The Vagina Monologues.

Woman Flower was a cynical moniker--

But, see!!! I think we are users and not lovers of our vaginas.

With the possible exception of littlek, who eats to her vagina's health.

Has anyone bought special toys for their vagina? What to name.....
I'll go back to Salon for more stimulating conversational items.....

I like 'Vahijna', a latin pronounciation...sounds sexy...

Sofia...ahem. LittleK?

I think it's interesting that there seems to be more male participation on this thread than female participation -- answering the "taboo" question, I guess.

And it was the other way 'round on the penis thread, wasn't it? Hmm. Stands to reason, I guess.

Just goes to show, we can all get along after all

Oops.

LibertyD-- Don't know why I made that mistake.

I like The Garden of Eden, but a little wordy.

QUESTION: Do you demand proper foreplay for your vagina, or do you accept the bum's rush?

Have you ever told a new or casual partner, as they tried to dive in without proper clearance--"Hey, I need a man with a slow touch--Not Come and Go in a heated rush-- I need somebody who can understand-- When it comes to love, I want a slow hand...." :wink:

Hmm, Sofia, nobody ever had to tell me that , but back in high school I was incredibly pleased when a girlfriend pointed out her clitoris to me....she doesn't know how much that confident decision has pleased others since. 'Eden's Garden' is a bit shorter...also, from Chinese erotic texts 'Jade Fountain'...not bad...a bit pretentious though....

ROFLMAO! That's pretty funny, Sofia! Yeah, a slow hand is definately a good thing -- I've always ended up being a little less poetic about letting them know, though. You know, I say something like, "Jezuz! Do I look like a blow-up doll to you??!!" Maybe that's what's going wrong...
(just kidding)

Eden's Garden is pretty good...and I like Jade Fountain, too. It would be good on a Chinese food night.

Possible names for our lovely spot.
(P-u-s-s-why is one of my most unfavorite words in the english language. The C-word is possibly the most icky to me--which must mean I still have issues with my vagina....)

PROGRAM NOTE: Long ago, I have the Playboy channel and was amazed that the two lesbian hostesses talked about (and gave evidence of) the female ejaculation. Hmmmm. Anyone know of this critter?

From Salon--

You pussy!
If ever there was a word in need of rehab, it is this feline expletive reserved for wimps.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Margot Magowan

Feb. 28, 2001 | "What a pussy!" shouted my friend Joe. He was complaining to me about a business partner who backed out of a deal at the last minute. Joe wanted sympathy, but I was snagged on the word "pussy."

The night before Joe's outburst, I'd been channel surfing and caught Barbara Walters interviewing Jane Fonda about her performance in Eve Ensler's wildly successful play, "The Vagina Monologues."

"You can't talk about vaginas," Fonda said to Walters, "and not talk about this remarkable ability they have to give birth. It's awesome. If penises could do what vaginas could do, they'd be on postage stamps. I mean, vaginas are absolutely extraordinary."

Listening to Fonda, I thought, "We have come a long way, baby." Just a few years ago, producers forbade actress Cybill Shepherd to utter the V-word on her own TV show. It was, they said, obscene.

I noted the further progress of female genitalia in mainstream media when I spotted fresh-faced actress Claire Danes sporting a "V-Day" T-shirt on the cover of March's issue of Marie Claire, in which women like Brooke Shields, Marisa Tomei and Calista Flockhart were asked, among other things: If your vagina could talk, what would it say, and if it could wear clothes, what would it wear?

So pussy power was in the air when Joe launched his diatribe. Suddenly it struck me as wrong that the word "pussy" is used to imply cowardice or ineffectiveness. Why must we equate weakness with the female sex organ? Why have we for so long?

I began to wonder how one -- how we -- might take the wussy out of pussy.

Is it possible to change the meaning of the word, to restore to "pussy" its deserved glory? Could we use pussy as a compliment? Could pussy denote someone or something as cool or heroic or impressive? "Rosa Parks -- what a pussy!" or "John McCain is way pussy!" or "New York is a big ol' pussy!"

At the moment, "pussy" isn't even used to slight women directly. It is reserved for men, used among them to make fun of one another. It's "sissy" for male heteros. It's the politically correct big boy's way of calling somebody a fag. And, please, don't get me started on "pussy-whipped."

People say "dick," they say "asshole," they say "prick," but they do it with respect. Those words have power and punch, the way the word "****" has power. But "****" makes people shudder; they judge, perhaps wrongly, the user of the word. Meanwhile, poor "pussy" lies there limp, pathetic and, until this moment, defenseless.

Ensler does a fabulous soliloquy to "****" in "The Vagina Monologues." Perched on a stool in her black cocktail dress, barefoot, throwing back her head, shaking her Louise Brooks haircut, she says the word "****" for about 10 minutes, obviously relishing each repetition. But what does she say about pussy? If she said anything, I couldn't remember. Is pussy so forgettable?

To find answers -- and to solicit allies in rehabilitating the word -- I went to novelist and essayist Erica Jong, a pioneer in reclaiming language in her own writing, and a recent star of "The Vagina Monologues."

Jong told me that there are, in fact, a couple of references to pussy in the "Monologues," though they're mostly humorous, such as "Don't let him tell you it smells like roses when it's supposed to smell like pussy!"

She thinks changing the popular meaning of the word is possible. "If we use it with positive intent, it will become positive," she said. "I really don't know how long it will take. Language changes, but changes slowly. It depends on the usage -- whether the new connotation catches on."

Jong warned it wouldn't be easy. "My feeling is that we're on the verge of reclaiming '****,' a fine old Middle English word, but we're not there yet with 'pussy,'" said Jong. "Pussy remains humorous, if not insulting. At the moment pussy is a laugh word. It always gets them rolling on the floors in 'Vagina.'"

Jong suggested I go to the vagina mama herself, Ensler, to ask her advice.

"I like the sound of 'pussy,'" Ensler told me, smiling. "I think it's a good word."

She agreed that it's different from ****. "A **** is someone who dreams the big dream. You are ambitious. You want to go the distance." Hillary Rodham Clinton, she told me, is a ****.

Pussy, she said, is more personal. "Pussy is wet, juicy and inviting. It could be used as a word of empowerment or honor. It's a feisty word. There's a little fear, a little danger there -- you better be nice if you want my pussy."

Pussy has so much potential, it's a shame to limit it to the immature and derisive mocking of weak boys. Let's give it a shot in the arm! I envision hit songs featuring "pussy" -- "Who Let the Pussies Out?" or "The Real Slim Pussy" or "The Real Shady Pussy." Hallmark-type cards that read "Thanks for being such a pussy!" Colloquial expressions: "You da pussy!" "Stand up and fight like a pussy!"

And when, and if, Joe consummates his next business deal, I'll be there to toast him, saying, "You're so pussy."

Flattered, he'll smile.

heehee I'm going to die if I don't stop laughing...thanks for posting that article! They have a good point -- you can't beat pussy. That might even be a good rallying cry for the pussy power movement -- "You can't beat Pussy!"

Yes. Mostly, it's messy <giggles>. But cool. Quite a revelation.



You were lucky. My high school gf didn't. And while my second lover did, she was after a point helpless herself about how to get it to yield the desired effects, let alone being able to show me ... So I was in my twenties before I got to enjoy its full, err, capacities. Luckily I had a lover 3, 4, 5, ...

I am kinda more prone to listen to my ovaries, but we have a love-hate relationship.

HAHA!

An ex called the clitoris a man-in-a-boat, which he would proceed to try and dump out of the boat. But, I felt a little odd thinking of the fisherman being a man. Shouldn't he (the man ina boat) have been a she?

Does it actually talk?

I mean... if you were to name it, would you assign it a name or listen to what it has to say first, so it would tell you it's name?

Or is it not really a separate cartoon character to you, like the mens fun puppet?

But if you basically ignore it ... what would Mrs. Freud say about that? And why don't we ever hear from Mrs. Freud?

MMore like this,Dag:
or

Code.... of course it doesn't talk, does your penis talk? I mean without you pulling the strings, so to speak? I certainly don't ignore it, but it doesn't really have it's own name either.

Mrs Freud was not encouraged to speak in the public domain - but Anna Freud did.

Not sure what she had to say about the vagina - but it may have been that she perpetuated her father's myth about the "mature" vaginal orgasm, and its superiority to the "immature" clitoral....

Deb - can you expound on the subject?

Of the "different" orgasms?