Giant Sequoia…no
Heat seeking moisture missile…no
One Eyed Wonder Worm…no
One eyed cat (peaking in a seafood store)…no
Wooly Bully…no
Little Elvis…well, maybe…depends
My Ding-a-ling…again, maybe…
Tube steak (boogie)…no
Blood engorged zeppelin…no
Hold on. I’ve got some old copies of Penthouse (Forum) in the attic somewhere…assuming wifey never found them…
@ Farnswqorth M Muldoon: ”… For the latter they could substitute pudendum(a, not s for the plural, thank you*).
*(We all have to be pedantic about something…)”
I, having studied Latin decades ago, do appreciate your pedantry; It brings back memories of reciting declensions and verbs under the tutleage of a rather prim master at school. I cannot remember from what number declension your example comes though.
Jim
I wonder who will be the first person to be sack for having nude images of Dr Bateman on their work computer…
Be pre-emptive, go to HR complaining of PTSD from having had it sent to you, get a workman’s comp claim going.
It brings back memories of reciting declensions and verbs under the tutleage of a rather prim master at school.
You and me both, in my case our errors were punctuated by having things thrown at us and being cursed in several languages. What declension it is I have idea anymore, but it is probably a case, like many medical terms, of being made up later and doesn’t really fit any.
in my case our errors were punctuated by having things thrown at us
My Latin teacher was named Henry Higgins. He had none of the charm of Rex Harrison. He was a southpaw chalk thrower.
“As long as term isn’t accompanied by laughter, no.”
Oh, I don’t know. Nervous laughter would be quite acceptable…
Nervous laughter would be quite acceptable…
It occurs to me I may live to regret this thread.
I never learn.
Well at least no one’s posted Monty Python’s Penis Song yet.
When I was at high school these things, possibly because they were rumoured to have teeth, were called a “growler”.
The term was usually preceded by “show us your … ” and delivered from a safe distance or whilst driving by.
Well at least no one’s posted Monty Python’s Penis Song yet.
OK, it is not Monty Python but related to the topic and an earlier question, click at your own risk.
Using the words vulva and vagina interchangeably isn’t a harmless linguistic quirk: it’s actually a technique for diminishing a woman’s sexual agency.
I finally get used to “front hole” and now this?
—
I never learn.
Promises, promises.
syn·ec·do·che
/səˈnekdəkē/
noun
1. a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa
I’d like to helpfully point out that the word “shaft” can be used to mean a pole or can also be used to mean a dark enclosed space.
What declension it is I have idea anymore, but it is probably a case, like many medical terms, of being made up later and doesn’t really fit any.
. . . . There is a short story, no memory of the title or author, telling of someone who just can not get past Latin, and for that he gets thrown out of The School that’s been attended by Every Generation since Yea, the arrival of the Mayflower . . . or something like that.
A friend and I with the same Latin teacher in High School realized we had both independently read the story at some point—and both of us had no memory of where—because we both remembered the story’s particular declination of To Spit.
Something to the effect of: Spuo, spuare, spui, spuis, ac tui, splattum.
…”shaft” can be used to mean a pole or can also be used to mean a dark enclosed space.
That, or a cat that won’t cop out when there’s danger all about.
The entire article is basically bollocks
An article about names for female genitals is “bollocks”.
David, I’d like to buy Farnsworth a drink.
I’d like to helpfully point out that the word “shaft” can be used to mean a pole or can also be used to mean a dark enclosed space.
Very helpful thank you.
Just used it in the smoko room at lunch and it went down very well.
That, or a cat that won’t cop out when there’s danger all about.
I can dig it.
Speaking of Penis Songs.
That, or a cat that won’t cop out when there’s danger all about
He’s a complicated man, but no one understands him but his woman.
….and if you all don’t have an earworm by now, let me help with that.
Vewy well , jabrwok…
….and if you all don’t have an earworm by now, let me help with that
Damn right. Also briefly at 2.03 in that clip, the lit up “MEDICKS” sign above the shop in the background, that’s a joke isn’t it? (I’m not from the US)
Oh, oh, I can help too!
the word “shaft” can be used to mean a pole or can also be used to mean a dark enclosed space
Sounds like the perfect gender neutral term for the parts of shame in that case. All SJWs should use it at all times. I am sure there is no potential for embarrassing/terrifying confusion…
http://onlineslangdictionary.com/thesaurus/words+meaning+penis.html
Still nowhere near comprehensive of course….
I once worked in a company where they employed Commissionaires (remember them, people?) and one of them, a former military man of course, used to announce loudly– yes, even in front of the ladies– that he called all women ‘split-arses.’
Would split-arse then be a better word than vagina for Ms Enright? I hope she lets us know.
* Trigger Warning *
To be fair, they aren’t all bearded.
I finally get used to “front hole” and now this?
A friend of mine refers to hers as the “front butt.”
Worth a reminder that the feminist movement willingly chose the wrong word, the word they are now “ensnared” by. In a daft belief that men’s vulgar jokes created repressive power, they husbanded vulgarity… with the wrong word.
And now, the word not having like an incantation granted them magical power – excuse me, “sexual agency” – they must find blame. Why, it was the fact they chose the wrong word lo those many years ago, obviously. The patriarchy made them do it with their mental rape-rays.
I’m reminded of an incident in my misspent youth as an evangelical Christian. We were having one of those earnest youth-group discussions about “sex and sexuality”, and the pretty redhead most of us were only there because we fancied lamented that there were so few socially acceptable words for the female genitalia. “I mean,” she continued, “men’s parts you can handle roughly,” before realising what she’d said and nearly turning herself inside-out with embarrassment.
I’m also reminded of being told by feminists that words referring to or relating to women always become offensive over time, and that this is evidence of men’s patriarchal oppression of women. As I’ve got older, I’ve noticed that words referring to women become offensive because women take offence. At absolutely anything. Some of them even take offence at the word “woman”. They used to respell it “womyn”, and know they’re respelling it “womxn”, a bit like some religious Jews write “G-d”.
I’d suggest she replaces both words with “cunt”, the only disadvantage being that others may think she’s talking about Jeremy Corbyn.
“The word itself makes some men uncomfortable”
Projecting much? Feminists seem to get hysterically angry or frightened at the mention of penises or the display of cartoons of same.
What ARE those things called?!
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51b3dc8ee4b051b96ceb10de/t/54762282e4b01797a6ced033/1417028228179/?format=1000w
We had a couple of Volvos in the 1970s before they went upscale out of my price range.
My wife’s grandmother (b 1895) referred to female genitals as the “Japonica”.
Discuss.
Well, what I was alluding to is that it’s framed in their minds as a token in a power struggle. Man are allowed to be vulgar and make dick jokes, women are allegedly not allowed to be vulgar and make jokes about the vagoo, therefore men are asserting power and oppressing women every time they’re coarse.
In this thesis, a woman is Seizing The Means Of Production if she is vulgar, “queering” the role of vulgarity in discourse, and being a Strong Self-Identified Being, thereby frightening the waifey (womanly?) men who are not used to being Bravely Opposed. Which is a totally different sort of thing than a neurotic blame-the-patriarchy feminist nursing a fear of men, because shut up.
Maude Lebowski in The Big Lebowski (source of gif) is the best kind of satire – a character clearly stating what lunatics of the same stripe have already stated. Her existence styled as a profound, liberating genius is handicapped by the fact that she’s only able to faff because she was born into money – and her control of her late mother’s purse is of the form of an internal family struggle that’s downright Victorian. To top it all, she decides that reproducing would be of social-climbing advantage, but rather than complicate things by involving herself with any of her emasculated entourage, she wishes to mate with The Dude, who in his bum nature has an animal spirit she needs. After which she intends to never have contact again. The worst aspects of male “pump and dump”, and she doesn’t even see it.
Great movie.