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AIBU?

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Original poster

To stick up for Fanny

183 replies

bluebeach · 27/01/2017 09:54

www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/features/magazine-38749364/38749364

I have always called my vagina/vulva my Fanny. My 5 year old does too. To me it is the natural equivalent to Willy. It's a shortened girls name. However I if I refer to it as this amongst Mum friends and my own mother, It's like I'm calling it something disgusting, vile and shocking.

The more I think about it, most names for Vagina/vulva somehow end up being really bad words. Cunt, Pussy, Twat are all thought of as pretty shocking words where as Knob, Plonker and Dick are much milder insults and kind of jovial.

Most women I talk to seem to try and call it non words or sounds or things that are so euphemistic you don't even know what they are talking about. One friend calls it her 'hmmm hmmm', another just silently points to it if it ever needs acknowledging.
It's like we have to be so ashamed of our Fannys that we can barely even refer to them. How many men refer to their Dicks as their 'front bottoms'?

So in light of this BBC article asking for a new name to be thought up I just wonder what is wrong with Fanny?

OP posts:
squoosh · 27/01/2017 10:50

Front-bottom is the word that really makes me curl my toes.

Gardencentregroupie · 27/01/2017 10:51

Fanjo was greatly in vogue on MN for a while and that seems to have stuck with me. I will teach DD the proper names for her parts, but as she also has a 'tummy-tum-tums', I can't imagine having her 'fanjo' cleaned at nappy time will scar her for life.

goldenrachita · 27/01/2017 10:51

Maybe because I had grandmas born in the 1920s, I can't help but like the wartime vintage sound of 'undercarriage'. It is just the most brilliantly prudish yet no-nonsense euphemism (and the perfect antidote to all the achingly trendy and cutesy 'mimis', 'foofoos' and 'lalas'). I can imagine the Queen using it.

I don't know if anyone else has even heard of it but if I had a daughter I'd love to revive it.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 27/01/2017 10:53

I don't really feel I have a name for mine (or anyone elses!) and feel this is a rather ridiculous state of affairs. Fanny or MN influenced fanjo are probably the closest Smile

Definitely agree that it's crazy that nearly all terms for our bits are considered vulgar and often used as a term of abuse. We should do something about this! And I'd agree that going with Fanny seems fair enough!
Good enough for Jane Austen after all!

JugglingFromHereToThere · 27/01/2017 10:54

I don't really feel I have a name for mine (or anyone elses!) and feel this is a rather ridiculous state of affairs. Fanny or MN influenced fanjo are probably the closest Smile

Definitely agree that it's crazy that nearly all terms for our bits are considered vulgar and often used as a term of abuse. We should do something about this! And I'd agree that going with Fanny seems fair enough.

Good enough for Jane Austen after all!

Witchend · 27/01/2017 10:54

I can't say needing a word for it has ever been high on my list of necessities.
My cousin decided hers was called her "dimple" when she was very small.

Nearlyadoctor · 27/01/2017 10:57

In our house it's a twinkle, boy is a willy although as children I remember my brothers being his winkle.

amusedbush · 27/01/2017 10:59

Redpony1

Perhaps it's a regional thing. I'm from Edinburgh, living in Glasgow, and "fanny" is definitely coarse and vulgar here. I only use the word for comic effect and I've never heard a child say it. It's the equivalent of "cock" here, not "willy".

SmashingInAthleticWear · 27/01/2017 10:59

Oh I like "undercarriage" too Grin

OhhBetty · 27/01/2017 11:00

I have a ds and say penis or willy. He's only 2 and asked what mine was and I said vagina. I know vulva is more correct but I don't think he's ready to learn that yet! Where I'm from fanny is a rude word. It would be like teaching a child to say dick.

YetAnotherSpartacus · 27/01/2017 11:00

The boys next door always referred to their penises as 'dicks'. I didn't know what a penis was because the word was never used. In fact, adults never referred to children's genitals except as 'down there'. I knew my bit was different, but I just assumed the word was the same. Therefore, I had a dick. 'Fanny' was a special nickname my Dad had for me. Sometimes he called me Miss Fanny Adams. I've just Googled this and realised its origins! I'd love to know whether girls were often called 'Fanny' and whether such a nickname was common (I can't ask my Dad because he is no longer alive - but he was born in the 20s...).

Cherylene · 27/01/2017 11:01

When I were a lass, Fannies were marbles with multicoloured insides. Big marbles were Dobbers and big marbles with multicoloured insides were Fanny Dobbers.

As for genitalia, everyone just had 'willies'. There was no distinction other than 'girls willies' and 'boys willies'. Served us fine. But then we had no idea where babies came from either 😳

Cherylene · 27/01/2017 11:04

Yes my father referred to me and DSis as big fanny and little fanny. A huge embarrassment when we discovered everyone didn't have willies😁

YetAnotherSpartacus · 27/01/2017 11:06

Cherylene - thank goodness I am not the only one! On both counts!

Do you know why he called you Fanny?

I'd love to know what the connection could have been in my case! (Was it the marbles?).

squoosh · 27/01/2017 11:09

The phrase Fanny Adams has a sad old origin.

squoosh · 27/01/2017 11:10

And gruesome!

tanfield90 · 27/01/2017 11:10

I think fanny is pretty inoffensive really. Flower is quite endearing. Not sure about snatch - a bit much perhaps, but not as bad as some pseudonyms.

Cherylene · 27/01/2017 11:11

Sorry, I am not understanding why a young boy is ready to learn a word like vagina but not vulva. Surely it is better to have a word for the bit you can see?
I used to think Fanny was incredibly rude but can't see what the fuss was about now.

TatianaLarina · 27/01/2017 11:12

Me and my friends always used 'noony' pronouced with the oo in book.

My sister calls it 'lala'.

Don't know anyone who used fanny it's a bit grim.

There was a girl called Fanny at my junior school, she changed it to Becky.

yaela123 · 27/01/2017 11:13

We use fanny.

I've also heard foofoo and most of my in-laws call it a noony (oo as in book not too)

Isabella70 · 27/01/2017 11:14

...and as Johnny Cradock once said at the end of one of his wife's cookery programmes: "Good night, and I hope your doughnuts all turn out like Fanny's."

I'll get my coat.

Areyoufree · 27/01/2017 11:15

@TurquoiseDress My sister once disgraced herself in a cinema by laughing very loudly during a (non-comedy) film, when one of the characters looked at a cut on another characters head and proclaimed "That's a nasty looking gash."...

NeepNeepNeep · 27/01/2017 11:15

How about something that rhymes? Willy and Jilly?

BarbedBloom · 27/01/2017 11:15

I use vulva/vagina or bits. I cringe at things like tuppence or flower. Fanny would be considered quite rude here.

user1477282676 · 27/01/2017 11:17

It always annoys me that our vaginas are thought of as taboo. I say cunt quite a lot as a way of neutralising it.