Dropping the C-Word

By: Kathleen J. King

When will we stop tolerating all this fear and hatred of women, this unending analysis, parsing and cutting up of women's personalities and bodies? Whether you agree with the use of the C-word or not, it's clear that our culture is deeply afraid of women's power.

The irony of it all is that The Vagina Monologues was written so that women could reclaim and love their bodies. But Jane Fonda's slip of the C-word has taken center stage.
Ensler wrote the monologues based on interviews with hundreds of women who told personal stories of their vaginas. Ensler describes all the names this female body part has been given: including vagina, coochie snorcher, and many others. (And yes, one of her monologues reclaims the word cunt. So what! It's not that revolutionary anymore.)
Just as important, this year is the ten-year anniversary of the first benefit performance of Ensler's play to spread awareness about violence against women and girls. This point was also lost on the media hype! Every year V-Day works with women from different parts of the world to fight this problem. This year V-Day is focused on women in the Gulf South.
The C-word will never replace all the other terms we give it. Here are a few worth mentioning: beaver, camel toes, down there, fern, Garden of Eden, honeypot, joy hole, love purse, mount joy, snatch, whisker biscuit, and vagina! (Admittedly there are more slang terms for breasts, though.)
Vagina is still not an acceptable word to use for many women and men, except by our gynecologists. It was renamed "vajayjay" in an episode of Grey's Anatomy, made popular by Oprah shortly afterward, followed by an article in the New York Times.
In "What's Up Down There," an episode of The Tyra Banks Show, Tyra talks candidly with guests about their vaginas. Ideally "vagina" would have been in the title, but judging that it took her three years to convince her producers to even run what they considered a "controversial" show, it's something.
In her blog she wrote: "Honestly, I don't know why women are so uncomfortable talking about their vagina. I have women on my show who have NEVER gone to the gynecologist. With STDs, ovarian cancer, and so many health issues involving your vagina, you've got to take control and put your health first."
Although I'm not opposed to any of these pet names necessarily (I love language), I can't help asking why must women's bodies continue to be sanitized? Are we afraid of our own sexuality?
Perhaps reclaiming some of these words on our own terms will strip away some of the taboo. But unlike the F-word and even "bitch" to some extent, the C-word remains just too offensive for most. In an interview with the London Independent in 2006, Germaine Greer, who had been an advocate of taking back the C-word in the 1970s, reversed her position somewhat:
"I don't think now that I want the C-word to be tamed. I love the idea that this word is still so sacred that you can use it like a torpedo, that you can hole people below the waterline. You can make strong men go pale. This word for our female ‘sex' is an extraordinarily powerful reminder of who we are and where we came from. It's a word of immense power-to be used sparingly."
At what point will we stop apologizing-and truly embrace the beauty and power of all women?