“Venus pudica” pretty well covers it. (Rimshot.) There’s no need I know of to explain the meaning of a pose that all art historians are familiar with.
If you must use a term, then “crotch” is acceptable, as are the clinical terms like “pudenda”. “Private parts” might work in a pinch. I like the sound of “labia” myself.
And if you trust your advisor, even the brisker terms are possibles. I used the word “prick” in my dissertation, but it was a quote of somebody else.
… her Southern Gotee
I’ve always liked ‘nether regions’, but…
Personally, I was always a bit adventurous in college, so I’d use pussy, snatch, or cunt with a little explanation of you plight in a footnote. My teachers would have found it immensely entertaining. In this same vein a comical euphamism would be ideal. I guess I just like to think teachers have a sense of humor and appriciate it in your work. The one exception is if its a class where your are explicitly graded on your composition, such as a English Language or Composition II class. I would frequently use colorful and juvenile phrases in my Literature and other Liberal Arts classes. I’d wing it!
One suggestion is to use something such as pubic cleft, its somewhat clinical without being sanitary IMHO.
Boys, you really should take a look at that picture, its not what you think.
The woman is resting her hand in her lap. That’s all. She has clothes on there for pete’s sake. The artist didn’t want any depliction of genitalia there so she is just resting her hand in her lap.
hoo-hah.
=)
I like “sex” “Covering her sex” sounds seductive without being abrasive.
“sweetness” is good too. Ive even seen “nectar”, which I thought painted a lovely image.
I looked up “crotch” in the index of my big Roget’s. Here is the entry that it pointed me to (Fifth edition, 1992, page 1):
2.11
genitals, genitalia, sex organs, reproductive
organs, pudenda, private parts, privy parts,
privates meat <nonformal>;crotch, crutch
<Brit>, pubic region, perineum, pelvis; male
organs; penis, phallus, lingam <Skt>; gonads;
testes, testicles, balls and nuts *and *rocks and
ballocks and family jewels <all nonformal>,
cullions <old>; spermary; scrotum, bag and
basket <both nonformal>, cod <old>; female
organs; vulva, yoni <Skt>, cunt <nonformal>;
vagina: clitoris; labia, labia majora, labia minora,
lips, nymphae; cervix; ovary; uterus, womb;
secondary sex characteristic, pubic hair, beard,
breasts
Not much help, eh?
Personally, I agree that you should go with “poontang.”
Since it is Venus, how about “…with a hand concealing that for which she is most noted”?
I do, too. But I don’t bother to put quotations around the word. And I call it “fucking”.
Who about just plain old groin? Not all that pretty sounding, but what the hell…
Or you could use the word for that thing in another language (FYI: in Korean, it’s Bo-Jee)!