Another vote for vulva.
I understand why people are uncomfortable with the word. It's a word I'm less comfortable with than penis, but I think this has to do with cultural attitudes. I make a conscious effort to use vulva with my daughter, and I think that in doing so the word will be less loaded for her.
Saying that the word is "ugly" makes no sense to me. People tend to identify only words that are considered to be vulgar as "ugly". I don't think it's necessarily internalized misogyny, but rather a type of prudishness that we can all carry. Vulva is not generally used in our culture, and therefore it can seem strange to use it rather than other terms. It's ironic that this "ugly" word has much less ugly connotations than terms we are more comfortable using.
But the word itself no more objectively ugly than "table" or "volvo"
I would suggest that if you are avoiding using it because it is "ugly" you give more thought to your true reasons for avoiding the word. Not that it much matters - I doubt that your choice of word in this matter has any great impact. I'm just trying to stop my DH from using "cootch". Now *that* makes my skin crawl.
I understand why people are uncomfortable with the word. It's a word I'm less comfortable with than penis, but I think this has to do with cultural attitudes. I make a conscious effort to use vulva with my daughter, and I think that in doing so the word will be less loaded for her.
Saying that the word is "ugly" makes no sense to me. People tend to identify only words that are considered to be vulgar as "ugly". I don't think it's necessarily internalized misogyny, but rather a type of prudishness that we can all carry. Vulva is not generally used in our culture, and therefore it can seem strange to use it rather than other terms. It's ironic that this "ugly" word has much less ugly connotations than terms we are more comfortable using.
But the word itself no more objectively ugly than "table" or "volvo"
I would suggest that if you are avoiding using it because it is "ugly" you give more thought to your true reasons for avoiding the word. Not that it much matters - I doubt that your choice of word in this matter has any great impact. I'm just trying to stop my DH from using "cootch". Now *that* makes my skin crawl.
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