Raising kids is tough. Not only do you have to love them, but you're also responsible for their major brain-development-learning-period. You've got to teach them counting, animal names and sounds, and oh yeah, names for their genitals.
The Guardian tackles the issue of the vagina. What should parents teach little girls to call this body part? The author, Annalisa Baribieri, is looking for "something that wasn't too twee, euphemistic or overly anatomical."
Some suggestions she got: twinkie, zizzi, tweenies, nenette, patatina, toshie, and sparkly bits.
Is it just me, or do these sound like names of tiny fuzzy bear-like stuffed animals?
I don't understand why kids need different names for their genitals. We don't make up names for other body parts. Having cutesy nicknames only confuses kids (especially when every family has a different term) and only underscores the fact that genitals are 'weird' and 'other.' What's wrong with simple, medical terms like vagina and penis? When I was growing up, those we the words we used. I remember being three and thinking about them as words--they weren't too complicated or whatever. They are what they are.
And honestly, how old are girls going to be before they can say 'vagina?' Seven years-old? Ten? Forty-five? Why not be honest with them so they can just use one word for their entire lives?
Don't be afraid to say vagina.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Twinkie Monologues
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4 comments:
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I think that sums it up.
I certainly have no prob with the word vagina and think that cutesy names used in place of it are stupid as well, but my qualm is that people don't usually mean "vagina" when they use the word. Remember that the vagina is an internal organ. The external female genitalia is NOT the vagina. That would be the vulva (or pudendum, if you prefer). I know it's commonplace for people to just refer to the external female genitalia as the vagina, but for those of us who are sticklers for anatomy (ok, I'm actually not, but still), it's just not right. Perhaps I'll teach my daughters to call their private parts their vulvas. I agree "teetee," "peepee," and other such nonsense is just silly.
PS- "Twinkie" was one of the suggestions of what to call it?! That doesn't even make sense! Does a twinkie resemble a penis more than a vagina?
Good points, Cath! Either 'vagina' or 'vulva' sounds appropriate to me. (And, again, are scientific and real.)
Just another reason to be skeeved out by actual Twinkies, I guess. :P
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