Letters to the Editor
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Gardeners like moist
I used the word moist just yesterday as one of several to describe the wonderful soil at a garden I had just visited. I've always liked the word, but then I'm a man who loves women so according to this article that might be the explaination.
A cringe word for me is the oft-used among sailors' term "seacock." Much preferable and more accurately descriptive is "sea valve." But then "valve" is similar to "vulva," which is just about my all-time favorite word. Whisper THAT in my ear, sweetheart!
And I agree with the previous letter-writer, "tit" is grating. I associate it's use to immature male sex talk.
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"Moist & Tasty"
"Tasty" is pretty revolting, too.
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Every Time I Manage to Convice Myself We're the Same Species . . .
. . . I get blindsided by some pronouncement like this that causes me to revert to the "invaders from Alpha Centauri sent here to confuse us into submission prior to the fullscale invasion" theory that was my primary model for evaluating female behavior when I was 12.
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Well, ya gotta call it something
I've always wondered why men have such a wide variety of expressions for their arousal, from "boner" to the more prosaic "the purple helmeted spartan is prepared for battle" while women have very few. Perhaps, inadverantly, this article has touched upon it. Even though we sex to sell everything these days, I think we still have a bit of a vestige of the idea that women are not supposed be sexual creatures, let alone be comfortable with their sexuality, let alone revel in it. Moistness and all.
Men, to the best of my knowledge, have no cringe-worthy adjectives for anything. That is to say, things that would make men cringe. Maybe we're just seeing that we have a "little further" to go in dealing with things sexual when it comes to gender differences. Alright. A lot further.
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Poietry likes it all
Oh ye moisty caudelette
Laying sworn upon the vulvic shore...
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Well...
I'd sure hate to describe a cake as being 'damp' or 'wet.'
There is a woman who runs an iconic men's magazine (created by her silk-pajama-wearing father) who abhors the word 'pink' in any context. It was practically verboten to use the term in her presence.
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When I hear the word "Moist"...
...I'm reminded of the awful mid-90's Canadian rock band by that moniker, and I too recoil in horror. Really, what's worse: purple-prose wannabe erotica, or dirgelike semi-grunge?
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College ladies... time to grow up
College is a time to explore boundaries and expand your comfort zones. Either these women expressed themselves quite badly to the professor, or they were being oversensitive. If the students were offended by hearing a professor talk in sexually suggestive ways about a book that is about one of the great romances of history, then they need to start taking classes about authors who don't write suggestive material. Perhaps something in estate law. I shudder to think about what will happen when the professor starts to talk about Hamlet.
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What about that V-word?
You know, the brand name of that Swedish car...is that a positive or negative factor as far as marketing to women?
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hated words
I had a friend back in the early '90s that hated the word 'moist.' You could really get her going by casually dropping it in a sentence, and if I recall correctly someone graffiti-ed it on her apartment building just to bug her.
"Moist" doesn't bother me. But I can't stand these: "Fork it over," "meal" ("That was a tasty meal"), "tasty" when applied to music, "muscular" when applied to prose. I wouldn't try to ban them, though.
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And, DUH!
Any doubt, reading these posts, that it's not sexual?
Okay, worse than "moist sputum:" dry sputum.
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"Men, to the best of my knowledge, have no cringe-worthy adjectives for anything. That is to say, things that would make men cringe."
"Commitment"
Someone had to say it.
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There are more "cringe" words for men, Just Sayin...
How about the TWO words "I'm Late."
And the FOUR words "We have to talk."
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Some people need to be offended
or perhaps I should say, "look to be offended" so they can come off as a victim as a way of putting the other person on the defensive. Rather than use the trial by error method why not just tell your partner what words you don't like and better yet THOSE THAT YOU DO LIKE and then everybody can be happy.
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More discussion...
Treesandthings had a discussion of this story a week or so ago - http://www.treesandthings.com/story/2007/10/15/155040/79
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Doesn't seem so Victorian to me
Disliking certain words, whether by men or women, does not smack of repression or puritanism run amok. In this instance, just because it's women doing the disliking, doesn't make this a "let's all roll our eyes at women" sort of thing.
If you're willing to accept the idea that certain words have sexual overtones (or undertones), then it's easy to see. So, if "moist" has a sexual connotation to you, it's either a positive one or negative one. Everyone seems to agree that "moist" refers to women. Thus, women would obviously have stronger reactions to the word than men. Now, if you're a woman, simply pick a side over whether it's a positive connotation or a negative one. I'm probably marginally in the negative connotation camp. I must have been exposed to the word initially as a degrading reference to women. It stuck. Voila! No mystery or shame, no Victorianism or prudishness.
Lots of words that have developed sexual connotations refer to women. Lots are negative. There you are.
This whole "moist" issue seems to have turned into a Rohrshach test for people's attitudes towards women, i.e. "those irrational, easily offended castrating bitches... now we can't say moist anymore?? How dare women do that to us!!!"
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I am totally sympatico with Shackindawood's
fondness for the words moist and vulva. As a matter of fact, merely thinking about moist vulvas makes me. . .gosh. . .moist. And I'm sort of an old man, for Heaven's sake! A dirty one, I suppose. By the way, I appreciated the discussion of the equally fine word cunt on these very pages a couple of days ago. I recall an episode on television where Lucky Louie got in deep doo doo for uttering the "C" word, and I was a little astonished to learn that it had an unfavorable connotation. Then, when women recently were exorted in this sheet to revel in their cunthood rather than some pusillanimous pussyhood, I felt vindicated in my appreciation for this muscular (I used that adjective just to be annoying) word.