In a departure from my usual questions about politics, religion, or baseball, I’d like to know about anatomical nicknames and their connotations.
I’m not sure on policy regarding the use of vulgar language in a thread, but I was thinking about how and if “dick” for male anatomy has a different connotation than “cock.” To me, “dick” sounds slightly more juvenile, while “cock” sounds more adult. I wondered how differently women might perceive the same phrase used in “dirty talk” with one term versus the other. For example, “would you like me to take out my (insert word here)?” I would love to hear from both women and men if there are terms commonly in use for both male and female anatomy that you might favor, and why. For example, boobs vs. melons vs. breasts vs. tits. You normally hear tits a lot in porn culture—why do people use that word more than the myriad other descriptive names for those body parts?
I’m posting this in General Questions because I’m interested in finding out whether there’s any factual reason why a given anatomical nickname rises above the juvenile/vulgar and becomes commonly accepted and even embraced as an erotic descriptor. You say the words “trouser snake” or “one-eyed willy” to refer to the penis, and it already pegs you as kind of juvenile. What about these terms “turns people off” or, to put it another way, what about these terms elicits that general negative reaction? You only hear certain anatomical words that have garnered an erotic connotation, and I’m wondering what about these words makes them so accepted and these other terms so unappealing?
This is a serious question. If mods feel it necessary to move to IMHO, please do so. But I ask because I love languages and I’m fascinated by cultural decisions to accept certain words and reject others.
When the Chuck Berry song “My Ding-a-Ling” was banned in Britain way back when, Punch magazine had a cartoon where a fellow wondered “Surely he could have found a euphemism for 'ding-a-ling”?"
I suspect slang names for anatomy rely on creativity, innuendo, and parallelism. The older the people sharing the word, the more subtle the name. But basically, used in the right context, anything can be an innuendo for anatomy. (John Thomas, Dick, Willy, Johnson, Peter, … even simple names can be euphemisms.)
I suspect too the answer is that the more “imaginative” and less specific the name, the less crude it sounds. For example, “let me stick my Willy Wonka in your Chocolate Factory” probably has more giggle factor than the more blatantly crude but more precise phrase, and helps exercise the imagination and powers of deduction.
Right, but IMO the crudeness of it is where the eroticism lies. There’s something erotic about saying just what it is you want. The less mental gymnastics involved in interpreting innuendo, the better.
That’s a good question. “different strokes for different folks” (which has interesting connotations). Does blatant crudity create eroticism? Or does clever seduction?
(I’m reminded of the scene in Taxi Driver where de Niro takes his dream girl Shepherd on a date to a porn flick, and she walks out in disgust… "that’s about as exciting as saying ‘Let’s fuck’! ")
More likely, there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.
I think I understand what you’re getting at, pianodave, I just can’t see it having a GQ kind of an answer.
I know that many people in their humble opinion consider proper terminology to be too clinical sounding to be sexy.
There’s an opposing extreme, however, that something too juvenile can’t be sexy either because, well, it brings to mind actual juveniles- rather than an experienced and practiced lover.
So, the words have to be “adult” but without the sterile soberness of academia.
I would go even further and posit a strong connection to the numerous studies that people love to share on Facebook that show swearing is good for you. From my layman’s reading I can easily see vulgar sexual vocabulary having such benefits as
As to which slang terms to use, I think that comes and goes like any other fashion. “Boobs” seems to have lost favor to “tits”, but I think there was a time when “boobs” was considered an acceptably sexy word to use. Porn has seemed to give preference to “cock” over “dick” for quite some time and that, in turn, has an effect on the language people use in real life.
Still, even at any point on a timeline of changing fashions you’ll find some people who prefer dick to cock, boobs to tits, twat to pussy, etc. I just don’t think there’s a GQ approach to it.
Words that I first heard spoken in tones of anger, contempt, deliberate attempt to shock, or oozing with a 3rd-grader-mentality’s delight in messy grossness for its own sake are never going to sound sexy to me.
Proper medical latin-tinged terms on the other hand tend to be clinically antiseptic and detached.
What’s best are terms that are playful instead of either hostile or redolent of rubbing alcohol.
This thread immediately made me think of Gore Vidal.
from wikipedia:
Myron is the name of a 1974 novel by Gore Vidal. It was written as a sequel to his 1968 bestseller Myra Breckinridge. The novel was published shortly after an anti-pornography ruling by the Supreme Court; Vidal responded by replacing the profanity in his novel with the names of the Justices involved (e.g., “He thrust his enormous Rehnquist deep within her Whizzer White”, etc.)
40 years later I still giggle at the name “Rehnquist.”
Anthony Burgess depicts “dumpennente” as delighting Keats in ABBA ABBA. It’s clever, irreverent, and very esoteric; what more could you ask for? Here’s a nice discussion of that scene. (My intention is to break the link, but in case I fail, it is probably NSFW.)