Names.

[rivka]

Okay, I have to post something so that bad news doesn't stay on the top of my journal for the week that we're at SUUSI. (Laptop was stolen, remember, so no updates from the road.) After packing every imaginable item in the world, however - do you have any idea how much gear three people, one of whom is a toddler, require for a week's active vacation bracketed by a long and tedious car trip? - I am out of energy for posting anything particularly brilliant, so I think I'll just point and rant:

What is with parents who deliberately decide to teach their daughters cutesy names for female genitalia? Especially, for god's sake, "girl parts" - which seems to be one of the most popular options? Should I go back and try to expunge the word "elbow" from Alex's vocabulary, in favor of "bendy parts?" After all, as these euphemizers point out defensively, it's not technically inaccurate.

Also: Something is seriously wrong when women who have actually had a baby come out of their vaginas don't understand the difference between a vagina and a vulva.

Also also: Something is extra-specially wrong with the linguist who claims that, because adult women futz around embarrassedly with euphemisms, it's not linguistically "correct" to teach children the anatomical names, because "it's not what native adult speakers spontaneously generate." What. The. Hell?

Comments

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

I don't disagree with your rant, but I think it's a bit misdirected and possibly unkind. What is with these women is that they live in a culture where sexuality, especially female sexuality, is considered dirty; where nudity and genitalia are automatically considered to be associated with sex; where the body as a whole even is vaguely dirty and not-to-be-spoken of. Where I am careful to not post pictures of my kids with any genitals showing on Flickr, and where a friend had to take down a (not at all prurient) picture of her naked 18 month old daughter playing in the pool because it was getting crazy high viewing counts. Where some people probably consider the fact that my kids see me and my husband naked and bathe with us to be child abuse. Where a stranger in the supermarket might view the fact that a child knows the word vagina as evidence that the child is sexually abused. Our culture is fucked up; these women were probably not taught anything but euphemisms for female genitals as children. To me, "girl parts" seems like a big step forward from "down there" or nothing at all, which were probably prevalent in the previous generation. The fact that they are being exposed to this discussion at all is positive to me - maybe some minds have been opened.