Aibu to think “loola” and “noony” aren’t words interchangeable with genitals?!

[Mightymelon]

And that cutesy words for your genitals help NOBODY AT ALL?

To cut a long story short - I’m friends with a girl, who has seen one of those posts on Facebook, about correctly naming genitals to avoid confusion when kids have uti’s or worse, have been abused.
DF mentioned that in this thread as well as the willy/mini/front bottom names loola and noony being used by children instead of vagina/ vulva and penis, and said she’d never heard of it before. Nor have I?

Firstly I would like to know if IABU to have never heard of these words?

SECONDLY I WOULD LIKE TO URGE YOU WITH EVERY OUNCE OF MY BEING TO TEACH YOUR KIDS APPROPRIATE WORDS FOR THEIR GENITALS SO THAT IF ANYTHING’s WRONG THE ADULTS WHO DEAL WITH IT (TEACHERS/CHILDMINDERS/HCP’s/THE POLICE) CAN DO SO WITH AS LITTLE TRAUMA AND FUSS AS POSSIBLE!!

@sleepingdragons

Sorry, missed that in all the hoohah! (is it me or does everything sound like a euphemism now!)

God have we really got to the state where by an abused child is ignored unless she can point out her specific bodily parts with the correct name attatched.

Fucking hell what a bloody awful world we have created for our girls

@JacquesHammer haha!

(Oh god you're right! "Remember to wipe your haha!" We've fallen into a double entendre trap! Escape, escape!)

Hasn’t fanny been used a lot in the UK? I’ve never heard it in Australia though. I don’t like it though, I think because it’s used for bottom in the US and people talk about fanny-packs for those little belts with bags on them.

A friend of mine used to use growler as an adult. Why not move away from the cutesy and towards the vaguely menacing??

ohmyday but she wouldn’t be ignored if there was strong evidence of abuse. She’d still have a forensic interview and exam with the interviewer skilfully referring to the words she’d used. It’s just that prosecution would be more difficult.

I don’t think this is a world we’ve created, I’m not aware that Child sexual abuse prosecutions have decreased.

God have we really got to the state where by an abused child is ignored unless she can point out her specific bodily parts with the correct name attatched

Nobody has said that. What people are saying is that it could be easier for a misunderstanding to occur if a euphemism is used.

Fucking hell what a bloody awful world we have created for our girls

So let's do what we can to assist our girls by giving them the correct terminology to deal with - and try to prevent - appalling situations

@Ohmydayslove

I keep using this example but take moneybox or flower.

"He wanted to see my moneybox"
"He wanted to see my vulva"

Which one would immediately set alarm bells ringing?

Even using "privates" is better than creating some nonsensical cutesy word because we're saying delicate sensibilities are more important than girls being clued up on their anatomy.

nolonger

thank god for that then. If you see what I mean

It sounded like just another way for abusers to escape justice.

I get you jaques I have to say I hadn’t thought of it that way. I think it’s an informative thread.

@Ohmydayslove

I categorically want to emphasise that I don't think anyone who is abused is to blame in any way whatever terminology they use.

What I do want is abusers to get convicted and I think its so important that we remove any chance of that happening by giving our children the tools to accurately describe what has happened so there is absolutely no doubt and no wiggle room that clever lawyers can use to get reasonable doubt.

I really CBA to read this thread because I find it of concern that women are so ashamed/ignorant of their own anatomy that they cannot use the proper terminology for their parts. Labia, mons pubis, clitoris, vagina - what is the discomfort in using the correct terminology? I also don't teach my sons euphemism for their bits - scrotum, penis, prostate, uretra, vas deferens.

Worse, those people who use the incorrect terminology for their anatomy? Why? Even blokes would not call their penises their vas deferens, why do females think its perfectly OK to do this?

The point is that if your kid goes into a court room and says ‘my minnie/noonie was touched by this man’ the defence can easily state they’re discussing a different part of their anatomy, like the bottom perhaps. A serious sexual assault becomes a pat on the bottom. All it takes is reasonable doubt.

OK, I will admit that I don't know much about this sort of thing, but in that situation, wouldn't they ask the child to point either on their own body or on a doll, where their 'minnie/noonie' is, or point to where they were touched? That seems like the sensible thing to do there, for clarity?

But as a childcare professional, I teach kids the proper names for their body parts.

When you say 'childcare professional' what do you mean, and what 'kids' are you teaching? I would be a bit if my child's teacher was teaching them words like 'labia', 'mons pubis', 'clitoris' and 'anus' before it's on the curriculum, just because they believe its the right thing to do.

I'm pretty sure DD learned vulva, anus etc in P1 or P2....

Yes jaques I see your points entirely

Never heard of Noony.

While we're talking about using correct anatomical names for things, please can I point out that 'vulva' and 'vagina' are NOT the same thing. If you insist you're teaching them the proper names, please get those names correct!

nolongersurprised

I also thought that fanny was the universally acceptable female equivalent to willy!! I absolutely hate the word but I did think it was what everyone used and understood!

Moonkissedlegs These days I am a nanny but I have also been a teacher.
I have always used the proper words with children in my care, ie. penis over widdly. If a child asks me what something is called, I explain. You would seriously be upset if a teacher used the name mons pubis while labelling body parts? Shall I use nimbly-nonk, instead of nose?

You would seriously be upset if a teacher used the name mons pubis while labelling body parts?

Outside of what is on the curriculum, yes I would a bit. If it is a sex Ed/PSHE/science lesson where you are specifically required to label body parts in that level of detail, then no, but as far as I'm aware parents are usually consulted when those sorts of lessons are due aren't they? And it's not until at least the beginning of KS2 that that level of detail comes into play.

It depends on what kind of context you are talking here.

If a child came up to you and said 'my noonie hurts' would you say 'oh you mean your labia majora' and start explaining the correct terminology?

I have, I studied linguistics too, though my focus was historic language so maybe I can't bring myself to freak out about the word cunt. It's just a word, and it isn't universally considered to be the most offensive word in the English language. I certainly think we have much worse words, and none of them refer to a part of my body.

The bad feeling is that you seem to think the words vagina and labia are too 'bad' or inappropriate to be used in polite conversation. The Latin quip was because I know that some people don't like 'foreign looking words'. Glad you aren't one of them.

moonkissedlegs no, of course not. Please don't be ridiculous. A child tells me something hurts, that is my main concern. Sadly, I have no idea what a noonie is. So now I have to question the child, 'What is your noonie? Where do you hurt? What happened? How did you hurt yourself?' Once I've discovered that the child has a genital injury, then I can deal with that appropriately for the situation (in school, that would be follow the school policy with safe guarding/first aid/parental involvement as necessary)

You seem to be of the impression I go about my life with a diagram and launch into a lecture of every child I meet. Many parts of the UK (not everyone is in England either) teach names of body parts from the first year or two. Not in some weird spontaneous lecture, but in terms of a PSHE/biology/sex-ed/etc lesson.

To be fair, if you are working with young children/safeguarding etc, it's probably worth brushing up on different terms that young children are given for their genitals, of which 'noonie' is one.

Plus, it's usually pretty easy to understand that a child has hurt their genital area because whatever word they are using, they will probably be holding it/pointing to it/already dropping their knickers or pants in the middle of the playground!

Children have other ways of clearly communicating that are not just speech.

Which goes back to what someone was saying upthread about how a sex abuse case could be thrown out of a jury though that 'noonie' meant buttocks (unlikely anyway) but you would just get the child to point to where they mean.