Should We Be Renaming The Vagina?

[FrothyDragon]

"THE nastiest name ever to be given to the female sex organ is ''vagina''. ''Vagina'' is Latin for ''scabbard'' or ''sword sheath''. A scabbard is owned by the same person as owns the sword that it exists to house."

(Taken from the Greer review of Wolf's latest book)

So. Given the connotations of the word, I propose that women rename their "vagina", to give us a word for it which doesn't imply male ownership.

Thoughts?

Is there any other (good) names for the clitoris? I hate "clit" for some reason.

I never realized that vagina wasn't used anatomically in ancient times. What would Romans have said, "cunnus" or did they have a euphemism like "front bottom"?

One trouble with Renaming The Vagina relates to the way we keep having to remind each other that it doesn't have the same meaning as vulva. If we keep the Latin names, we've got some precision that other words don't provide. Not cunt, not fanjo--they could both mean the vagina, the vulva, or the whole genital area depending on context. Maybe it's a sign of discomfort with the whole business that we prefer to be vague about the topic.

What's wrong with referring to the whole genital area, though?

Greer points out that the structures are all pretty interconnected, and I think I remember someone demonstrating how much of the clitoris is actually hidden, it's not just that little button-y bit.

LRD - what's wrong with having the linguistic means to not only refer to the whole area, but also to parts of it? Where is the advantage in being not precise?

Oh, I love this. I'm just watching QI on Iplayer and Victoria Coren pointed out 'I know there's a lot of discussion about needing a new word for 'vagina' but 'jigger' isn't it'. If it hadn't been filmed days ago I would seriously assume she was here.

widow - I mean, because the words aren't precise anyway.

Yes. I know the topic is about a name for the entire organ but I just wanted to know if there were any other names for this v. important part!

Sorry, wasn't saying that to you PT, I was saying it to Tei. I would also like to know if there are other good words for clitoris.

I have heard the clitoris referred to as a bean, which I dislike because it reflects people believing that the visible part of the clitoris is the whole thing.

MySpanielHell, aye, the only other term I've heard for it is "button", which raised a face at the time... idea of women being objects that you "turn on" to get sex.

Can I share a memory about the c word (which, rather pathetically at my age, I can't bring myself to say because of a lifetime of taboo which started when my brother told me to say it in polite company aged 8 and my Mum had a complete fit.....)

Anyway, about 30 years ago in my A Level English class, I remember my wonderful teacher (who must have been in her 60s at the time) introducing us to Chaucer and announcing, "Now, girls, it's a perfectly acceptable Old English word, let's get it over and done with and all say it out loud, shall we?" She then proceeded to march around the classroom shouting "CUNT CUNT CUNT!" at the top of her voice, followed by our rather more sheepish attempts. To this day, I love her, she was the best!

Wow. How did she get away with that?! I love it.

Oh it was a very long time ago when teachers were allowed to be inspirational and make their own judgements on things and there wasn't a directive every 5 minutes about health and safety I expect.

rosa, she sounds... AMAZING!

I like quim.

:)

Thank you for a fascinating discussion (that I haven't contributed to) today. I have been sucked right in and I would like to put my vote forward for quim. What a lovely word, it seems positive.

A luscious quim with a nice fluffy muff.

Has a friendly sound. :)

Napdamnyou that word makes me wince - but its just the sound of it, it sounds wrong.

Are people really getting worked up about what they call their bits??? I don't really like the word vagina, but I don't like anus or colon either, but i have them.

Quim sounds all trembly and timorous to me, I'm not sure why.

Quim and Queef go hand in hand. They're all friendly nice and occassionaly funny things.

A quick google shows that the origin of the word quim is unknown so that avoids any etymological pitfalls!

What about yoni - is that too hippyish?!

Yoni (Sanskrit: योनि yoni) is the Sanskrit word for the vagina.[1] Its counterpart is the lingam, interpreted by some as the phallus. It is also the divine passage, womb or sacred temple (cf. lila). The word covers a range of meanings, including: place of birth, source, origin, spring, fountain, place of rest, repository, receptacle, seat, abode, home, lair, nest, stable.

I went with yoni when it came to naming my DD's genitals. It's kid-friendly and the meaning is rather lovely.

Sorry to push in...

... but surely any renaming that uses a word that already denotes something in that area is going to bring emotional or intellectual baggage with it? I suppose you could try and find a value-neutral word from an obscure or lost language, but then you might as well just make up a new word entirely?

Ah. Cross-posted. Sorry.

Just wanted to add, that lots and lots of women have no idea how large the clitoris is. The bit you see on the surface is a tiny part of it. If I could post diagrams here, I would showing how large and complex it is. But nobody talks about this or tells women about this.