# Opposite of phallic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 10, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179 "2004-12-10T18:47:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/21 "2004-12-12T05:14:52Z")
I vote for ‘vulvic’, which I have just made up. It matches ‘phallic’ in ending and number of syllables, and starts with the ‘vulv’ root. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/22 "2004-12-12T05:37:18Z")
Hmm, [symbol]kwjoV[/symbol] is Greek for ‘dumb’, ‘mute’. Google “kophon” and you’ll find lots of quotes from the Greek Gospel about Jesus healing a bloke’s dumbness. Maybe it was used for the yoni because it’s compared to a mouth, but it does not speak. > [@](#): > > _Show you sweet Caesar’s wounds, poor poor dumb mouths, > And bid them speak for me_ ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/23 "2004-12-12T06:44:23Z")
> [@Jomo Mojo](#): > > Hmm, [symbol]kwjoV[/symbol] is Greek for ‘dumb’, ‘mute’. Google “kophon” and you’ll find lots of quotes from the Greek Gospel about Jesus healing a bloke’s dumbness. Maybe it was used for the yoni because it’s compared to a mouth, but it does not speak. Gives a whole new meaning to “Shut your pie-hole!” ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/24 "2004-12-12T06:56:11Z")
Liptastic? ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/25 "2004-12-12T15:06:51Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > Well, you’re very, very wrong. > > Just do a Google search for ‘phallic’ and you’ll find most references to phallic in the context of “hey, it looks like an erect penis.” Is he? He never said that “phallic” used in psychological circles is unrelated to it’s meaning as an adjective for a penile form. His statement and the meaning that you paraphrased are NOT mutually exclusive. He’s mentioned psychology to say that “phallic” is used mainly when we talk about the \*mental attitudes \* towards things that look like penises. Are you implying that there’s nothing going on psychologically when people compare the Washington Monument to a big penis? It’s obvious that there’s a lot of Freudian theory behind the reason so many people use the penis as a base reference, instead of thinking “Hey, that looks like a big fence post!!” ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/26 "2004-12-12T20:31:18Z")
[Melanie] Freud’s mystic world of meaning need not leave us mystified It’s really very simple what the psyche tries to hide: A thing is a phallic symbol if it’s larger than it’s wide! [/Melanie] …and the ID goes marching on, hallelujah! There is a difference between phallic and penile, sure enough. So we not only need a proper Greek-origin adjective for the corresponding female parts, we need an adjective that specifically references them in a moistened and engorged state. The hungry mouth and all that. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/27 "2004-12-13T02:48:23Z")
> [@aerodave](#): > > Is he? He never said that “phallic” used in psychological circles is unrelated to it’s meaning as an adjective for a penile form. His statement and the meaning that you paraphrased are NOT mutually exclusive. To me, when someone says, 'the modern usage of term X is…" I hear an exclusivity. (Would ‘phallic’ even have an ancient or classical terminology?) Ordinarily, when one is giving one of several possible definitions of a term, one usually says, “term X often means… can also mean… one of its modern meanings is…” It’s possible that an exclusivity wasn’t meant. \ I’m still waiting for a cite on how ‘vulvar’ is used in psych circles to indicate a mental attitude. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![Satyagrahi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f475e1/32.png) [@Satyagrahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satyagrahi)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/28 "2004-12-13T04:07:48Z")
OK, a citation or two. The sites online refer mostly to medical conditions and the psychological syndromes connected to them. Google (Dogpile, actually) did not come up with any straight psychology texts. If you don’t mind citations to psychology textbooks you don’t have on your bookshelf, I’ll dig through a few and come up with page numbers, etc. In the meantime, these sites show the common usage of ‘vulvar’ as the medical term for the external parts of the female genitalia. Clinical psychology takes its usage from there. [Vulvodynia.com](http://www.vulvodynia.com/dia_vv_ab7.htm) [The Vulvar Pain Foundation](http://www.vulvarpainfoundation.org/vpfabout.htm) [PubMed abstract](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11304972&dopt=Abstract) [Self Help Magazine](http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/sex/vps.html) [Vulvar Health](http://www.vulvarhealth.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Satyagrahi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f475e1/32.png) [@Satyagrahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satyagrahi)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/29 "2004-12-13T04:22:24Z")
Oops, found an online usage of the term in a purely psychological context. From [The Rorschach Test](http://www.deltabravo.net/custody/rorschach.htm) > [@](#): > > Christina Crawford meets projective psychology: This blot is supposed to reveal how you really feel about your mother. Virtually everyone sees two girls or women. Deprecating descriptions of the figures~ “witches,” “gossips,” “girls fighting,” “spinsters” indicate poor maternal relations. Seeing the blot as thunderclouds instead of female figures suggests anxiety to some psychologists; seeing it as a walnut kernel may mean a **vulvar fixation**. Bolding mine. ---
**Author:** ![Satyagrahi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f475e1/32.png) [@Satyagrahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satyagrahi)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/30 "2004-12-13T04:30:04Z")
And another. Though only peripherally psychological, it shows the two terms used as contrasting complements. From [Facts and Phallacies](http://tim.maroney.org/Essays/Facts_and_Phallacies.html) > [@](#): > > Knight applies the now obsolete method of syncretistic comparativism to a variety of **phallic and vulvar** deities in an attempt to demonstrate that they all express the Neo-Platonic legend of an original hermaphroditic creator God who split into two halves, one male and one female. ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/31 "2004-12-13T14:46:47Z")
I’d say yonic as well, but at least one source disagrees: Maude: In a sense, yes. Elfranco, my robe. My art has been commended as being strongly vaginal. Which bothers some men. The word itself makes some men uncomfortable. Vagina. Dude: Oh yeah? Maude: Yes, they don’t like hearing it and find it difficult to say. Whereas without batting an eye a man will refer to his “dick” or his “rod” or his “Johnson”. Dude: “Johnson”? - _The Big Lebowski_ ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/32 "2004-12-14T04:30:25Z")
Thank-you, **Satyagrahi** , for those cites. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/33 "2004-12-14T17:30:24Z")
The unabridged dictionaries in my college library used “phallicism” to refer to lingam-worship and “kteism” to refer to yoni-worship. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/34 "2004-12-14T20:43:56Z")
Dibs on **Kteist** for a username!! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179/35 "2004-12-15T10:49:11Z")
I went to the _Oxford English Dictionary_ and found that the adjective _yonic_ has an impressively long history of use in English for precisely this meaning. Going back to 1879. **yoni** ('jəUnI). [Skr.] A figure or symbol of the female organ of generation as an object of veneration among the Hindus and others. Hence ' **yonic** _a._ **1799** _Asiatick Researches_ III.363 The navel of Vishnu, by which they mean the _os tincæ_, is worshipped as one and the same as the sacred _yóni_. **1879** M. MACFIE _Relig. Parall._ 27 The _yonic_ or moon-worshippers of Chaldea… The yonic symbolism professed by their remote ancestors in Turkestan, who were originally worshippers of the female principle. **1906** WHATHAM in _Amer. Jrnl. Relig. & Psychol._ II.44 In nature-worship, all natural orifices were reverenced as representing the yoni of the mother-earth goddess. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opposite-of-phallic/279179.md?page=1)