Letters to the Editor
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"thinking outside the box."
lol.
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"open for business?"
Oh, Good Lord, no!
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Vagina vs Vajayjay?
Penis, meet cock.
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say what?
We're supposed to take linguistic advice seriously from a guy whose last name is "Smerconish"? I can think of many warm and fuzzy things to change that to.
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America the Tacky
I'm a grown woman and I cannot stand the word vagina. Don't ask me why; I just can't stand it. I couldn't stand hearing and seeing "Vagina Monologues" all over the damn place when it was being advertised even on the backs of buses, for God's sake.
So I am so deliriously happy the damn play is off the radar that I'll take vajayjay. But I gotta be honest. I'd rather not hear about it at all. I am old enough to remember when every single personal subject didn't absolutely have to be yakked out publicly. I liked it.
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no need for extra "jay"
"vajay" works for me. others i know have been saying this too.
vajay!
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Men, women, conservatives, liberals
We keep worrying about what "they" call something, then we try to come up with a new name. I remember an essay from college. A linguist claimed that the more negatively we felt about soemthing, the more names we came up with for it. Think of the numbers names for restrooms, fecal material, and even servants, if you want to see how this works. Anything related to sex falls into this category. Sexual organs, sexual processes, and sexual preferences. I was told that I wasn't allowed to use the word "homosexual" because conservatives use that word. Newspapers won't even publish references to some sexual activites. But I'm tired of the game. I'm tired of letting people define what words I can and can't use based on my political leanings. I will use the proper terms for things. A vagina is a part of a woman's body, not a social meme. A homosexual is a person who is attracted to a member of the same sex, and there is no shame or pride in that, any more than there is shame or pride in being "heterosexual". There is no such thing as "vayayjay", no matter what this idiot says, and I won't have a perfectly normal part of my body labelled as such, any more than I'll have my arm redefined as "amp" or some such nonsense.
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Vajayjay
is an infantile, demeaning word. The fact that we're even entertaining it as a warm & fuzzy (ugh) alternative is just juvenile. Grow up, Smerconish. And Oprah? You too.
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Yikes
Can't quite put my finger on it? Screaming vaginas? I hope for Michaels sake that this column was snark. Hmmmm. Snark. Could be a vagina with teeth couldn't it?
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This is so stupid it's not worth commenting on.
Still, I felt the need to post a comment to say this is so stupid.
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Huh? Who's Nervous?
It has such a sense of taboo that nobody feels totally comfortable talking about it -- not even women, but especially men.......
"In short, 'vajayjay' has got us thinking outside of the box, which makes the feminists nervous. They want to keep 'vagina' all to themselves.
Okay, so men are too nervous to use the word and it's the feminists' fault. Because that's how feminists want it. Got it.
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Vagina Dialog
Vajayjay sounds like a species of tropical bird. It will not replace the venerable word "pussy" for this most desirable part of a wonman's anatomy. Let the feminists and physicians keep "vagina". I for one want a word that evokes the same warm comforting images that I see when I think about, you know---pussy.
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Warm, fuzzy and . . .
. . . moist.
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For a minute there
I was TOTALLY sure you were quoting some anonymous bozo from the comments section!
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Infantile
"Vayjayjay" is on about the same level as "peepee."
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Vagina
I don't like this term. It's not even really that anatomically accurate. What most people are trying to refer to is the whole female genital region, right? "Vagina" just refers to the orifice.
So several years ago, I thought to myself "isn't there nice slang term that could be used to refer to the whole shebang?" So of course, I have been encouraging people to call it a "shebang" ever since. It's not too sickeningly cutesy, hasn't been hijacked as a derogatory term, and there are appropriate (and slangy/punny) connotations on multiple levels.
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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.
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Absurd
This whole discussion reminds me of the endless debates in Dear Abby or Ann Landers about how to put the toilet paper on the toilet-paper roll.
(Please don't make any analogies; I already self-censored the verb "insert.")
Myself included, haven't we got anything better to do?
Call me a bluestocking, but this "let's keep it light" tone -- put it this way: if feminism annoys some people, "feminism lite" will simply produce a flakier sort of straw feminist for them to try to torch.
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How about neither!
If I'm talking about vaginas with acquaintances, then it's something less infantile than vajayjay and less clinical than vagina. I can't recall too many occasions where the word comes up in casual conversation but I do recall hearing "hooha", but I'd probably just go with crotch in mixed company. My mother called it a 'knish'.
But really, if I'm talking to a partner, it's "pussy", and I can't really think of another word I'd like to hear, unless he wants to call it something like "lovebucket" or "honey fountain" or whatever the fuck he comes up with - it's all cool with me.
Unless he called it my "vagina" - only the gyno does that, or vajayjay - then I think he's hit his head on something on the way into the bedroom because he's talking nonsense. I'd have to ask him if he's ever seen one in person, because he sounds like a newbie.
Warm and fuzzy, purrs when you pet it, curls up around you and keeps you content, mysterious and alternating the friendliest of welcomes and total apathy . . . pussy it is.