Girly Parts

(This is my reply to a post in vaginapagina about not calling girlparts by cute nicknames like "girly bits." I'm just rather happy with the way it turned out so I'm sharing.)

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Sorry, but I have to respectfully (but firmly) disagree with you. Here's why:

A large part of my job is running a six session HIV/STD/Substance Abuse prevention workshop with high risk teens and young adults. One of the first things I do is invoke the "comfortable language rule." In everyday life, many people don't use the technical language for their genitalia, and I'd much rather have people be able to ask the questions they need answered than feel restricted to using the correct terminology. And I revew the correct terminology, and do an exercise in anatomy with each group. I also have them tell me the words they might use for body parts. It familiarizes me with what I might hear (although it's repetitive, since I keep hearing the same ones) and it allows the group I work with the become comfortable talking about sex and sexuality.

Simply put, expecting everyone to know and use technical language means that there may be quite a few questions that don't get answered, or people who have similar or the same questions who may not understand exactly what the first question or the responses are saying.

And in a community of women, ownership of our own bodies is paramount. And that includes being able to call them what we like.

TMI Chatter

Friday lunches are often a departmental affair-those of us who are out of the office a lot during the week and sometimes miss the everyday lunches often join on Friday. This means we're even more strange and loud than usual. (Often a reason to stay in for lunch, as opposed to being in public and all that. Not that it means we reign it in much.)

Today's topic..

"The anatomy of pleasure"

Use your wild imagination.

( or let me fill in the blank: )

Snow Day!

I woke up at 6:45 yesterday, as usual, looked out my window and ignored my alarm (though I did listen to NPR as I drifted) until 7:22, when my cell phone, which was in the other room began to ring. It was my boss, letting me know that our office was closed!


Yay for snowdays.

I took a long walk outdoors after the snow stopped. I played in the snow with a woman who had never seen snow before. I took Beta out. He disapproves of snow. I made comfort food. I tried to fix my computer...it's too sick for me to fix.

I also watched "And the Band Played On" and drew an important comclusion. If I keep doing what I'm doing at work, at the frenetic pace I'm going, I'm going to kill myself. Simply put, I won't be able to keep going. So I'm going to slow down. I'm still bad at putting it aside, at letting go when I need to, but I'm going to think about that more.

And I think going back to school is the right thing. I had some serious conversations about it when I was home for Thanksgiving. My parents support the decision, my Mom thinks I should be teaching. And I like the idea of staying connected to my passions...HIV, adolescent sexuality, glbt issues, women's health stuff, but still having a chance to do it in a different way. The being in the trenches is hard work, and I'm glad I'm doing it, but there will be a torch-passing time. Emotionally I'm prepared for that-but I'm not sure I'm prepared for what it means careerwise, etc.

It's an interesting time early December. I'm amazed at the fact that I've been at this job nearly a year. (It'll be a year next week...yay for annual evaluations and perhaps raises.) More on that later, but I need to water plants and get going. It's the weekend.

Oh, and my computer is toast at home...so I probably won't be online again til Monday at work. Have a good weekend and if I don't answer you, it's nothing personal.