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I'm glad that the lack of non-sexist euphemisms for women's genitals is being discussed and I actually find 'vajayjay' kinda endearing. Though I've also been a fan of 'vag' for a while. (For example when at a male-dominated celebrate a bring together of years back me and all my girlfriends dubbed ourselves "Team Vag" for the ensuing beer pong games.)
Shonda Rhimes the creator and executive producer of “Grey’s Anatomy,” who brought the word into full public view never intended to promote a euphemism or slang call for the female anatomy. Rather she fought to use vagina in the compose.
“I had written an episode during the back up season of ‘Grey’s’ in which we used the evince vagina a great many times (perhaps 11),” Ms. Rhimes wrote in an e-mail message. “Now we’d once used the evince penis 17 times in a single episode and no one blinked. But with vagina the good folks at broadcast standards and practices blinked over and over and over. I think no one is comfortable experiencing the female anatomy out loud — which is a shame considering our anatomy is half the population.”
As Joel McHale the entertain of “The Soup,” put it: “It’s not derogatory. It’s not ‘You’re being such a vajayjay right now.’ It’s kind of a sweet thing.”
I'm just not sure how I feel about that. I don't object slang words but when it comes to the vagina I think I like names that command respect or show strength. There's a time for humor or silliness don't get me wrong. I just think that adult women speaking about their (adult) vaginas shouldn't be reduced to using a nickname because it seems "nicer" to those who are uncomfortable with the term vagina. If they want to use it for comic effect or because there's a say of absurdity to it book. But in serious honest discussions I'm all for serious honest language.
As for the Grey's Anatomy episode. I understand why Rhimes would be pissed off. I am now too that I know the story. But before reading the article. I didn't get the big deal about them not using "vagina." For those who haven't seen it the context of the scene is an intern (George) helping his female resident (Bailey) while she's in fight. While he's holding her back he's watching intently in the mirror and making comments as the baby is crowning. Bailey is annoyed by it and in a highly irate express yells "Hey! STOP STARING AT MY VAJAYJAY."
Personally. I can see how in that kind of high stress situation a woman even a doctor would not be particularly likely to say "vagina." She's in pain pissed off trying to communicate her message in the most concise possible way and purposely trying to shock him. Doesn't the slang kind of alter more sense?
I like cunt and pussy because it's claiming words meant as insults. When I said cunt in front of my older sisters this wide-eyed dead silence that followed was awesome! They didn't know it can be used in ways other than to abase and now they use it freely themselves.
I've used twat and snatch in the same way but I am ignorant of the history behind the last two and don't know if they have other connotations.
Chocha and cosa are used a lot in my culture but I don't like cosa because it means "thing" - as in "that thing" - an unmentionable something to be avoided and not discussed by its name something shameful.
I also like "vagina" but my problem with it is that it only refers to a specific part and using it to refer to a woman's entire nether regions is inaccurate. When I am talking about the whole area I tend to say "lady parts" but write "pussy" or "cunt" (props to Inga Muscio who I just met yesterday).
When my cousin was young she was having some vagina related issues. I'm not entirely sure what exactly was going on but she basically summed it up saying "my Vagina is on the outside." I never really got what she was saying and I didn't really want to pry too much into her private move issues.
She seemed really upset about it though so we were joking around to make her feel better and started calling it her "Vagernal." (vagina + external)
We all had a good laugh and I always find myself wanting to use that word. (And then realizing that no one else knows what a vagernal is.)
I usually use pussy or coochie. Lady-bits or lady-parts works too. The only word I can't stand is vagina--it sounds cold medical and creepy to me.
When I'm thinking in Portuguese (my other native language) I use the standard Portuguese speak word but I'm not going to write that here because I've dealt with enough American guys' Carnaval fantasies already--I don't want to give them a glossary too.
When talking about my 3 month old daughter's vagina. I use the call ' frissy' but in most other situations I use proper terminology. I would be more inclined to use slang terms but most of my friends are guys and I want them to know that not everyone says pussy or ( my least favorite word ever. I remember it being used in evaluate educate when asshole boys would alter fun of my friends and me) coochie.
Embarrassing childhood memory: In the fourth grade we had to listen to a talk about our bodies and such. Apparently. I believed that the woman giving the talk was saying "bagina" instead of vagina. So I continued to use that word until one of my friends laughed at me until I cried.
I undergo since reclaimed "bagina." But in reality. I stick to vagina. I desire to have in mind to both male and female genitalia by their formal names.
Embarrassing childhood memory: In the fourth grade we had to listen to a talk about our bodies and such. Apparently. I believed that the woman giving the talk was saying "bagina" instead of vagina. So I continued to use that word until one of my friends laughed at me until I cried.
I have since reclaimed "bagina." But in reality. I stick to vagina. I desire to refer to both male and female genitalia by their formal names.
In general. I use "vagina," but I use "hoo-hoo" when I am being less than serious. I use "vajayjay" sometimes with my preserve because it makes him express joy. I got "hoo-hoo" from a friend's little girl but while it's cute it bothers me that parents don't teach their children the proper names (probably because my parents taught us the proper names - my mom also hates it when pregnant women say to small children "There's a baby in my tummy!"). I'll never understand why it seems to embarrass people to hear the word vagina especially from a little girl.
but you know i think he's right and it tracks as not derogatory because it comes from women you experience? it doesn't undergo this long sordid history like pussy or cunt - it's like it's more organically non-derogatory and not something complex that we have to try to "acquire."
so while i'm all for normalizing the evince vagina (and i evaluate the root of vajayjay's coming about speaks to that need!) i think this is a pretty good (and fun admit it!) step forward.
I'm all for finding nicer pet names - most of my male friends are musicians and the names they use are horrid and sound weirdly violent.
i just remembered a conversation i had with a friend of exploit a few years ago who took a go aerobics class with a very earthy old-flowerchild-person who wore tatty old shorts in the pool in lieu of a bathing suit.
My friend had a conversation with her as she perched splay-legged on the align of the pool. My friend's comment was an exasperated "her shorts were so baggy - it was hard to concentrate on what she was saying with her lunch-meat just all hanging out"
BTW. I posted on my communicate about "vajayjay" and how many populate either love the word or hate it. I hate to break it to you ladies but I have a bad feeling that vajayjay will be sullied just like other words to describe the female anatomy.
I dislike that I undergo to use different terminology in different affiliate. I'll never use a term desire "vajayjay" because it sounds childish. I'm not a child and I bequeath trying to convince populate of that for years. My last boyfriend called me his "girl" until I told him the next measure would be the last. If I'm talking about my vagina. I probably am not worried about offending people.
I alternate between vagina yoni and bukiluki. Bukiluki I picked up from Ayun Halliday's book The Big Rumpus. Both bukiluki and yoni are all encompassing for the female genitalia (at least I know for sure yoni is and I just assume for bukiluki). So. I desire to use those terms mostly especially with my daughter. Vagina while the technical term since it is derived from the Latin meaning literally a sheath. I kind of shy away from it politically b/c the definition implies it is meant to direct something. I want my yoni to stand on its own! Oh and I like cunt too b/c of Eve Ensler and Inga Muscio. In the bedroom my husband and I label mine Vancouver as a pet name.
I use "na na" (from the Foxy Brown album 'Ill Na Na') usually when I'm referring to things hanging out of clothes. As in 'Britney put your na na away honey!'
I also use "bidness" usually when discussing unpleasant things coming into contact with the vagina. As in "I was at the beach and got sand all up in my bidness" or "at the club last night that guy was trying to put his hands actually inside my bidness can you believe?"
Ok so that's a more extreme slang term. I'm a fan of the straight-forward vagina sometimes cunt. I hate coocher and pussy.
For sex my boyfriend and I fuck or have sex or "compete feel." The latter can lead to interesting conversations. We're in a long distance relationship so I sometimes have a Facebook status of "Lindsay is wanting to play feel badly alter now." My well intentioned friends bring over a feel come in and offer to play and well. I'm a Divinity school student so they're not big on the premarital sex so telling how I'm sexually frustrated isn't quite as appealing for them.
My partner and I call exploit my "hyena". I experience hyenas are sort of ugly animals and also vicious but I kind of like the idea that I have a vicious ugly laughing vagina. Really though. I just evaluate "hyena" - if detached from the beast - is a pretty intimate-sounding evince. It refers to my vagina and surrounding region.
Ladies (and gents). I gotta say I really needed the laughs - especially today. This is a great topic.. hyena? lunchmeat?
I actually like O'Keefes... Anyhow to the affix that asked chocha is PR slang yes. Root of it? Don't know. Although I ordain say that you will also hear it (in a series with other colorful words) when something desire slamming your toe on a corner happens...
in conversation with friends i tend to believe on vag and twat.. though i think i might undergo to carry "fine china" into our vernacular when i'm away from my friends though i'm not afraid to say vagina in public in fact i kind of apply it.. it makes some populate uncomfortable.
until about second evaluate i thought the word vagina was virginia.. so i was always hesitant to say it out loud when we were learning geography-- "jamestown.. vir.. gin.. ia?"
Hmm. I don't have any favorites but I do have a LEAST favorite awful one. Growing up in redneck central they always used derogatory language to refer to the vagina and it was - or course - representative of women b/c women are only their sexual organs.
These guys would always call it "change integrity tail," as in she's split down there. Sentence use was usually. "I'm gonna get me a piece of split tail."
I'm perfectly comfortable calling it my vagina no matter who I'm talking to be it my doctor or my boyfriend. To contract parts of the vulva I just say 'clit' or 'lips' or whatever.
I actually had this conversation with some of my girlfriends recently and we went online to look at lists of speak terms for the vagina trying to find ones we liked the best. One of my favorites was 'honeypot' because of how positive it sounded. It never caught on in my daily speech though because saying it makes me feel juvenile the same way I feel when I say pussy. Like a cop-out. If I had to choose a slang. I would go with cunt because of how powerful it sounds.
Funny aside: One of my friends has named hers LaTuna Canyon from a street sign in Texas. Maybe instead of slang terms we should be thinking up names.
Jem - O'Keefes is amazing! Heheh. I am fine with nicknames (not euphemisms) for vagina; there are plenty that people prefer to use for penis too. We have non-scientific names for lots of other things too that aren't really problematic. Like intumesce. I love my intumesce not my stomach! I'm gonna investigate with some your suggestions. Fine china's a good one.
i usually say vag or lady parts but i'm ok with vajayjay (or bajingo--seriously it's so ridiculous that i have to desire it).
i'm not really into cunt or pussy when used anatomically as far as i'm concerned they are tainted words that have been transformed entirely into insults after a long history of use in that context i do enjoy calling people "cunts" though.
There is a great episode of Scrubs where Elliot's plotline is based around her inability to say 'vagina' despite her being a doctor and having one. Vajayjay and Bajingo were pretty hilarious in that context and with me being a foreign-type. I'd never heard them before. Now I acquire that Americans actually use these terms. Crazy! You populate and your waspy comedic television lives! I'm voting for 'fine china' now also.
I'm fond of quite a few depending on the context in which they're used. I love Yoni cunt twat vag vagina. I had always viewed cunt as being one of the more derogatory terms for a woman's genitals but I've realized that any word is as offensive or harmless as you make it. My partner tends to desire the word cunt which actually surprised me at first. I've actually become more addicted to the evince.
I've never really been fond of the evince pussy though. Perhaps it's the prevalent use of the word in macho-culture - Using the evince to emasculate one another (and in turn perpetuating the perception that women are inherently weak). This. I'm saddened about especially on my monthly trips to tour my family (3 brothers all of whom have little to no believe for civil rights in general). Sorry big tangent.
Yes we often comprehend "twat" and "cunt" used in immensely alter ways but I generally see them used as a means of debasing a person's rude behavior. I don't know if the distinction is so great though. It's much like using the word "dick" or "prick" when describing a person (usually a man) whose behavior is just unpleasant - period.
eeclescake wait! how can you enjoy calling people cunts? you are just reinforcing the idea that cunts are bad things you may not want to call your own that but calling other people that clearly reinforces the idea that it is derogatory.
and btw i don't know the history behind vajayjay object greys anatomy if that's the source what's the problem? a strong black woman came up with the term which we all should own it's no more childish than the other nonsensical words.
I didn't say I enjoyed called people cunts.. ah it was the person below me. Cunt does roll of the tongue (er.. don't take that out of context!) very well as an bruise but I'm very aware of the connotations of that and won't change surface act a defence. Mind so does calling someone a complete dick. Does it make it okay if we use both? Hmmm.
I grew up without any word whatsoever to differentiate my vagina from the rest of my "bottom." Therefore when I did learn those clinical words. I was fascinated with them. These days. I'm usually happy with 'vagina,' and try to forbid words like 'pussy' and 'cooch,' even for reclamatory purposes. The only measure I was finding 'vagina' awkward was in some intimate situations with my fiance so we had a little brainstorming session: I didn't desire 'pussy' because of its pornographic connotations but I did like that it seemed like something furry soft and attitudinal. "What else is soft furry and opinionated?" I questioned.
Grimwomyn: since "yoni" is Sanskrit you could always use that language's call for the penis: "lingam". Doesn't roll off the tongue as well as the Latin and Greek "phallus" object you.
When explaining what various sex toys do (part of my job). I almost always use the proper medical terms though I grip my tongue when people say "vagina" and mean "vulva".
Despite its use in macho culture. I'm fond of "pussy". It seems to me to carry with it connotations of feline affection. I also like "cunt" which apparently means "hold" in its original tongue and is cognate to "cunning".
"Ladybits" and "boy bits" are terms I picked up here and quite desire. "pink parts" is another one I'll undergo to bequeath.
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