Letters to the Editor
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Isn't the word vagina unmarked?
Calling a vagina a vagina is like calling a nose a nose. There are other words for it (schnozz, snout, etc.), but nose is the default word - "unmarked" in lingusitic terms, for when you want to refer to a nose neutrally, without any further connotations.
As with everything else, there has to be an unmarked way to refer to a vagina. And isn't that "vagina"? If there's a more unmarked synonym let me know, but I really don't think there are any.
Without even getting into feminism and appropriation and all those other things, trying to give connotations and political implications to the word vagina simply doesn't help us as human beings who need to use the English language to communicate.