Slog
News & ArtsThursday, July 16, 2009
Housekeeping Overheard in the Office
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Jen Graves [apropos of whatever she's typing]: "Is the relationship between ‘vulva’ and ‘vagina’ the same as the one between ‘square’ and ‘rectangle’? Like if I’m dealing with 30 vaginas, can I also call them vulvas?"
Paul Constant [after some uncertain mumbling]: "Dunno—I’m just a guy and now I want to start masturbating."
Slog: Now (Briefly) 100% Heterosexual!
1
Shouldn't Dan Savage have a usage guide somewhere? It would be the same one with definitions for pegging, etc.
2
Vulva indicates external female reproductive parts, i.e. labia and clitoris.
The vagina is internal.
The vagina is internal.
5
jen, dahling! there's a big ol' blue public art piece or sculpture or something in front of that new building at 5th avenue and yesler way and i swear it looks like something out of transformers by way of claes oldenburg! or something. you must must must check it out sometime then skittle across the street to have lunch with moi. haven't seen you in YONKS!!!
7
Wouldn't the proper pluralization be "vulvae?"
(I started that as a joke question, but now I'm actually wondering.)
(I started that as a joke question, but now I'm actually wondering.)
8
Was Jen Graves (a woman, presumably) actually asking whether a vulva was a type of vagina??? Or the other way around? Because what the fuck.
10
#2 THANK YOU for knowing or Googling the correct answer. Always feel sorry for some straight guy's SO when he says the phrase "hot vagina" (hot to see, not hot temp". "She has a hot vagina." I'll say, how d'ya know? Speculum? Outside = vulva, inside = vagina. How hard is it?
12
Okay, people. Enough. I'm the owner of these things, and many of you are not. It was a linguistic question having to do with categories and whether it's fair to call something that is vulvic vaginal. Which it is. Like it's fair to call a square rectangular. Sheesh.
13
@12 All installments of "Overheard in the Office" should come with a disclaimer: "You had to have been there."
15
YES ALL VULVAS ARE VAGINAL. THEY ARE VAGINA PARTS. THEY ARE, THEREFORE, VAGINAL. THEY ARE NOT VAGINAS AS IN YOU CAN FUCK THEM WITHOUT THE OTHER VAGINA PARTS. WHY ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS. THE SQUARE-RECTANGLE COMPARISON WAS LOOSE AND IT WAS A QUESTION FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.
17
What the fuck? None of the liberated ladies of the Stranger take care of this nice young stud?
Paul, send a complaint to the Office Civil of Rights ... all talk and no walk.
And to the really virile straight guys it is PUSSY, always, often, forever. Paul tell her you like her PUSSY. Want her PUSSY ... beating off at the Stranger for lack of PUSSY, well, well, well, the sham is over it seems.
Sexual Liberation Starts One Person At a Time
Paul, send a complaint to the Office Civil of Rights ... all talk and no walk.
And to the really virile straight guys it is PUSSY, always, often, forever. Paul tell her you like her PUSSY. Want her PUSSY ... beating off at the Stranger for lack of PUSSY, well, well, well, the sham is over it seems.
Sexual Liberation Starts One Person At a Time
19
@15: Sure it was a question. I don't think it calls into question your ownership of and familiarity with these body parts.
Still, the attempt to make the relationship analogous to squares and rectangles (i.e., instance and category) is rather hilariously wrong.
Still, the attempt to make the relationship analogous to squares and rectangles (i.e., instance and category) is rather hilariously wrong.
21
@15
The vulva is not a part of the vagina. It's a totally different part.
In related news, our public schools are squares, and total bullshit is rectangles.
The vulva is not a part of the vagina. It's a totally different part.
In related news, our public schools are squares, and total bullshit is rectangles.
29
@28 - A real journalist wouldn't guess, douche bag (had to throw it in for the sake of the vagina discussion. Yay!)
31
What about the rhombus? The square/rhombus connection seems more relevant than square/rectangle. Seems like I remember "All squares are rhombuses (rhombi? rhombera? rhomboids?) but not all rhombuses are squares." Best wishes.
32
@31: No, again, as has already been repeatedly pointed out, a vagina is not a type of vulva. No vagina is a vulva, and no vulva is a vagina. They are names for two different body parts, like "ear" and "toe," although they happen to be much more closely related. So, it makes no more sense to say that a vagina is a type of vulva than it does to say that an ear is a type of toe.
The apt analogy would be that vaginas are to genitals as squares are to rectangles. The square and rectangle relationship is one of type and category, and vaginas are a type of genital.
Ugh.
The apt analogy would be that vaginas are to genitals as squares are to rectangles. The square and rectangle relationship is one of type and category, and vaginas are a type of genital.
Ugh.
33
@32 Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was totally coming in to make the Vagina : Genitals :: Square : Rectangle argument.
35
A vulva is vulval. Something resembling a vulva is vulviform. Vaginas are vaginal. Separate parts, separate categories. Ladies have one of each.
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