![]() While most of the quotation evidence for this entry describes the horror associated with this symbol, a modern quotation added during the revision process mocks and debunks it in a woman’s words: “2013 G. No concept captures the fear of female sexuality better than the myth of the “vagina dentata”, or toothed vagina. The missing element of female pleasure has now been added to the entry, based on up-to-date evidence: “2010 Cosmopolitan Every inch of the labia, vulva and clitoris is filled with a gazillion tingly nerve endings.” There’s a tension, then, between the OED’s duty to reflect apparently misogynist usages and definitions, and the role of the researcher to seek out examples that recontextualise and diversify the evidence. The vast majority was in medical texts, which either treated female anatomy as something alien that needed to be discovered by objective male examination, or described it in a state of disease or rupture. The OED’s Emily Gray commented on “how difficult it was to find any evidence of women referring to their own bodies. It is not only the definitions but also the quotation evidence that must be addressed. This issue is particularly acute in the case of female sexuality, which has long been viewed with a mixture of fear, disgust and salaciousness. Having said that, it is also the job of today’s lexicographers to redress the cultural bias portrayed in earlier editions. It never comments on how a word should be used, and if a term is employed in a way that is derogatory to a certain group, the OED must reflect that. ![]() That is not least because the OED aims to show as accurately and fully as possible the way a word is used, from its first entry into the English language up to the present day. It would be an understatement to suggest that entries such as vagina, as well as more recondite terms ( vaginated, vulviform and clitoridectomy) pose an interesting challenge for modern editors. The clitoris, for example, is now: “The female genital organ located in the anterior part of the vulva, which contains numerous nerve endings and plays a major role in sexual arousal and pleasure in women.” And the most recent OED online update includes an intriguing group of words: names for, and terms relating to, the female genitals. So began months of collaboration with the OED team on coming up with new definitions.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |