Word for vagina?

[ncnewbaby]

Parents of girls, what word do you use for vagina? I have a baby girl and can't remember what we used growing up!

If I consulted my GP due to an itchy vulva that is what I would say. if I had an issue with my vagina I would say that. Clearly I speak too precisely for some.

@videovixen

Posted too early.

I'm confident no one would be dismissed by using the word 'vagina' instead of 'vulva.' I'm not sure why you're acting as if girls are being taught to use the word 'cookie' or something silly along those lines which gives opportunity for them to be dismissed.
I agree that only on MN is this weird obsession of calling the vagina, vulva. I've never once heard anyone call a vagina a vulva in my life

So when someone mentioned their vagina you assume they mean their vulva or labia?

You don’t get your vagina waxed for example, but you do insert a tampon in one.

But in what context are people talking to you about vaginas when they mean vulva?

I agree vulva isn’t a commonly used word, nor is Labia.

Its obviously important for people to know the correct term for the various parts, but theres nothing bloody wrong with using a slang term either. It is just really not that confusing.
I might tell a doctor if my labia was swollen. I might talk to my partner about my clitoris. I might ask for my pubic area to be waxed, but if im talking more casually, id use any number of terms that would be fairly obvious. It just sounds better and less serious

@Silverswirl RTFT. Many of us have given links why it is so important for children to use the real words. And why wouldn't you want a child to use the real actual correct words? There is something truly wrong with you if you wouldn't want a child to know and use the real actual proper English words for their body. And you can't actually sit on your anus, since you actually sit on limbs, not an anus. You seem very deeply ill-informed.

@Trixiefirecracker

Well one thing this thread has highlighted for sure, is that lots of women really need educating about their genitalia.

Exactly.

The vagina is the hole.

Vulva is the part most people are actually referring to when they are talking with kids.

Vulva is what we say. But we do also say "bits" and "parts" if I'm reminding them to wash their parts etc.

I don’t call it a vagina now unless I’m in the doctors surgery. I certainly wouldn’t want my young child to call it that.

@Silverswirl
Why?
What is it about the term that makes you shy away from it?
What is it about a young child using the correct term that upsets you?

Would you get upset if your DD used the word stomach instead of tummy?

Is the word too sexual, in your opinion?

Vagina.

My son pronounces it 'China' but it's a start.

...if im talking more casually, id use any number of terms that would be fairly obvious. It just sounds better and less serious

Are we not supposed to take our bodies seriously?
Are we afraid of being considered 'forward' or in the case of children 'precocious' or 'too grown up'?

Are we still stuck in the prurient Benny Hill world of yore, all nudge nudge wink wink?

Well that’s the difference isn’t it - boys never have to learn a new secret word or be told that now you get to know a new name for your genitals because the accurate one was too shameful or embarrassing to tell you earlier.

Boys always get the straightforward, put it right out there approach. But girls internalise those messages that their body has secret shameful bits that must be called pretty nicknames because they are ridiculous or naughty or too adult or too Latin or whatever, and only revealed gradually, even to them, for fear of contamination by inappropriate, “adult” or sexual knowledge.

And people then wonder why teenage girls have terrible hang ups about their bodies and about how they look and are.

@foxgoosefinch YYY to that ^^

Society values and wants infantile women. When women are ignorant they are vulnerable to all sorts of messages about their bodies, and the negativity that swirls through our culture about their status relative to that of men. How can girls develop a sense of the power of their bodies when the parts that can empower them are called ridiculous names like 'foof', 'coochie', etc?

Women themselves enable this prop of the patriarchy by willfully keeping girls ignorant, and by refusing to grow up and use words deemed 'not nice'.

It’s not always girls v boys ffs there are just as many stupid works for penis as there are for vagina - dinky, winky etc. Not everything is due to some sort of patriarchal oppressive regime. Tbh even now I know what a vulva is I don’t see why I would need it since all the individual bits are the important bits. It’s unlikely my WHOLE vulva has an issue, as opposed to a labia or clitoral or vaginal problem.

In textbooks at school I only remember seeing vagina as it’s the “business part”, relevant for childbirth, sex, menstruation. And actually even after 2 vaginal births and stitches etc I’ve never heard a midwife mention my vulva. Only my labial tears and my vaginal ones.

MN should be renamed VulvaNet.

@Justheretoaskaquestion91

It’s unlikely my WHOLE vulva has an issue, as opposed to a labia or clitoral or vaginal problem.

Au contraire - I once had to see a consultant for a rare skin problem (not on my vulva, as I happens); but my appointment was put into the “Vulva clinic” as that was her main clinic at that hospital.

I had to wait seven hours because apparently the “Vulva clinic” is one of the most oversubscribed at the hospital.

Every day’s a school day!

www.spirehealthcare.com/spire-parkway-hospital/patient-information/news-and-events/five-questions-about-your-vulva-youre-too-embarrassed-to-ask-your-doctor/

Maybe if women grew up being able to refer to their vulva and vagina as normal body parts, they wouldn’t be so embarrassed.

@Justheretoaskaquestion91
Childbirth, sex and menstruation isn’t the “business part” for a toddler!
Wipe your vulva, wash your vulva, is your vulva itchy? are the kind of conversations you have with a 2 year old not “hey kid, did you know you have a hole next to the one you wee out of that you will bleed from in about 10 years and then you might want to let someone put their penis in it if you want a baby”

@NellieBertram

Sure, I just mean that’s why I’ve personally probably never heard of the vulva. My mother used to refer to outside vagina and inside vagina (or outside/inside fanny). And she was in medicine! 😆

@foxgoosefinch

Every day is indeed a school day!

[quote Justheretoaskaquestion91]@NellieBertram

Sure, I just mean that’s why I’ve personally probably never heard of the vulva. My mother used to refer to outside vagina and inside vagina (or outside/inside fanny). And she was in medicine! 😆[/quote]
This is an opportunity to do better for our own daughters and raise them without ignorance or shame about their bodies.

@Mybalconyiscracking I'm with you. I have never heard of a 3 year old using the term Vagina as many state on here

@NellieBertram absolutely! Now is the time not to pass that rubbish on…

Front bottoms here. I just HATE the word vulva and vagina isn't quite anatomically correct is it? With front bottom I think it's pretty clear what is meant from a safeguarding point of view.

My friend taught her girls to use vagina. I remember one of them (aged about 3) slipping on a see-saw and bumping herself there. She ran off crying 'Mummy, my VAGINA I've hurt my VAGINA' and the whole park fell silent

We use vulva with DD, who is almost 3, although do sometimes use 'bits' to encompass everything in that area (like washing your bits in the bath). We've not had cause to use vagina yet as she hasn't enquired about babies particularly, but when she does we will use that word too.

I'm actually shocked at the posts from women who have never heard of vulva. That's really surprising to me, but I suppose if women don't know what their own parts are called then it's no wonder children don't either. And I would absolutely use vulva or labia (and have done) to a medical professional, otherwise I would be giving a very imprecise description of what the problem was. Something on my labia and something inside my vagina are very different things!

Vulva

Vagina. No point in casting shame over it.