Vagina

2003-01-22 - 6:49 p.m.

I was on my way out, when I realized I forgot something and had to come back to the office anyway. I had a meeting that annoyed the shit out of me, and I feel the need to bitch about it.

Here's the background: You all know that I'm the social coordinator for AChEGS. Well, as social coordinator I am to plan social events. I also happen to know that a production of The Vagina Monologues will be happening on campus come February. Since it is a tremendously wonderful show, I thought it would be a great thing to invite the department to.

Well, it was just brought to my attention that some people have a problem with my using the word 'vagina' in e-mails that go out to the department. They apparantly feel that it is inappropriate and shouldn't have to read it. Mind you, I am not mad at the bearer of this news, but the news itself. This bothers me both as an engineering student, a person in general and especially as a woman.

Why should this bother me as a student of engineering discipline? Because I sent the message about the show to only other students or professors of said engineering discipline. Folks, 'vagina' is a clinical term. If you have a Ph.D. or on your way to earning one, you should be able to handle the use of clinical terms. Some of us folks have them, the rest (hopefully) have accessed a few in their day. It is a word commonly used on The Discovery Channel, The Health Channel, and on The Learning Channel. You come across the word 'vagina' in medical journals. In fact, if I do a SciFinder search on the word 'vagina' I come across 28,569 references containing "vagina" and 80,020 references containing the concept "vagina". Therefore, it is my personal contention that any professor/student of a technological discipline who probably uses SciFinder as an important tool in their research (which is probably every faculty member or student in this department) should be mature enough to see a clinical word such as 'vagina' (or 'penis', 'menstruation', 'anus', 'prostate', etc) in print without blushing or, even worse, flipping a shit.

The show is NOT called "Twat Talks", "Cunt Conversations", "Pussy Parlay", "Box Banter", "Cootie's Calling", "Labia Lingo", "Flower Power", "Clit Chat" (hehehe...my personal favorite), "Whisker Biscuit Bonanza", "Fishy (or Fish Taco) Dish", or any other very clever, yet sort of vulgar title I can come up with. Those I can see as offensive, though no more offensive if they included words such as dick, cock, rod, shaft, thunder stick, jimmy, etc. But it angers me as a woman that the word that clinically describes one of the parts of me that defines me as a woman could cause SO much discomfort. Those who are offended are the narrow-minded, misogynistic ignorami who I feel really NEED to see The Vagina Monologues.

So you've read how this bothers me as an engineering student and as a woman, but as a person, this bothers me in the sense that it makes me ashamed to be human. I am ashamed of my fellow person for being so narrow minded, for being so afraid of a clinical word. It's like finding word 'urination' offensive. Heh - wouldn't it be great if Urinetown made it to Tech and I invited the department to go? I wonder if the shit would hit the fan in the same way. I'm guessing not. Men are not afraid of 'piss' the way they are afraid of 'pussy'.

So, if you're offended by my rant, well, fuck you. That's right, I'm not going to apologize. Vagina, vagina, vagina. I have a vagina. I am proud of that fact. I love owning a vagina - I find it to be very empowering. I will most assuredly be touching my vagina at some point in the near future - both for hygeine AND pleasure purposes (though not at the same time).

VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA

On that note, it's time to get home so I can make some dinner, watch some television, and attend to my vagina.