Anatomy lesson

Lately I've been seeing this a lot, on blogs, on lj, in emailed quotes, I've overheard it in hallways, and I just read a quote* from Sharon Stone (who is definitely old enough to know better!) on the IMDB that did it too. And it bugs the heck out of me. "It" being women (and men) using the word 'vagina' when they mean 'mons pubis' or 'vulva.' Yes, both 'vagina' and 'vulva' start with 'v' and end with 'a' but you will note that there are different letters between them.

A woman's vagina is INSIDE her body, and you cannot easily see it unless your face is in her crotch and/or you have a speculum. (If you need a visual illustration here's a link.) (sorta NWS)

So if some woman is wearing a miniskirt and no panties and she bends over and flashes everyone behind her, you are not seeing her vagina, you are seeing her vulva, or labia. If you're in front of her and she flashes you, you're mostly likely seeing her mons pubis, or again, vulva which is a good catchall term for a woman's external genitals. Another good generic term for genitals is 'pudenda' which according to the dictionary can be used for men or women but tends to be used mostly for women these days.

* The quote was: "I knew that we were going to do this leg crossing thing and I knew that we were going to allude to the concept that I was nude, but I did not think that you would see my vagina in the scene."