Harper's Weekly
Here's a snippet from the email newsletter of surprising media snippets, Harper's Weekly.
The New York Times Style section published a feature on the rise of the term "vajayjay" to describe female genitalia. "The reason that vajayjay has caught on, I think, is because there is a black--Southern especially--naming tradition, which is to have names like Ray Ray and Boo Boo and things like that," said John H. McWhorter, a linguist at the Manhattan Institute. "It sounds warm and familiar and it almost makes the vagina feel like a little cartoon character with eyes that walks around." In Johannesburg a contestant on the reality-TV show Big Brother Africa was caught on camera digitally penetrating an unconscious female housemate and then, after heeding the pleas of another female contestant to desist, sitting alone sniffing his fingers. The contestant explained his behavior by telling his fellow housemates, "Well, this is Africa." British police documents revealed that the DNA of suspects accused of crimes such as picking wildflowers or defacing coins will be stored for life in a national database.Link | Subscribe to Harper's Weekly email list
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"vajayjay"
The first time I ever heard this stunning word was on the Oprah Winfrey Show...uttered by Oprah Winfrey! Yow!
Language (in America at least) seems to get cuter and/or more child-like every day
Wow, I didn't know Africa was the Wild Fucking West. No laws! Anarchy! Do whatever you feel like! So does this mean if I go to South Africa and beat this fucker with a baseball bat until he's in a coma, I won't get in trouble? Because I have a lot of vacation time coming to me.
"Vajayjay?" That's news to me. Well, at least now I'll know what someone is talking about should I hear it. Now, about the guy in S.Africa...he's a piece of 'you know what' - a disgusting prick. Please, spare me anymore details.
One should acutally read the rest of the freakin' magazi as well. Arguably the best in print even though it isn't quite as good now as it was when Lewis Lapham was the editor.
I love the word "vajayjay." There are so many derogatory words for vagina and this one is so inviting.
The bit about the British police seemed a bit odd till I followed the link and saw it was part of an unrelated story. May be more accurate (and less of a non-sequitur) to remove "British police documents revealed that the DNA of suspects accused of crimes such as picking wildflowers or defacing coins will be stored for life in a national database. " from the quoted text above.
As an unrelated comment, vajayjay puts an image of the American Idol contestant Sanjaya in my head. I prefer not to have that picture in my mind when thinking about or referring to my wifes 'special place'....
"Vagina" is a very warm-sounding word anyway, I don't know why you would want to replace it with "vajayjay" unless it was illegal to say "vagina" or something.
One word I'd like to use is Ali G's "punani" which has a nice exotic sound to it, but I've no idea if it's a real word or how offensive it is. I'd hate to find it's the swahili equivalent of the c-word rather than the v-word.
Given that I can think of about fifteen euphemisms for 'vagina' off the top of my head, I doubt we need more - especially cutesy ones. There is nothing cutesy about mine.
Maybe this is happening in Tee Vee land, but Google trends has only kicked in since web sites started posting about magazines writing about it.
http://www.google.com/trends?q=vajayjay&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0
As much as I love the distinctive phlow of Harper's Weekly Reviews, this particular snippet made me feel as though I'd ingested some "colourful craft beads that are joined together to create designs."
As I understand it, "vajayjay" was coined by the writer(s) for Grey's Anatomy because the network (or the FCC) wouldn't allow them to say vagina as much as they wanted to. So they use vajayjay instead. It caught on.
This was covered by the Onion's AVClub in Amelie Gillette's Hater Column on the 29th of October:
http://www.avclub.com/content/hater/what_does_vajayjay_mean_to_you
I, for one, share Amelie's enraged bewilderment at the need/desire to use that word.
More on the Big Brother Africa alleged sexual assault (not so clear cut it seems) at:
http://www.thetimes.co.za/Entertainment/Article.aspx?id=600763
KK Juggy of defunct Australian band Machine Gun Fellatio actually did put cute little googly eyes on her vagina (well, technically at the top of her public hair), and would dance naked on stage while the muppet show theme played.
It seems very clear cut, Poptart. He sexually assaulted a woman. What wasn't clear cut for you?
Megsy,
As much as I love Harpers, their pithy round-ups can be too glib.
I haven't seen the footage in question, but there have been several articles on it in the local papers. Some have suggested that the encounter was fully consensual (if drunken) until the time that she passed out, at which point, apparently , he stopped. (as I said, I haven't seen the footage). He then went on to have fully consensual sex with the OTHER woman, who pulled him over to her, in the same bed.
It's further complicated in that the two were already having a sexual relationship.
As yet, she hasn't pressed charges. Or maybe that should be she hasn't pressed charges or filed a complaint.
We'll see what happens, especially after she sees the footage in question.
That DOESN'T mean that it WASN'T sexual assault just because they'd had sex before. Rape is rape and sexual assault is sexual assault whatever has happened previously (rapes happen in marriages too) And, it goes without saying that if someone is unconscious, it's automatically non-consensual.
I've written several stories on rape and the sexual offences courts in South Africa, which has one of the highest rape rates in the world. It's a horrifying and devastating violation one in four women in this country will experience.
I take sexual assault very seriously.
What I was drawing attention to is that this story is more complicated than the open-and-shut case Harpers presented in one short and snappy line.
But then maybe sexual assaults are often complicated, affected by warped cultural values (that bullshit miniskirt-meant-
she-was-asking-for-it defence), gender issues and the complexities of relationships and sex.
And this messy ugly and very public incident (consensual or not) should be used to open discussions, to debate, to educate.