The Hoo-ha

My daughter uses anatomically correct language. She calls eyes "eyes", toes "toes" and her vulva, "vulva". According to some people, this makes me a bad parent. My two year old should not know the proper names for all of her parts, goes the thinking. "Hoo-ha" is a much more appropriate term for female genitalia. Or "down there" (a term I have heard shame-faced grown women use, I'm sorry to say). But my daughter definitely shouldn't know the names of THOSE body parts. I've been told it will make her sexually active.

Yes, it's 2007 and female genitalia (come to think of it, Ironflower doesn't know the word genitalia, I'll have to work on that) is still dirty and scary. Especially when a two year old acknowledges it calmly and shamelessly. How depressing.

My mother was way more open about sexuality than her mother was, but I still didn't understand my own anatomy until somewhere in college. And it took having children to be truly comfortable saying "vulva","vagina" and even "penis". And while I admit that Ironflower's (brief) fascination with her brother's penis (which led to demands of watching me change his diaper and announcements that "Lovebug doesn't have a vulva, he has a penis") freaked me out, I hid it.

I don't think any of us need to be ashamed of our body parts. I'm sorry, but calling something by a stupid nickname indicates a certain level of shame. But that shame doesn't prevent people from having sex, does it? All it does is make them too embarassed to go buy condoms. Or to describe exactly what they want it bed.

The people who are uncomfortable with my daughter's terminology tell me that teachers will be appalled by her language. If that's what appalls them about her behavior, then she needs new teachers. These same people claim that it will make her think about sex earlier. Frankly, I think TV, music and hormones will set her down that path - regardless of what she calls her genitalia.