POWER TO THE PUSSY Why should we be afraid or uncomfortable with the word ‘pussy’? Why is female anatomy thrown about as an insult? Where is the respect?
WORDS BY JESSIE DAHER
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s a writer, linguistics and etymology have long fascinated me. Language is powerful, evoking powers to create, build, reinforce or deconstruct. Whether it’s in 140 characters online, or in our everyday vernacular, words are the innocuous framework upon which a society hangs. It makes sense then, that many movements have focused on changing the words people use in order to reframe a social issue. I try to use language in a conscientious way, to use words which convey cultural and gender respect. As a feminist, I think it’s important to take back words, words such as “bitch” and “cunt”, to explore their origins and to vanquish their power. And then, there’s “pussy”. When I first heard this innocuous term, sometime around middle school, I thought it was a cute and funny word, referring to “pussy cats”, and I giggled at it’s use. It was my 9th grade boyfriend, who noted my lack of slang savvy and undertook to clarify my miscomprehension. Pussy is another word for vagina, of course, and, subsequently, shouldn’t be flung at your male friends, unless you intended to start a fight. I was baffled. A pussy sounds sound nice, sweet, warm and loving. Why would one not want to be called a pussy? A pussy sounds like it gets stroked, petted, vetted and cooed over all day long. A pussy lounges in the sun and takes luxurious baths. I didn’t exactly understand, even if it did refer to my lady-stuff, why this would be an insulting term to throw at another man. That was the first time it began to dawn on me that men sort of despised lady parts, or at least, that’s how I interpreted this ambivalent and disturbing conversation. If my boyfriend could be so enraged over being called a pussy, and if a pussy was also slang for the equipment I owned…Well, wasn’t he then enraged by what I owned? These were the weird thoughts I harbored as a teenage girl.
ture, the opportunity for saucy entedre was ripe for the picking for the Barrison sisters, or, the vaudeville show that made “pussy” popular. The Barrison sisters were a risqué vaudeville show composed of five sisters from Denmark. They performed in the United States and in Europe between 1891 and 1900, and it’s possible that we have them to thank for the prolific use of “pussy” in our modern day porno. The Barrison sisters had one act that drove the audience wild. In it, all five sisters would dance on stage, titillating the audience, with skirts raised over the knee, and calling out “Would you like to see my pussy?” By the time the audience had reached a hysterical climax, the sisters would pull their skirts all the way up to reveal…a live, mewing kitten secured over their bloomers. Get it? Pussy=pussy. In the end, this article has been a gift to me. Because really, you can only type that word so many times before it begins to look as non-sensical as it really is. From a bewildered youth, to a tough, trying-too-hard adolescent, to now, I see that I’ve actually been able to make peace with the pussy. When I really think about it, I think “pussy” is an absurd name for a strong, evocative image. Female genitals are exciting, expanding-contracting vortexes that bring new beings into the world, and induce mind-shattering physical pleasure. I don’t see pussies as powerless, weak, insubstantial, receptive vessels. Pussies are powerful. The end.
A pussy sounds like it gets stroked, petted, vetted and cooed over all day long. A pussy lounges in the sun and takes luxurious baths.
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Later, I took to hanging out with groups of guy friends, and I found myself using the word pussy in jest without a thought. A pussy to me now meant something weak, detestable and cowardly. We dared each other in drinking games and video games, in taking people to bed, and in driving recklessly. You were a pussy if you didn’t keep up, if you didn’t show bravado and group-think. I wasn’t thinking anymore about pussy’s association with my gender, I just knew it was a great word to use when I wanted to push a guy friend into doing something. These days, I don’t normally think about, or use, the word “pussy” too often. It’s a difficult one for me to pull off in any saucy bedroom talk with sincerity, and it’s not a term a mature, twenty-something uses in any other way, in my opinion. In reality, the term still makes me wince just a little, as do most other slang terms for the vagina. It just feels silly to nickname body parts anything other than what they are, to me. Still, if part of empowerment lies in taking possession of that which has been used despairingly, well then I have decided to “get some pussy” back. Here is what I learned through my furtive, coffee shop Google searches and chai latte drinking: Experts believe that the slang term “pussy”, as used in reference to female genatalia, made it’s way to America via the wave of Germanic immigrants to Wisconsin in the 1800s. In Low German, “puse”, (pronounced puss-E), means “vulva”. Meanwhile, the English slang term “pussy”, in reference to soft and furry things like cats, rabbits and affectionate women, was already in use in the American vernacular. What kismet! Within our heterogeneous American cul-
Fun facts about pussy (-cats and otherwise) : •
A group of cats is called a clowder.
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The plural for vagina is vaginae or vaginas.
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Adult cats possess 30 teeth. Approximately 40,000 people are bitten by cats in the US annually.
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Despite the prevalent myth of vagina dentata, (as portrayed by the 2007 comedy-horror movie Teeth), there is no known case of a vagina capable of biting people. (Though vagina detata is a rare occurrence, it’s nothing like it sounds.)
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Both cats and vaginas are really excellent at self-cleaning.
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Each vagina has it’s own unique smell, reflecting the PH environment of it’s owner. The same can be said of cats. A cat’s scent is essentially it’s “nametag” to other cats in the area.
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A cat is made up of 244 bones.
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Vaginas do not have any bones.
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The clitoris is composed of 8,000 nerve endings, and is arguably the most sensitive area on the human body.
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A cat’s whiskers are made up of a large network of nerve endings, making them highly- sensitive, instruments as well!
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Cats make about 100 different sounds.
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Vaginas, themselves, do not make distinct noises. (This doesn’t mean however that vagina’s are silent all the time!)
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There are approximately 73 million cats in the United States.
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There are approximately 157 million vaginas in the United States.
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The first cat sent into space was a French cat named Felicette in 1963.
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The first vagina sent into outer space was also in 1963, and it belonged to a Russian woman named Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova.