Today my 9 year old has been taught that as she grows older, hair will grow on her vagina!

[Ziggyzoom]

I raised this in year 1 when they sent a work sheet home. I can't decide whether to keep ploughing on or satisfy myself with the knowledge that at least my daughters know the correct names for their anatomy.

Interesting, chunky.

Do they still have the cut in half woman with the leg up on the toilet seat pic or has it moved on? I must admit I haven't perused tampon instructions for about 30 years

Fanny is rather coarse isn't it? It's not used as an equivalent to willy in this neck of the woods.

I suppose the problem is probably society's attitude to female genitals / reproductive bits rather than the words. Whatever word is used becomes "rude" because of what it's describing. Well unless it's twinkle or flower, or similar. But then the risk is that people don't understand what the child is referring to.

Whirlpool, I didn't think fanny was considered coarse, but I guess it's a problem if words have different meanings in different areas

Yeah it's not really used around here. That I've heard anyway. Not that you hear people talking about female groins much!

If fanny were widely used I'd get on board with it, for sure! Just there isn't a "willy" equivalent - look at all the threads on here with parents of girls saying "what shall I call it?" and there is never consensus,.

I'm not a parent but I think the word "fanny" needs to be reclaimed. It IS directly equivalent to "willy" - or it would be, if we weren't all so damn squeamish about talking about women's genitals.

In my ideal world, little boys and girls would have a willy or a fanny and a bottom, and once they got older and needed to talk about testicles, vaginas, labia etc, they'd be given the vocabulary to do so. It's MAD that little boys can use one twee word that's accepted and little girls have to skirt around with dozens of obscure variations because people think "fanny" is somehow crass.

How about 'pudendum plural pudenda ?
OED: the external genitals esp vulva
How about that for a catch-all term?

It is really important they use the correct terms.

In cases of child sex abuse there needs to be clarity about what has actually happened. Little girls needs to know the difference between their vulva and vagina.

pudenda or "pud" for short! They are quite friendly sounding words

Pudenda always sounds a bit droopy and depressing to me. Also it's obscure - would take ages to become universally accepted and used. Everyone in the UK knows what a fanny is (in the US it means bottom/arse, so there's potential for confusion there).

Also (sorry, I'm harping on) fanny is never used sexually, is it? It's not like men go around saying, "oh god, I want to fuck your fanny hard?" It's a word teenage and adult women use in a non-sexual context (eg, "I'm off to have my fanny waxed"), so why shouldn't little girls use it too?

The word "vulva" creeps me out... I couldn't say it in real life, and have never had any reason to.

Around here women don't use it that way (I've never heard a woman or girl use it) and for me anyway it's a bit "rude".

I think a lot of this is dependent on where you live etc. I don't think it's just me - the "what to call it" threads seem to indicate there's no commonly used word as well!

If fanny were used then I'd be happy to use it but round here I reckon it'd get a raised eyebrow.

TBH women and girls round here don't really use a name for it at all, you usually get what's being talked about from context!

Fanny, if you're an American, means bottom. You fell on your fanny means you landed on your butt. My first day of work in the UK office I walked in drenched and announced I had fallen on my fanny and now had wet pants. So much sniggering. So much confusion, on my part.

And that's the problem--it is apparently the Nameless Horror.

As a student nurse I trained years and years and years ago, that 'area' in was (coyly) referred to as 'down below' to both male and female patients, e.g. doing a bedbath the patient would be asked "Would you like to wash down below." Never had anyone not understand where we were referring to. Catch all phrase for HCP's then was 'external genitalia'.
Neither particularly user friendly in this context though.

Yep cut in half woman, one knee hoisted - probably the same pics as 30 years ago - they certainly look just like the ones I looked at back when I read the instructions for these sorts of things.

I agree - round my way fanny is perhaps just a little bit nicer than fart. Something that nice children wouldn't say and you wouldn't use when talking to adults unless you had to. I'd use it in preference to twinkle or flower any day though

DH doesn't: have a hairy willy though
I got really annoyed with school using loose terminology with DC and it took a lot of work to unpersuade them that they peed out their vagina. They were also unconvinced about the existence of a third hole.
I gave up on the school and consulted an obs / gyn friend of mine for NHS resources which turned out to be just as woeful.
I bought them a US book and explained it all myself while they put their fingers in their ears.
Pubic area or down below work for me in this context.
Why the need to introduce complex biological terms at all at this age?

DD went for wee hole, poo hole, baby hole when she was younger. These were all located "at my bottom". She is a matter of fact child.

Aged 7, she sat through my powerpoints for full information.

I am a Science teacher BTW. I don't just have sex organ powerpoints

The hairy bits are part of the vulva. Sorry for everyone who doesn't like the word (and I can sort of see why!) but if you're after the 'proper word' that covers all the external bits and bobs, it's that. As wikipedia says, 'The vulva has many major and minor anatomical structures, including the labia majora, mons pubis, labia minora, clitoris, bulb of vestibule, vulval vestibule, greater and lesser vestibular glands, external urethral orifice and the opening of the vagina (introitus).'

I'm all for 'fanjo' as a child-friendly equivalent to 'willy' - it's easy to say, inoffensive and unlikely to cause confusion.

Agree that fanny ought to be the equivalent of willy.

Fanny is awful..."yerrr a fanny" is how it's used up here . I haven't heard it used much to describe female bits since I moved north of the border.

The vulva brigade and the grammar police is just crying out for a third circle venn diagram.

Have just tried to pin down dh (a GP) on this over breakfast. He went for groin for everyday easy use and then pudenda for more exact placement of pubic hair. Vulva is wrong. Vagina is very wrong and made him do a weird sort of itch shudder, which was rather empathic of him I thought, particularly as the poor man was only trying to eat his toast in peace.

I have a bulb of vestibule? [Shock] what's that when it's at home then & are there any tricks I can do with it?

i told my daughter that she will grow hair on her fanny.

do i win a prize?

Obviously if you're having sex in the dark and your partner's having trouble find their way around, you just switch on your bulb of vestibule.

Fanny is a great word. Just about vulgar enough to cause offense to sensitive types. Twee enough to get away with in school, yet without sounding too anatomically pedantic