- A couple of our favorite ladies were interviewed in a couple of great lady blogs this week: Chris Bobel spoke with Adina Nack of Girl with Pen about her new book, New Blood: Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation (Rutgers University Press, 2010), and Shameless interviewed Madeleine Shaw and Suzanne Siemens of Lunapads.
- Dr. Petra Boynton pointed us to this engaging discussion of the seemingly endless debates over usage of the word vagina, noting that often “those who feel it doesn’t matter what we call sex, our genitals, or experiences are already in a privileged place.”
- Our Bodies, Our Blog rounds up the news about tenofovir gel, a vaginal microbicide that has the potential to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS through sexual contact.
- Ms. Magazine’s Blog points out that Sarah Palin’s animal role model, the mama grizzly, is pro-choice. (Sarah Palin is not pro-choice.)
I think I get the vagina thing now – from the article, the vagina is a penis analog – a vagina is the women’s penis. So if the penis is normative, then women don’t have to feel like the “other” anymore – because we have penises too! Except when women have them, they’re called vaginas!
What I picture in my mind: Glenn Beck’s (yes, Glenn Beck’s) chalkboard, commandered by some savvy smart feminists, and they draw a BIG PICTURE of the female reproductive system, the whole thing, with the fimbria, and aren’t round ligaments involved also? I’m a medical transcriptionist, so I know there are a lot of different parts, and they all have names…
Then, somebody comes along with an eraser, and they erase everything except THE VAGINA.
The issue isn’t just about the word “vulva,” or being anatomically correct. Though I can remember a really beautiful poem about a woman masturbating, and I believe it had the word vulva in it, and it was a beautiful, and beautifully written poem. Molly Peacock? Not sure who the poet is now…I like the word vulva, it brings to mind involuted, and convolvulus, which is the latin name for lovely morning glories… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolvulus – also did you know the ear is considered an “invagination” in the body also?
And why is it millions thrill to the latin (or latin-flavored) language in Harry Potter – but when it comes to genitalia, all of a sudden latin is an unappealing unsexy language?
Okay: So if vagina is the female analog of the male penis, then what is the male analog of the female uterus? Uh, er…the brain? Women have babies and men have ideas…so women have uteri to have babies and men have brains (those really powerfully analytical male brains!) to have ideas…this is a pretty traditional idea, that feminists have battled against forever….”then along came Eve”
hmmmm…..it’s like there are a lot of strings attached to PVT (Preeminent Vagina Theory), and so many of them lead right back to privileging male bodies…and minds….
Sign Me,
Vagina Agnostic