This came from something I saw on the TV a couple of days ago. It concerned a lady refiring to her vulva as her Tutu. It was used for comic effect, so it worked ok. I have read scripts when that doesn’t work well. I have heard women’s genitalia referred to as twinkle, Frufru, most hated of all “lady garden”. Men’s genitalia doesn’t fare much better, I have had scripts where the writer has referred to the humble penis as, willy, wang, trigger. The lists go on and on. It can be problematic. If you use the medical terminology it can sound cold in a lovemaking scene. for example, he slipped his penis into her vagina, feels a bit clinical. Not much romance there, not much feeling or emotion. Stronger Anglos-Saxon might be too much, for a tender romance, but surely there must be some middle ground? I worked with an author who had a real aversion to naming the lady genitalia. It read something like, his rod stirred her honeypot, which sounded more like organizing breakfast than a love scene. I feel that using a pet name for genitalia really breaks the mood of any scene unless you are going comic effect, though I have never found that works well.
Another related topic, I was talking to a BVS author the other day who is coming to the end of her edits, her book will be out shortly. We were talking about repetitive expression in sex scenes. As in needing different words for the same piece of genitalia. I offered her a suggestion, a book that was given to me by a Swedish journalist friend. It is called Bald-headed Hermit and Artichoke: An Erotic Thesaurus by Peterkin, A.D. published by Arsenal Pulp Press
Anyone working as an author in romance, or erotic romance, or indeed erotica, this is a great book and well worth getting a copy.
I would love to hear your views, thoughts, and stories you might like to share, on the blog, Facebook or Twitter.
A Woman’s Secret by C.L. Koch is now available, along with the new book from, Gabriella Hewitt Out of the Shadows