Category: 
Oh Oprah…What is wrong with you!
On May 21, 2007 the Oprah Winfrey Show featured Dr. Oz, a medical doctor who claims he’ll give you straight information that mixes Eastern and Western medicine.
They talked about penis fishes, early puberty & gut worms but when it came time to discuss female anatomy rather than discussing the vulva, clitoris or vagina, Oprah & the doctor both referred to it as “the vajayjay”.
What the hell is up with that?
Which of these words doesn’t belong:
Penis Testicles Breast Vajayjay
Having pet names for your anatomy is fine, but when you’re having a medical show that uses all of the other proper terms, using “vajaja” leads one to believe that somehow penises are a-ok but vaginas and vulva’s are not.
If you read their message board you’ll see other questions to Dr.Oz using the term “vajayjay” this is horrid!
Apparently, Greys Anatomy had something to do with the popularization of vajayjay’s everywhere.
I recently found this quote posted on wordspy:
And then there’s Grey’s Anatomy, which features doctors, medical drama and a whole heap of sexy stuff involving those doctors. You’d think that certain allowances could be made. Still, creator Rhimes told us that she was obliged to create the word “vajayjay” for “vagina” in scripts because of endless hassle with the [Standards & Practices] department. “They told me we couldn’t say ‘vagina’ one more time in our show.” Now, of course the word “vajayjay” has entered the popular lexicon among female fans of the show.
—John Doyle, “Why Housewives don’t show nipples,” The Globe and Mail, January 23, 2007
Note that the word penis is used on that show quite liberally.
Believe it or not someone has actually bought the domain OprahsVaJayJay.com. Oprah’s Vagina has yet to be heard from.
Recently:
-
No related posts
Comments
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 9:36 pm and is filed under Good Topics, Politics, Bloggers, Wildchyld. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
When I first heard Oprah use “vajayjay,” I thought it was cute. But when Dr. Oz used it, I realized that it’s one more way to reinforce our society’s conviction that, as you so rightly say, “somehow penises are a-ok but vaginas and vulva’s are not.” Grrr.
When I was on ABC Nightline speaking about senior sexuality (more about this whole experience on my blog at http://betterthanieverexpected.blogspot.com/2006/12/more-on-abc-nightline-show.html), the crew recorded me for hours for a segment that would end up just a couple of minutes. Before the recording, I asked the producer about language, and was told that “clitoris is OK.” I was elated that I could say “clitoris” on national TV! (However, the couple of minutes that actually aired didn’t contain that word, or any sex-specific words.)
Joan Price
Author of Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex After Sixty (Seal Press, 2006, http://www.joanprice.com/BetterThanExpected.htm )
Join us — we’re talking about ageless sexuality at http://www.betterthanieverexpected.blogspot.com
[…] This sorry saga was revealed over at Good Vibrations blog that reveals how a recent guest on Oprah discussed aspects of sex and female anatomy but wouldn’t say the v-word. […]