From Fresh Air from WHYY, on National Public Radio
Taboo Revival: Talking Private Parts In Public Places
By Geoff Nunberg
It was one of those moments when anatomical correctness and cultural correctness come head-to-head. The Michigan Legislature was debating a bill that prescribes sweeping new restrictions on abortion, and Democratic state Rep. Lisa Brown was speaking in passionate opposition. In concluding, she said, "I'm flattered that you're all so interested in my vagina, but 'no' means 'no.'"...
But then, "vagina" makes a lot of people uncomfortable. On the Web, you sometimes see it written with dashes or asterisks. Or sometimes it's even followed with "pardon my French," which is ordinarily an apology you tack onto an Anglo-Saxon word, not a Latin one.
Call it the New Reticence — a distaste for explicit discussions of sexual matters in public, even in the most antiseptic terms....