Comments on: Penises, vulvas, and other interesting things

By: Sex Ed Is Every Day « Raising My Boychick

Sex Ed Is Every Day « Raising My Boychick — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:51:48 +0000

[...] Penises, vulvas, and other interesting things [...]

By: I am not a vagina « Raising My Boychick

I am not a vagina « Raising My Boychick — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 06:34:41 +0000

[...] Penises, vulvas, and other interesting things [...]

By: I am thinking big thoughts « Raising My Boychick

I am thinking big thoughts « Raising My Boychick — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:43:10 +0000

[...] Penises, vulvas, and other interesting things [...]

By: Pamela

Pamela — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:36:00 +0000

great post, arwyn…I added this to my facebook.

By: Nanda

Nanda — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:52:00 +0000

A very interesting post! What also is interesting is that people "circumcise" their boys and when the same thing is done to girls it is "female genital mutilation." The truth is the genitals are remarkably similar, and circumcision on both girls and boys are done for the same reason: cultural propagation of genital cutting and mutilation. There's a comparison here:http://www.boystoo.com/fgm&mgm.htm
In some cases female genital mutilation involves "only" removing the clitoral hood, which is analogous to the foreskin. This surgery is illegal in the United States when performed on girls, but inexplicably is legal when performed on boys.
Boys have the same rights to genital integrity that girls do. There's a lot of info here as well nocirc.org
I am not undermining the suffering of FGM victims in any way. EVERY person male or female deserves the right to a whole, uncut body. I just want to shed some light on the suffering of males; the male genital mutilation victims.

By: Arwyn

Arwyn — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:33:00 +0000

So what do you use, if anything? Just the specifics? Do you have a word for female genitalia in general?

The penis isn’t the entirety of even all external male genitalia (it excludes the scrotum/testicles), but it encapsulates the glans, the foreskin, the body or shaft of the penis itself, the urethra, etc. I want a word for the female genitalia that encompasses all of that — I use vulva because it encompasses all of the external portions, which is the more visible bit anyway (“penis” doesn’t encompass the internal male organs either).

By: mutter mutter

mutter mutter — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:53:00 +0000

Funny, I have the same instinctively negative response to “vulva” that you have to “vagina”. I was happy when I was able to move on from the word vulva to describe the parts of it, which have always seemed more relevant to me: clitoris, labia, vagina.

The transitions of the vulva from frontward-positioned, cleft, fat padded unitary organ to an elongated, multi-layered organ that bridges externality and internality is a transition I just don’t see the penis making, however. The penis just gets bigger, while the vulva becomes a multiplicity. I don’t know. I just think it’s more complicated than vulva vs. vagina.

By: Arwyn

Arwyn — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:31:00 +0000

Lisa, yea, I’ve toyed with the use of yoni (in my midwifery studies notebook I have a section for “YBAC”), but ultimately decided against it for concerns over imprecision and cultural appropriation (as much as I’m drawn to the arguments in favor of it), and because I wanted the Boychick to use a word more widely known, and ultimately, vulva fills my needs and preferences nicely.

Really, I don’t care, as long as one doesn’t use vagina (or anything cutesy or diminutive; but that’s another post!).

By: Jenn

Jenn — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:33:00 +0000

Oddly enough, the conversation hasn’t come up in my household at all yet … “my bum” is about all the girl references (though I could write a whole blog post on her referring to menstruation as “ewwie”).

I totally agree on which of the v-words make more sense, though.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:26:00 +0000

omg, the whole penis and vagina thing has always been one of my pet peeves! we use the word yoni around here.