i've been meaning to link to this for some time now. it's an abstract for an article by harriet lerner called "Practicing`psychic genital mutilation,'" from which i learned an important revision that had to be made to my vocabulary. in her desire to raise "vulva consciousness", lerner reminds us that the name for exterior female genitalia is 'vulva', whereas 'vagina' is interior. thus, she was rather disappointed when going to see 'the vagina monologues' with her husband:
"Here was a play whose purpose was purportedly to restore pride in female genitals--including pride in naming--and it could not have been more confusing about genital reality."
i have to admit that i have always been a bit unsure which is the appropriate word to use at the appropriate time. it takes a burst of bravado to blurt one out (sorry, it's late, and i'm all out of bursts). lerner posits:
"The widespread denial of female external genitalia (and thus of female sexuality, if not female reality) is a subject worthy of serious discourse. It is true that Americans do not excise the clitoris and ablate the labia, as is practiced in other cultures on countless girls and women. Instead, we do the job linguistically-- psychic genital mutilation, if you will. Language can be as powerful and swift as the surgeon's knife. What is not named does not exist."
psychic genital mutilation. hmmmmm. sounds better than just being a terrible prude.
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