Thursday, December 10, 2015

Correcting a Long-held Fallacy

Warning: The contents of this post may be explicit and/or offensive to some and if you’re the type to be offended by the following, you probably aren’t part of the problem.

However, we need to talk about this. The terms “pussy,” “cunt” or any other reference to the vagina as a means of insulting a man are sexist, derogatory and quite frankly, inaccurate. As far as I can tell, most men are in love with vagina. Additionally, the vagina is quite amazing in its capabilities. It is flexible, soft and yet so very strong being able to perform the amazing feat of child birth. We have to fuss over it so much because of cervical cancer, infections, monthly bleeding, fluctuating hormones and they often “take a pounding”. To call someone a pussy with the intent to imply they are a wimp or a coward does not follow any actual logic.

Telling a man that he is a pussy is not an insult to the man—quite the opposite, it’s an insult to me and my vagina.

Conversely, it makes no sense to say that So-and-so “has balls” as a form of complimenting a person for being brave and strong. “That’s ballsy” is a phrase that does not make any sense. Just flick a man’s scrotal area and watch him recoil in agonizing discomfort; it’s hard the picture of brave and tough.

This isn’t a post to say that a woman’s anatomy is better than a man’s anatomy. It is an appeal to insist that we stop using and comparing our body parts as a method of offending or complimenting each other. Really, just stop it.

If you’re inclined to insult someone for a lack of being tough use the words wimp, coward, weakling, scaredy-cat, etc. If you want to commend someone for displaying strength call them brave, bold, daring, fearless, valiant. Make thesaurus.com your friend and expand your vocabulary a tad.


The vagina is strong and resilient and should be recognized as such.

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