Partly inspired by this thread, what the hell is up with the recent misuse of the word “vagina”?
I was also recently watching an episode of “The Girls Next Door” where the girlfriends are making chocolate impressions of their girly parts as a birthday present for Hef. Holly continually referred to the area at the top of her legs between her thighs as her vagina. She even made a point to be proud of the fact that she was using the “real” word instead of a nonsense word.
Listen closely. For the last time, a vagina is the inner part from the cervix to the outer part, the VULVA. If I were sneaking a peek under a girls skirt, the last thing I would want to see would be her vagina. That would be just wrong.
So practice using the word vulva. See? It’s not hard. Vulva. Not Vagina.
It’s not recent. It’s common terminology, the same way we might say “motor” when we actually mean “engine,” or “bullet” when we mean “cartridge.” If you were in a medical setting, then I could understand frustration at the lack of precision. But in day-to-day life, people will know exactly what you mean.
Hell, most of the slang we use, from “pussy” to “the squishy, smelly variety show,” are pretty all-inclusive, so people just pick “vagina” as a broad term that’s okay for (most) polite company.
I see what you’re saying, I really do. But, like it or not, “vagina” seems to be the catchall term these days. The only time I’ve ever heard “vulva” even remotely referred to was that “Seinfeld” episode.
We live in an apartment, but I always say, “I’m going home now” or “wanna come over to our house.” It’d be weird if a friend or family member said, “You do realize that you don’t live in a house. The actual term is “apartment.” Why do you insist on saying you live in a house?”
Eh, just rolls off the tongue easier, and it sounds right. Is it physically, technically correct. Nah. Does everyone know what I’m talking about? Yep?
If I’m spending the night on someone’s couch, I’ll probably say, “I’m going to bed, now,” and I doubt that anyone would be such a tool as to point out that I’m not!
Another vote for “not recent”. It was what the more enlightened parents were teaching their children 34 years ago (the less enlightened ones calling it everything from “down there” to “cooterville”). It was famously in the movie Kindergarten Cop, which came out 18 years ago.
If anything, “vulva” is the newcomer, or at least, in a recent surge (snicker). It was obscure enough that it was the one term no one thought of on that *Seinfeld *episode (until the very end, of course.) One of the first threads we hashed this out in on the Dope, I was a champion of the vulva, and got roundly laughed at until I relented that “vagina” was more widely acceptable, and bearing that in mind, actually taught my daughter “vagina” instead of “vulva”. I was kind of shocked when the tables turned in a more recent thread last month.
Gosh, I’m just happy when I hear a clinical name for our various anatomies, that vagina as a catch-all term doesn’t bother me at all. And unfortunately (or otherwise, depending on how you look at it) you’ve probably got an uphill battle in encouraging people to say “Man, I caught a glimpse of her vulva during that movie!” instead.
Because sadly, there are some folks who believe the proper names are too vulgar for usage. Just sayin’.
Another data point: Native speaker of U.S. English here. Gay male (i.e. only an academic interest in the region), born early 70s. Until today, I thought “vagina” was the name for the whole set of female bits. I was aware of other terms (labia, vulva, etc.), but I thought that “vagina” was the proper name for the whole. I did know it derived from the Latin word for “sheath.”
I’m not averse to learning new words or changing things, but I think that there’s ample evidence that common usage, though incorrect, is, well, common.
So “balls” is out for man parts too, right? If I want to kick a guy in the balls, I really need to aim for his scrotum, yes? And, also avoid hitting the penis.
Some wiseass is going to correct you, so it might as well be me. In that Seinfeld episode, they actually thought of “vulva” early on, since one of their incorrect guesses for the woman’s name was “Mulva.” Her name was actually Dolores, so it was another part of the female genitalia that Jerry didn’t think of until the end of the episode.
Anyway, about the “vulva versus vagina” thing, I once had the frustrating task of trying to explain a news item to a boyfriend. It was about a woman who had a child through a surrogate, because she was born without a vagina. It took me the longest time to get through to him that the woman was born without a birth canal, not that she lacked external genitalia. He was wondering how anyone could not notice she didn’t have a vagina immediately. If “vagina” was not used incorrectly as a catchall term for vulva, I could have that 10 minutes of my life back.
Seriously, “vagina” has come into popular use as a catch-all word for the whole assembly. I think it’s too late to turn it back. I think this is one of those cases where the definition is just goingto change and we’ll have to come up with a new word to specifically denote the tubular section.
I contend that vagina is a slang word that just happens to have a similar-but-not-quite meaning to the proper word.
And I don’t have a penis.
Question for parents…what do you teach your kids as the name for what’s “down there” for girls? I honestly can’t ever remember being told that I have a vulva or labia or mons pubis until I read it in a 5th grade science book. In fact even as an adult, unless I think about it scientifically, I have a vagina.
Oh good god - funny story but true, this guy I knew once went blue in the face when he misheard her blue Volvo in a conversation as her blue vulva. Not kidding.
In that Seinfeld episode, they actually thought of “vulva” early on, since one of their incorrect guesses for the woman’s name was “Mulva.” Her name was actually Dolores, so it was another part of the female genitalia that Jerry didn’t think of until the end of the episode.