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?

Wow, I think this is the first time I've seen fanny as an acceptable word for female genitalia on MN. Don't get me wrong, it's the word we use as a family. So it's an affirmation.
Growing up mum used quim, and I saw the same upthread. That word just weirds me out, it's just a strange sounding word for a body part. To me.

In Scotland fanny is an insult and I wouldn't use it in polite company to refer to my vagina/vulva. I like vajayjay or lady garden. DD use flower

I'm in Scotland. Fanny is a gazillion times better than vajayjay , lady garden, flower or the unbelievable fairy. Lady garden ?? Really?

"Lady Garden" just reminds me of this

I'm in Scotland. Fanny is a gazillion times better than vajayjay , lady garden, flower or the unbelievable fairy. Lady garden ?? Really?

I'm in Scotland too and I kind of agree with the PP. The examples you give are as twee as fuck and I'd internally roll my eyes at any adult who uses 'flower' to describe a body part and teaches a child to do so.

However, fanny is a great coarse word/insult so I'd be at hearing a young child use it.

Not a fan of the twee names either. It it's not either that or have my child swear! We've always used privates alongside the message that you need to keep yours private and so do others.

However, fanny is a great coarse word/insult so I'd be  at hearing a young child use it

Oh lord sorry I forgot the thread was about words suitable for children to use although I don't think fanny is that awful. I only use it in the sense of "stop fannying about" when my husband or son are making a faff about doing something (ponders- does "faff" mean something else too? I didn't know twat meant anything more than twit until I was well into my 20s)

I'm warming up to fanny. Also like fanjo and foof.

DD calls it her little bum, I referred to it as her bits before that but now 'little bum' has stuck.

A universal word would be great. Here in Finland we have 'pimppi' for girls and 'pippeli' for boys, that's what I use when talking to doctors too.

Surely quim is the medieval word for female genitalia. It is fundamentally the same as the Welsh cwm meaning valley.

Fanny in on par with dick, which I hate. We say mary (from hairy Mary, I guess) and willy.

My son has used the word penis since he was two - afterall, that's what it is.

If I had a daughter I assume I would take the same stance and just use the correct anatomical terms.

DS is coming up 3 soon and occasionally asks me where my penis is and I just say that girls don't have penises. I'm assuming in the next few months he's going to probe further as to what girls do have and I will probably just point to my public area and tell him it's called a vulva.

Some people feel uncomfortable about children knowing the words for penises or vaginas etc but to ne they are just body parts and I don't give 'pet names' to any other parts of my son's body.

I quite like pissflaps myself (though I wouldn't say this in front of children - I try to use correct words like vulva but sometimes say fanjo/privates/bits.)

front bum, back bum. simples.

My sis lives in America where 'fanny' is bottom. so she snorts every time she hears "I'll smack your fanny"

I hate all this front bum/front bottom business. It's not part of your flippin' arse! Fanny is far preferable.

we call them all wobbly bits as it is cute/shocking at the same time 😁!

I refer to mine as the downtown dining and entertainment district.

Prefer the biological names myself. I do not see the problem with vulva vagina penis etc

I prefer clunge or axe wound.

I use chuff, fanjo or vajayjay when purposefully being twee. I sometimes use 'fadge' as a hang over from childhood, which I think was a mis-hearing of 'vadge'. I don't have any kids so it's just vulgar talk with DH when such terms come out. Rest of the time it's just vagina.

Iamavodkadrinker OMG! LMAO!! I haven't heard the word clunge for a long time!!

Sometimes when I want to inflict cringe on Mr BC I call it my "moist flange".

Why not call it Vagina

I've always said Wendy. Then think it's slightly funny when I meet a Wendy 😂

Brings whole new meaning to 'being Wendied'

My DS had a 'think' when younger... I think shortened from tinky winky.

He came home from school once describing the pain of a football in the 'nuggets'. Not sure where he got that from but it's stuck now