yoni
I'm reading The Story of V: A Natural History of Female Sexuality. From the Guardian review:
"To go back to the beginning - or l'origine du monde, as Courbet entitled his boundary-breaking legs-akimbo vista - the vadge wasn't smelly or rude. No, it was life-affirming, iconic, divine even, and invested with symbolism that we can barely begin to imagine. Skirt-lifting was significant for centuries: in India, the gesture was meant to disperse evil influences, while in ancient Egypt, women did it to multiply crop yield. On 17th-century drinking mugs, depictions can be found of a confrontation between an exposed vagina and a reeling Satan. Even Pliny noted that a woman could banish pests by strolling around with her fanny on display before sunrise. As Blackledge notes in her quite astonishingly thorough monograph, vulval cakes were carried at the Syracusan Thesmophoria festival, just as split loaves still form part of some Italian and French Catholic ceremonies."It's quite startling for me to realise that the vagina was a power symbol for so many cultures and remains so today for many. Other than Christianity, the book hasn't covered any culture that didn't see it as the gateway to the world, all-powerful symbol of life, virtue, and fertility, a dispeller of evil and bringer of good, a strong defensive tool, even a deity. In our culture, it's a liability, it's not to be mentioned, it's to be censored and covered with a black bar or a fig leaf. In many African cultures, it is illegal to speak disrespectfully of the vagina or vulva, because it is where you came from and you should respect and honour it. Here, it's hard to find non-clinical words for the vagina or vulva that aren't disrespectful.
I remember hearing a female comedian a few years ago saying that it was easy for her husband to suggest a midnight stroll through Central Park because he could just leave his wallet and watch at home -- she couldn't leave her vagina at home. People in our culture with vaginas are susceptible to rape, violence, being treated as less intelligent, being rated on their appearance rather than their performance (see: Belinda Stronach), and can't really expect to be paid the same for the same work. Augustine said that we are born "between shit and piss", which shows his view of the vagina quite succinctly -- dirty, shameful. Fourteenth century England declared sex illegal on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and the forty days before Christmas and Easter -- because sex was unclean and those were holy days.
No wonder we look at ancient fertility statues and see pornography. No wonder our sex education is so stilted and inadequate. I wish I lived in another culture, one that would allow me to react with awe instead of shame.
posted by Heather Ann @ 10:47 AM
8 Comments:
No seriously, sex is just gross and dirty...first off you have to touch some one else, then you get all sweaty and sticky...and just plain ewwwww
ok, except for the rape part, what are you complaining about? The vagina gets way more respect in this culture then its male equivilent (the penis). You guys have the vagina monologues, what do us guys have? puppetry of the penis. The penis and scrotum are walking punch lines. seriously, we basically just have a larger version of the little thingy hanging down in the backs of peoples throats that cartoons always use as punching bags.
furthermore, I agree with sanda, sex with others- gross.
however, sex with yourself... have I gone too far?
You guys can report back when you've tried it. ;)
And Doug... no. The Vagina Monologues is recent. Consider the following words: cunt, pussy, whore, slut. All about female sexuality, and all strong insults. Calling someone a prick isn't half as strong, and saying someone has balls is a compliment. Try to find a female equivalent to that.
" You guys can report back when you've tried it. ;)"
Ha!
I have to agree with doug though. Guys have it just as bad as far as anatomical insults.
Slut is a different sort of thing, in that it relates to promiscuity rather than anatomy. There is an analog for males, its just the opposite.
I'm still not seeing it. At least give me some evidence of words with good connotations that are also connected to female sexuality, promiscuous or not. For men, their sexuality is a good thing (bad to be emasculated, good to be a stud). For women, it's the opposite -- if you're not "innocent", then you're a "bad" girl, and regardless of whether that's a desireable quality or not for a guy who's trying to get laid, it's still naughty/bad/etc. Women get called sluts, while men get called players.
Yes, there are insults that refer to male anatomy, but they seem to me to be weaker insults than those that refer to female anatomy. There are also compliments that refer to male anatomy and I can't think of any that refer to female anatomy.
"Women get called sluts, while men get called players."
This is true, but what I was getting at is that there is an analog for men.
Female virgins are portrayed virtuous, pure; male virgins are portrayed as weak, inferior. This has no less of an insulting connotation for men than slut has for women.
As for positive words for female anatomy, I haven't come up with any yet, so you may win that one. But for negatives, I think the power of the word is a pretty subjective thing, so its hard to make a convincing argument either way on that one.
haha-will do, will do, but I think that it will be amazingly gross...maybe it will fall in the same category as mud wrestling- where gross and fun(insert pleasure) meet.
As for positive female anatomy...I found one, maybe...I honestly don't know cause I have never heard it used before. As I have been in the habit of checking urbandictionaryDOT.com lately-mainly out of boredom and so that I may understand the hordes of ghetto kids that I will be working with this summer. So ironically enough after reading here, I pop over there and click random and randomly the word STANKY popped up-meaning...
n. syn. for vagina
ex. I'm going to get some stanky on my hang-low.
So, I'm not to sure how positive or negative that sentence is. To me, it is sort of dumb, for I prefer proper terms. It is also not the crudest thing I have heard-so for right now it sort of hangs in the neutral category.
Anyways, if I am just showing my ignorance here because more than likely, you've all known that word since grade 5 and I am just learning it today, please go easy on me.
Ok HA,
you may have a point, so I have no choice but to try and correct this flaw in society.
There is a lady who we play euchere with that we call 'Big Balls' due to her bold playing moves, but from no on to be fair I shall call her 'Big Vagina'.
and I shall not forget to take down the male parts a peg or two. before our greatest insult was 'You prick' or 'you dick head'. from now no one when a group of guys are being real whores of a man, I will say "you Vas deferens"
and when someone does somthing stupid I will call them ' a dumb pubic bone'
if anyone has more ideas of how I can bring about equality through insults, please let me know
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