What is the name of your sex organs?

Men and women may experience difficulties communicating with each other because they grow up speaking about sex in two different languages.

Almost two hundred college students in the Midwest were asked to write the word or phrase they used to describe the male and female sex organs and sexual intercourse in four different contexts: with others of the same sex, spouse or lover, mixed company, and parents.  the results showed that men used a greater variety of terms and varied them more with different listeners.

With most people, men were inclined to use slang expressions for the genitals, such as "pussy" or "dick".  They also tended to use aggressive or active terms for sexual intercourse.  Woman were more likely to stick to clinical terms for the genitals, such as "vagina" and "penis".  They were more apt to use the phrase "making love" for sexual intercourse, while men used this phrase mostly when speaking with a spouse or lover.  Women had learned fewer terms for the genitals and had a more difficult time talking about their own genitals than had men.

Another study showed that women were also more likely to have learned euphemistic nicknames for their genitals from their parents such as "bunny", "pocketbook", or "Christmas", which might easily become confusing when the meaning of these words changes in another context.

One of the implications of such findings is that parents should be encouraged to teach children the correct anatomical names for genitals so that they will view their sex organs as an equally acceptable part of their bodies as their fingers and toes.