SEXIS WRONG

know of any research into genital pet names used by ethnic minorities or
GLBT-identified people. More neat projects—anyone interested?
6. “A Big Gland for the Little Ladies.” Oui, 4.3 (March 1975): 13.
7. Aman, Reinhold, and Friends. “What Is This Thing Called, Love? More
Genital Pet Names.” Maledicta, 5.1+2 (Summer+Winter 1981): 41-4.
8. Private sex slang between lovers can extend far
beyond genital pet names. For one couple, “Do you
need to get a sweater?” meant, “Let’s leave whatever
we’re doing and go back to the house and have sex.”
I ran across many other expressions like wiener roast,
whoopee time, waffles, hoot-nanny, go play. Proust’s
characters Swann and Odette use the phrase “do a
cattleya”—a cattleya is a type of orchid, and the couple’s first sexual
encounter began with Swann adjusting her corsage. Proust’s description
underscores the intimacy and specialness of the phrase for Swann:
...and the [sexual] pleasure which he had already felt [with
Odette]...seemed to [Swann]...a pleasure which had never before
existed, which he was striving now to create, a pleasure—as the
special name he gave it was to certify—entirely individual and
new. (Proust, Marcel. Swann in Love. Trans. C.K. Scott Moncrieff
and Terence Kilmartin. Vintage, 1984: 66-7.)
9. Hollander, Xaviera. Xaviera’s Supersex: Her Personal Techniques for Total
Lovemaking. New American Library, 1976: 134.
10. For a list of “pseudonyms for sex organs” collected from children in
several countries, see Goldman, Ronald and Juliette. Children’s Sexual
Thinking. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982: 210-1. Families and
kids can find these terms fun, useful, and convenient. But everyone also
needs to know terms like penis and vulva and use them when necessary,
such as with health professionals.
11. Personifying the genitals goes much further than simply giving
them proper names: it encompasses themes of talking genitals, genitals
spoken to, genitals acting on their own volition, genitals drawn as
independent beings, and genital gods. These themes show up in sexual
humor, literature (The Satyricon, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Tropic of Capricorn,
Portnoy’s Complaint), mythology (Priapus worship), and graphic arts.
Particularly striking are a delightful series of Japanese prints showing
a Sumo wrestling match between a penis and a vulva, ending with the
penis being engulfed by the vulva—or perhaps diving in (Kronhausen,
Phyllis and Eberhard. The Complete Book of Erotic Art. New York: Bell,
1978; see the reference in note 1 for more examples). A waggish friend
once gave me a “Jumping Jolly Pecker” wind-up toy, made in Hong
Modern erotic-themed Japanese
manga comics may show
personified genitals.
Kong and looking remarkably similar to these drawings. Modern eroticthemed
Japanese manga comics may also show personified genitals.
In Haruka Inui’s Ogenki Clinic, a raunchy and hilarious send-up of sex
therapy, clinic manager Dr. Ogekuri’s penis looks just like him, with
moustache and miniature glasses. One of the clinic’s patients turns out
to be a shiimaru—a woman with a penis. And her penis looks just like her
as well, down to the sultry eyes and long blonde hair, making it indeed a
female penis! (Studio Ironcat, 5(6), 1989; 7(2), 1989.)
12. Goldberg, Herb. The New Male: From Self-Destruction to Self-Care.
Morrow, 1979: 120.
13. Rubin, Jerry, and Mimi Leonard. The War Between the Sheets. New
York: Richard Marek Publishers, 1980: 120.
14. Schor, Linda. “Some Perspectives on the Penis.” Playboy, July 1980:
151, 179, 183-9.
15. Saint Augustine. The City of God (abridged ed.). Garden City, NY:
Image Books, 1958: 315-6.
16. Op cit, Lawrence: 196-7.
17. This story is quoted almost in its entirety to provide the background
leading up to the father’s rueful monolog. His wife no longer came to the
cabin to make merry with the group—sexual and emotional relations had
deteriorated almost completely between them. This was substantiated
in other conversations with the son of “Hank’s” owner.
18. Op cit, Lawrence: 213.
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