Sign of the Times

The New York Times is not noted for liberated language. A search of a database revealed a mere 479 stories that mention vagina (as opposed to 659 that mentioned penis). Most of the references were theater listings for The Vagina Monologues, or reviews of plays that tried to cash in on the success of The Vagina Monologues. Several stories detailed the lunacy of New Jersey officials who forbade students to use the word "vagina" in a high school production of The Vagina Monologues. Other mentions: a review of the film Teeth that follows a teenaged girl who discovers she has vagina dentate; a review of a performance artist who reads from a little scroll pulled from her vagina; a book review of short stories that listed opening sentences ("I did not mean to sodomize Dick Cheney" and "My vagina was a gift from Jesus"); a director who made a videotape of her vagina saying hello in 11 languages; and the successful defense of a gay man named in a paternity suit ("In my entire 45 years of living I have never seen a vagina in person," he argued).