New year, new push on correct terminology🙌
I still hear people on tv programmes, social media and around me calling the vulva a vagina. I know that people reading this are probably up on this stuff-so please encourage the people around you to follow your fantastic example. And if they ask you why it is important? Well here is why…
1. Because IT IS a vulva, not an elbow, leg or vagina!!!
2. If you don’t call it anything you deny it’s existence and send the message to others that it’s something not to be spoken of, which in turn perpetuates feelings of shame or embarrassment
3. Many nicknames for private parts have negative connotations-either really violent or really passive / flowery and LANGUAGE MATTERS!! It sends messages even if you’re not aware of them yet (thinking of children)
4. Giving your children the knowledge around their bodies empowers them. If they are assaulted or abused, they will have the precise language to communicate what happened to them and where
5. On that, if they were trying to disclose abuse and didn’t have the correct language then they may not be able to get their point across and then stop trying, as the adult they’ve told doesn’t understand what they are talking about
6. There is a resistance to talking freely and matter of factly about the vulva and clitoris that simply doesn’t exist when it comes to the penis and testicles. This is testimony to the inequalities in all of our societies and we can all play a part in breaking free of that by using the language correctly and without shame.
It can take us a while to break out of society’s social conditioning-hey, we’ve been sent this messaging all our lives! It takes a concerted effort to use new language in many different situations until it becomes second nature, but I promise you that you’ll be doing yourself and everyone else around you a favour by doing so.
Ps. I know from my own experience that people with a vulva can also cringe/shy away from using the correct terminology but that is just testimony to the depth of our conditioning. I don’t want future generations to be waking up at 40 and realising all this stuff! Let’s teach our kids the right terminology from the get go 👏👏👏