To stick up for Fanny

[bluebeach]

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?

Pussy is too porny for me. Or too Miss Slocombe.

I don't like fanny, it seems rather crude for some reason. No idea why as it's quite a harmless word in other contexts and I sometimes tell DD2 to "stop fannying around and get on with it".

As a nurse I tend to use vulva/vagina but my DD1 started calling hers a fooff from a young age and so DD2&3 do too.

I can't bear words like twinkle, fairy, Minnie as they seem so twee. However more vulgar words such as minge, clunge, gash, are certainly not suitable for children IMO.

I'm not a fanny fan

Willy for penis, Wilma/foof for vagina/vulva/associated parts.

Although I tend to call mine vajayjay.

I use 'fanny' to as in I was just fannying about.

I would use 'vagina/vulva' if talking about the actual body part and would be quite shocked if I heard a child using the word 'fanny'.

'Pussy' belongs in porn.

I didn't know before this thread that "fanny" was considered at all impolite or vulgar! I have it very definitely in the euphemism category, not as twee as "fairy" (ugh) but more naice than "vagina" or "cunt".

There was the very same thread a couple of weeks ago.

'Fairy' would make me wince too. Just shows that there's no slang term that everyone agrees on. So if you want to teach your daughter to use the word fanny, go ahead. If other people have a problem with it, it's their problem.

Alternatively, female genitalia may be referred to as "lady parts".

Anastasia von Beaverhausen. Surely?

What's wrong with vulva?

Nothing.

Still use fanny.

My mum used to say Fairy, I prefer fooff, fou fou, or lady garden...😳

Cherylene - thanks for replying :). I guess it will remain a mystery. My Dad wasn't English, maybe he heard the phrase and liked it, without knowing its origins (no Google in the 60s).

OP,

Enid Blyton's Aunt Fanny in The Famous Five books ruined it for me!

Growing up in a medical household, we were used to the factual "penis"/ "vulva"/ "vagina" / "testicles" terms.

My little brother became a public liability by refusing to accept the family car was a VolvO...

"Look, VulvA" (when shouted loudly from top decks of buses, accompanied by frantic pointing) caused all manner of reactions from people

AntiQuitty and QuiteQuietly,

"I was in a seminar once about the use of language with children and ended up arguing with the whole class because apparently using words like penis and vagina was sexualising children..."

"DS was roundly scolded at school for saying penis..."

Like you, I too am bewildered that clinical, accurate terms are considered unacceptable/ offensive/ too adult for kids to use. I can appreciate parents perhaps preferring them to use euphemistic (friendlier?) names (to be sensitive to Grandma's shock level, for example), but at the same time explaining that some people/ their friend refer to those body parts by the official terms instead. And that both are perfectly fine.

Actually banning them from ever uttering such, though, and implying they're dirty or rude, surely must confuse the hell out of them when 'respectable' Drs/ biology teachers/ school educational films etc. suddenly use the very same forbidden words?!

Mind you, some of PPs' nicknames are pretty good! I'm definitely liking "Undercarriage"

As toddlers my chidren called their privates their "wee", both boys and girls.

Once they're school age we use penis and vulva/vagina.

Squoosh sorry 'vulva'

We use willy and vagina. Don't see a problem with this terminology and I can't bring myself to use minnie or fou fou etc. I know people do but for me I can't. I think whatever works for you and what you are comfortable with.

Willy and Fanjo.
Nothing wrong with penis and vulva, but, personally, i prefer the 'softer' names for younger children.

I agree that there are plenty of suitable words for "vagina" already. Vagina (obviously), pussy, minge, twat, fanny, cunt, vadge, quim. They are all slang words but are perfectly acceptable because everyone knows what you mean when you say them.

I think the comparison to alternatives to the word "penis" is unnecessary. Cock, prick, dick, knob, all are offensive in certain contexts - as are all the words for "vagina".

Perhaps we should just teach children to use the proper terminology and not feel awkward about it?

@Toooldtobearsed

Why? I'm not trying to be confrontational, just genuinely curious.

Fanny is quite rude here. Similar to pussy or twat. I'd be shocked to hear a child use the word.

Front bottom is the only term that makes me cringe. It just seems oddly graphic to me, which I appreciate may only be my issue but 'front bottom' translates to me as 'Do you know that my vulva form a cleft at the base of my torso which reminds me of the cleft between two buttocks?'

I say veejay.

Over the years my dd whose nearly 12 (and well into puberty) and I have had many reasons to discuss our vaginas/vulvas.

When she was a toddler it was called a noo-no. There was nothing shameful about it. That was just a name she called it and it stuck for many years. Now she's older and wiser and likes to refer to it as her V-jayjay, muff or Foof depending on her mood. Many of her friends do the same.

Believe me, they are NOT ashamed of their genitals. They are proud to call them these names it seems. Oh and yes, at the GP she would of course know the real anatomical terms.

Not a noo-no. A noo-noo

@barinatxe I don't know...... i suppose it just does not sound right to me if a 2 year old said 'i bumped my vulva on the the chair and it hurt', in the same way as it would sound unusual to hear the same 2 year old saying 'grandad had a cardiac arrest and gran gave him cpr'. It just sounds more natural, age appropriate, whatever, to say 'i banged my fanjo' and 'grandad had a heart attack but gran helped him'.

I do think that they need to know the correct terminology, but in the same way as grown women refer to their breasts as boobs, tits etc., i cant see the problem with using alternative names.

Its all personal preferences, isnt it?