[lbo-talk] language

Eric Beck rayrena at realtime.net
Sun Jul 9 22:57:02 PDT 2006



>Sooo...what do you call a boy infant's genital package, assuming
>that's the word/phrase he will probably pick up? "Penis" sounds too
>clinical; "cock," too sexual; "wee-wee," too goofy.

Weird. I was just thinking about our choices a few hours ago. We opted for "penis" and "vagina." I didn't care for the sterility of the words either, but they sidestep both the baby-talk and the slangy, which lives too close to the derogatory. Plus they don't sound quite so clinical coming from a two-year-old.... Oh, and I hate baby-talk. Never could do it. The experience of seeing too many people still talking to six-year-olds as if they were standing over them at the changing table put me off it. I made up for it with crazy facial movements, singing, dancing, and lots of physical comedy. They're almost six and almost four now and don't appear to have suffered much trauma from my failure to treat them like newborn kittens.



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