Which synonyms for the female sexual organs are there? And why is it so difficult to express them in public?

One possible answer might be found thousands of years ago. In the bible's creation report, Eve and Adam are seduced by the snake to eat an apple from the tree of knowledge. This forbidden Edenic fruit has several meanings, such as the material world or evil. The consequence of disobedience against God's commandments was that Eve and Adam realized their nakedness and covered their private parts with fig leaves in order to hide them from God. As a result, God expelled the couple from paradise. [1] [2]

This Christian moral concept still seems to be rooted subconsciously in our thinking and acting. However, in other cultural circles sexuality is also considered perverse, dirty and sinful. This shamefacedness is also reflected in the German description of female anatomy. There are the terms "Schamhügel" (literally: hill of shame), used for mons pubis, and "Schamlippen" (literally: lips of shame), used for labia. Additionally, the exterior female genitalia is often called "Scham", shame.

But why should female genitalia be a reason for shame? The fact that derogatory terms have negative effects on women and their sexuality is a concept which only slowly sinks in. Renowned authors and scientists like Naomi Wolf and Christiane Northrup demand the reconsideration of outdated terms. Important sexologists such as Volkmar Sigusch commented on this: [5] [6] [7]

"Even though all expressions which belong to the sexual sphere are problematic, it's important which word we use. (...) Thus, I don't claim it doesn't matter whether we talk about "Schamlippen" (German: lips of shame) or labia" [7]
(translated by Christine Wilhelm)

However, there are many derogatory terms such as twat, pussy, cunt, fanny, gee, cooze, cabbage, punani, snatch, wedge... Some of them even have a nice origin as Mithu M. Sanyal explains in her book "Vulva – die Enthüllung des unsichtbaren Geschlechts" (Vulva – the revelation of the invisible sex). For instance, the word "cunt" is etymologically closely related to "queen" and "country" and originally meant "sacred place".

Nowadays, medical terms like vagina and vulva have gained acceptance. In Latin, vagina means "sheath", and stands for the inner part of the female genital which can absorb the penis. [3]

Other words are strongly trivializing and often stem from fauna, such as little bear, pussy cat, jewel case, cooter and cupcake. These expressions address such childlike aspects as if they wanted to be connected as little as possible with the vagina. [8] [9]

But there are also powerful, erotic paraphrases for the female sex. "Erdbeermund" (strawberry mouth) for example is a word that was coined by the German author Paul Zech in a love poem in 1930. Other terms stem from the Asian region: in Chinese Taoism, the red lotus stands for the vagina. In tantric sexuality, the word "Yoni" is used. And the word "mons veneris" is influenced by Venus, the Roman goddess of love. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

What can be done against present misogynous language structures? A first step could be questioning one's own language use and finding positive names for the female sex.