V is for Vulva
Pussy. Cunt. Vagina, if you want to sound like a 14 year old. “Gash” is simply rude, and any of the supposedly descriptive ones – hairy clam, for example – just seem at best ludicrous and at worst scary. If you use “vajayjay” I forbid you from reading this blog ever again.
Seriously. Just leave.
Me, I like vulva.
Ever since the wondrous Heather Corinna explained to me (with words, you perv, she’s like a sister to me!)(and not that kind of sister, you other perv!) that it makes a difference what kind of word you use when you’re writing erotica. That to say “her vagina throbbed” was only going to be erotic to the less literate; that if you really want to turn on a well-informed mind, find a way to not only use the right word, but find a way to use it erotically.
Meanwhile, it’s amazing how much power the words for this particular organ have. How ridiculous is it that grown men banned a woman from using the word vagina in a public debate about women’s reproductive rights? This is why we can’t have nice things!
“Penis” I can’t do much with. “Pussy” and “cunt” work with dialogue, but usually not with descriptions (except in the first person, and that’s basically dialogue, so it’s cheating). But to talk about a “vulva slick with desire” – ok, out here in the open, it doesn’t sound like much, but trust me, written down? It’s gold.
But if anyone has ever whispered “God you’ve got a hot vulva“, I’ll eat my hat. It just doesn’t work, unless you’re planning on a gigglefest after.
Still. I like the word vulva.
Vulva Bound (Great name for a band)
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Great post! I like vulva as well but scaled down my usage of it in erotic fic after realising a lot of people found it clinical. Personally, I don’t find it clinical – perhaps because it’s so rarely used in a formal context, with vagina being the word that’s regularly misapplied to describe everything ‘down there’.
But vulva – it has so many linguistic echoes for me: velvet, vulgar, plump, bulbous. It’s such a sexy, drowsy, ‘full’ kind of word – if that makes sense! Anyway, you’ve inspired me to start using it erotically again. Thank you!