To think that "fanny" is not an offensive name for female genitalia ?

[gonenative]

My ex was taken aside by our 3.5 yr old daughter's nursery key worker today, and told that they didn't like her using the word fanny, and that she should use the word noony instead?!

Is there a difference in offensiveness levels between these 2 names? Always thought that fanny was just a harmless kids name for vagina/vulva whatever, am I wrong?

Absolutely agree with this: "Can't help but feel that whatever gets used for a girls bits is somehow automatically considered ruder"

• axe-wound always reminds me of this song Some really rather rude hedgehogs singing (NSFW without ear plugs - also be warned it is a very catchy tune -several years ago did have a terrible moment in Sainsbury's once when I caught myself absent mindedly signing this song - the point at which I moved from humming to mumbling lyrics was the point at which all other customers browsing the fruit and veg vanished off into the aisles...)

I think I must come from somewhere near Bonnie as where I live fanny would be considered a mild swear word along the same lines as twat. I would not be happy with my 2/3 year old coming home and saying either fanny or twat, and saying that they learnt it at nursery.

But the word they suggested is also equally ridiculous.

When I was a child, we had to call it a 'mary' or a 'mary - jane'.

Trouble is, I don't really like any of the euphemisms, and vagina is factually incorrect (if used as a whole). I think teaching children a wrong term is worse than avoiding the word at all. Vulva is just wrong, and I'm not going to teach a 3 year old clitoris for example...

In the end we went with 'bits' as a way of avoiding it, and now that my daughter is getting older (8), we have truthfully answered her questions, and identified the different parts such as the clitoris. But we all call it 'bits' mind!!

A Vulva is what Geordies with hats drive

my sil in law calls it a Nunni, in the op case I would prefer to hear it called a fanny

my girls call it bits which is fine

here boys have a zizi which I think sounds nicer than willy

Not hugely keen on fanny (ahahaha, god I'm funny ), but noony/noonah etc are just ridiculous. Just call it her privates, or vagina/vulva. I'm sure my mum used to call it a tinkle, which is equally stupid. At the moment I mostly use 'bits and bobs', but DS is 5 months, and he hasn't really noticed he has a penis yet...

Just shows you how odd language is. As a persons's name it is fine. It is a nice sounding word. In the US it is a non-offensive word for bottom (is a bottom better or worse than a vulva and if so why I wonder). And yet for some people it is too rude to use as a general nickname for a girl's "bits". Who decides this and how? Why does it vary so much from place to place? It's fascinating really, if we all just decided it isn't rude any more and put an ad in the paper would it be ok?

My brother called his penis a 'dinger'. When asked why he held up his hands and 10 'dingers' and pointed to his extra 'dinger' below!

Blue I am reading a really interesting book at the moment about the origins of swearing and when certain words came into use etc - learning about the words and where they came from etc, it's utterly fascinating

I don't have kids but if I did I'd teach them the correct anatomical words. I see no difference between teaching them the correct words for leg, elbow, arm, vulva, penis. It only 'sounds weird' because we make it so.

Going to hold my hands up here - I never realised that fanny was in any way offensive, any more so than willy. (West country girl - does that make a difference?)

I would definitely like a map of offensive terms in the uk

(We've always called my dd's vagina a fanny. Vulva is just the outer labia, so I'm not sure it's as correct as people are saying. Unfortunately, as Germaine Greer once pointed out - cunt is the only term that envelopes all the parts of a woman's bits. May be a bit shocking at nursery though...)

Fanny was a name for girls private parts when I was young now it seems to be used instead of idiot.The c word is now more used by youngsters for vaginas vulvas labia etc.I don't think the Irn Bru ad is offensive at all just really funny.In our family it was bits and in Dh family it was flower.

Sounds interesting Valium. Words have the power we give them I guess. I wonder if cunt gained extra shock value after 1066 by being an Anglo-Saxon word which was therefore used by "commoners" rather than our Norman overlords? Probably not but you do get some funny stuff like that!

toutou - the vulva is not just the outer labia!

Sofa am pmsl at the picture of flowers on the fridge!! Brilliant. And exactly why we use Fanny here. As said - is a pretty similar word to Willy which hardly anyone objects to.

DD's friend calls her vulva a flower. My DD was visiting after school and asked her friend's teenage brother if he wanted to see her flower (painting) ... he ran from the room and told his mum he didn't want to be on the sex offender's register for Christmas

I think it's mysogenistic crap that men can have a load of "funny" words for their genitalia that no-one takes as offensive and women seem to only have twee ones or offensive.

So I say !!!Long Live Fanny!!!

Bonzo worst thing was it was huge and bushy - but she couldn't exactly tell the teacher it wasn't that bad

Was a rude word when/where I grew up - not a big swear word, but a rude one and not one to be saying around grown ups.

DD is 10y and knows the right names for the right bits - vagina and vulva. But tbh she doesn't really refer to them at all - maybe says private bits??? It just doesn't come up very often.

She knows of boy's bits as either a penis or a willy.

A girl I lived with at uni and her sister called it their "tuppence" when they were little...gave a whole new meaning to Feed the Birds when they watched Mary Poppins.

I'd use vulva. I'm just sorry it sounds like "vulgar" - I think I immediately associate both words on some level.

Nieces call it their LaLa, DS calls it a Mini. We used to use Fairy as littluns.

I haven't decided what DD's will be called but I dislike the word fanny (reminds me of that Danny Dyer film where he declares to the bird he's about to take home: "I can't wait to see your fanny")

I came on this thread to tell you you were being very unreasonable as 'fanny' is very bloody offensive, then seen that the regional differences point has already been made!

I'm in Glasgow and yes it's offensive, and a swear word.

My pet name for my DD is 'Nuni'! I just thought it was a made-up word. I wonder if people have been looking at me funny when I call her that?

I would happily have used 'fanny' in our house, to me it's on the same level as willy. However DH thought it was vulgar and so we have ended up using 'tuppence' which seems to work OK apart from the time DD watched Mary Poppins and got a bit confused

I don't like the word fanny.

We have front bum, middle bum and back bum. They know the front is for wee, the back is for poo and the middle is for babies or blood time. I explained this to them at a very young age and we've never updated the names since.

cupofteaplease blood time?! Did you explain about periods early then? DD hasn't got a clue yet, I think she would be horrified if she knew about all that