“The correct word is vagina.”
… except it isn’t.
First things first, lads – the vagina is everything inside of the body in that area. The vulva is everything that is outside of the body in the area, and also the opening to the vagina.
Good? Good.
In fairness, it’s not difficult to see where all of the confusion once arose from.
As kids, we’re taught that boys have penises and girls have vaginas – and that’s it. Nothing about vulvas, very little about the cervix, and hardly anything about the labia until we hit puberty and sex ed becomes a thing (well, sort of).
You can’t really blame people for getting a little mixed up from time to time.
But you can blame them for refusing to admit that they messed up a bit – especially when they go off and try to mansplain the whole concept of the vagina to a literal gynaecologist.
Honestly.
This all went down when The Guardian shared a photo long form piece entitled ‘Me and my vulva: 100 women reveal all.’
Me and my vulva: 100 women reveal all https://t.co/KkiSDc2bjm
— The Guardian (@guardian) February 9, 2019
The piece featured 100 photos of 100 vulvas and chatted to the people who owned them.
It received a generally very positive response on Twitter, but the standout comment that made it to the top of everybody’s timeline was, of course, the guy who said: “The correct word is vagina.”
Oh, Paul. It’s not, honey.
The correct word is vagina.
— Paul Bullen (@paulbullen) February 10, 2019
Lots of people told him so too – including a literal gynaecologist who produced a handy diagram to explain the difference between the vagina and the vulva.
Paul was having none of it though, and proceeding to justify his use of the word.
So @paulbullen here is where you mansplained to me — the correct use for the article was vulva, the common use vagina could not have applied here as it was specifically about loving vulvas and not a general lower repro tract article pic.twitter.com/1Cx7PTnJTN
— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) February 11, 2019
He argued that he was speaking about “ordinary language” where people tend to refer to that part of the body as a ‘vagina’ in common speak.
However, the article was about the vulva and not the vagina, clearly, so Paul in this case, is wrong.
Take a look at his Twitter page to see just how unwilling his he is to accept defeat, as he seems to have replied to every single tweet he received since responding to The Guardian.
Just give it up, man.
