THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL : THE DEFINITIVE EDITION ... - Fidele

probably never seen a girl up close. To tell you the truth, neither have I. Boys
are a lot easier. How on earth would I go about describing a girl's parts? I can
tell from what he said that he doesn't know exactly how it all fits together. He
was talking about the "Muttermund," [* cervix], but that's on the inside, where
you can't see it. Everything's pretty well arranged in us women. Until I was
eleven or twelve, I didn't realize there was a second set of labia on the inside,
since you couldn't see them. What's even funnier is that I thought urine came out
of the clitoris. I asked Mother one time what that little bump was, and she said
she didn't know. She can really play dumb when she wants to!
But to get back to the subject. How on earth can you explain what it all looks
like without any models?
Shall I try anyway? Okay, here goes!
When you're standing up, all you see from the front is hair. Between your legs
there are two soft, cushiony things, also covered with hair, which press together
when you're standing, so you can't see what's inside. They separate when you sit
down, and they're very red and quite fleshy on the inside. In the upper part,
between the outer labia, there's a fold of skin that, on second thought, looks
like a kind of blister. That's the clitoris. Then come the inner labia, which are
also pressed together in a kind of crease. When they open up, you can see a fleshy
little mound, no bigger than the top of my thumb. The upper part has a couple of
small holes in it, which is where the urine comes out. The lower part looks as if
it were just skin, and yet that's where the vagina is. You can barely find it,
because the folds of skin hide the opening. The hole's so small I can hardly
imagine how a man could get in there, much less how a baby could come out. It's
hard enough trying to get your index finger inside. That's all there is, and yet
it plays such an important role!
Yours, Anne M. Frank
SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1944
Dearest Kitty,
You never realize how much you've changed until after it's happened. I've changed
quite drastically, everything about me is different: my opinions, ideas, critical
outlook. Inwardly, outwardly, nothing's the same. And, I might safely add, since
it's true, I've changed for the better. I once told you that, after years of being
adored, it was hard for me to adjust to the harsh reality of grown-ups and
rebukes. But Father and Mother are largely to blame for my having to put up with
so much. At home they wanted me to enjoy life, which was fine, but here they
shouldn't have encouraged me to agree with them and only shown me "their" side of
all the quarrels and gossip. It was a long time before I discovered the score was
fifty-fifty. I now know that many blunders have been committed here, by young and
old alike. Father and Mother's biggest mistake in dealing with the van Daans is
that they're never candid and friendly (admittedly, the friendliness might have to
be feigned). Above all, I want to keep the peace, and to neither quarrel nor
gossip. With Father and Margot that's not difficult, but it is with Mother, which
is why I'm glad she gives me an occasional rap on the knuckles. You can win Mr.
van Daan to your side by agreeing with him, listening quietly, not saying much and
most of all . . . responding to his teasing and his corny jokes with a joke of
your own. Mrs. van D. can be won over by talking openly to her and admitting when
you're wrong. She also frankly admits her faults, of which she has many. I know
all too well that she doesn't think as badly of me as she did in the beginning.
And that's simply because I'm honest and tell people right to their faces what I
think, even when it's not very flattering. I want to be honest; I think it gets