Penis: The forbidden word that little Johnny must not use
" When God made little boys, He made them out of string. He
found he had a bit too much so he left a little thing. "
Recently I was faced with a question that got me thinking and
pondering why is it that parents tell their children penis is a
bad word. Is the word penis really bad? No the word penis is not
a bad word; just children say it at the impropriate times. I
once sent an email to a man concerning his poetry and invited
him to take a look at the todays-woman.net website. In my email
I used my somewhat warped sense of humor. I used the word penis
in terms to the emails we receive in our inbox that are spam. I
told him that he needed not worry I was just inviting him to
check out my website, that I was not sending him any spam email
to enlarge his penis or that he was approved for a home
mortgage.
Everybody gets spam be it Viagra, porn sites, penis enlargement,
breast enlargement etc. So when I quoted this in my email I was
shocked to receive an email back that the man judged me for
using profanity. His email quoted "I am not happy with
vulgarity. If you want to use it, fine, but that precludes me
from your site." I went through my entire email to see what word
he could have viewed as vulgarity. The only word that I used was
penis. So that brings me to my question, is penis a bad word?
How much damage is being done to our children when we say no
Johnny do not say penis, bad word Johnny. Should we not teach
our children that penis is not a bad word but there are certain
times we should not use it in? It only becomes bad if associated
with name calling like penis head"
According to Webster's 1913 dictionary penis means: The male
member, or organ of generation. So are we living in that close
minded of a society that we judge an entire website and one
persons character on the bases they used the word penis?
My reply to this man's email:
Are you referring to my use of the word penis in an email? I
understand that you are a grown man and you do in question have
a penis. However my email in no way was meant as profanity or
vulgarity. I used the word as a joke towards the spam emails we
receive on a daily bases to enlarge organs of our body or home
loans or other spam emails. I'm guessing as a grown man you do
not call your penis a peepee or do you? I most certainly
apologize if I offended you however I find no offence in the
word penis.
Now if this was not bad enough six months later the webmaster of
an Ezine website that will remain nameless is censoring my views
based on the word penis. He told me personally that he did not
have a problem with the fact that I used penis in my article
that discussed family values however maybe we could remove them
from the website and I could submit them when the website had
more articles coming through. Therefore he was censoring my
writing all because of the word penis. Now he has apologized and
is begging me to come back. I don't know I mean if he is going
to get uptight over my use of the world penis in future articles
I may write; should I submit my content there? I don't know
about you but in my house the word penis is not a bad word. Bad
words are the words that we use to hurt one another. A common
word that describes the male member can not compare to the
powerful painful outcome brought on by bad words that we throw
around to hurt one another. I would never scold my son or
daughter for using the word penis in reference to the male
organ. Could you imagine saying "Now little Johnny don't ever
let me hear you using that word penis again. " "Johnny you call
it a weewee you hear me? " Why is it that we are teaching
children that the word penis is a bad word?
Curious about how many parents allowed their children or
grandchildren to say the word penis I asked 648 adults if their
children would be scolded for saying the word penis and if they
were ever scolded as a child for using the word penis in
reference to the male organ.
One Mother replied, my daughter is 2, so we call a penis a
"pee-pee". In my home growing up, my folks were very strict. I
was not allowed to say the word at all. I was raised to believe
that sex was dirty and bad. Glad I outgrew that. One gentleman
replied in the early 60's you never said penis lol it was like a
dirty word. Another gentleman replied my children were never
taught to say um the p- word lol. I am even having trouble
saying as an adult we say wee wee or just or private thing. Some
said they did not use the word penis in their household as a
child because it was taboo but have brought up their children to
use the proper name for body parts. The largest majority of men
and women surveyed had no problem with the word penis and it was
not a taboo subject in their house as a child or is it a taboo
subject now.
In my opinion the word penis is proper. There are words thing
that you could call it that would be classified as obscene. In
my household we have always be open and honest with our
children. My son has known since the age of seven where babies
come from so words like vagina and penis is no mystery. As a
parent I think we all need to give our children reliable
accurate information as their questions arise about sex and not
bring them up to be adults who are not comfortable with the word
penis.
In conclusion I will just say mom's and Dad's think about it
next time you tell little Johnny that the word penis is really a
bad naughty word how it will affect him as an adult and how it
might affect the people around him. Also on a serious note if
the word penis makes you uncomfortable and you associate it with
being dirty maybe it is time that you talked to a professional
about it. Now everyone say it with me. When God made little boys
he made them out of string he found he had too much so he left a
little thing and we call that a Penis.