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Oct. 5th, 2013 12:55 pmAnother post of the sort that doesn't make it over to Facebook and Google Plus.
I ended up at the a "glossary of kink" over on Fetlife this morning. As I paged through, I found the below definition of "lingam".
So clearly the second part is meant in jest. I don't even object, necessarily, to it being included. However, I feel like the more legitimately spiritual cultural background of the term (and it's brother term "yoni") ought to be included as well.
Because to me, the importance of having terms like yoni and lingam is to have terms that aren't encumbered by the kind of patriarchal (and other power dynamics) baggage that surrounds terms like cock and pussy, or the clinical detachment that characterizes vagina and penis. And of course yoni and lingam have their own baggage, which mostly that comes from people using in that affected sense of spiritualism as noted in the definition I quoted. But English doesn't really have any connotatively neutral terms for genitalia, and I think lingam and yoni are valid attempts to find terms that can at least stand on their own away from connotations that a writer or speaker might be trying to distance themselves from for any number of reasons.
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Ok, back to helping my girlfriend get ready for her birthday party!
I ended up at the a "glossary of kink" over on Fetlife this morning. As I paged through, I found the below definition of "lingam".
lingam: Hindu/tantric term for the penis; used in writings such as the Kama Sutra. Female equivalent: yoni.(DeFUNition: Employed by writers who want to give an appearance of being mystical or intellectually superior).
So clearly the second part is meant in jest. I don't even object, necessarily, to it being included. However, I feel like the more legitimately spiritual cultural background of the term (and it's brother term "yoni") ought to be included as well.
Because to me, the importance of having terms like yoni and lingam is to have terms that aren't encumbered by the kind of patriarchal (and other power dynamics) baggage that surrounds terms like cock and pussy, or the clinical detachment that characterizes vagina and penis. And of course yoni and lingam have their own baggage, which mostly that comes from people using in that affected sense of spiritualism as noted in the definition I quoted. But English doesn't really have any connotatively neutral terms for genitalia, and I think lingam and yoni are valid attempts to find terms that can at least stand on their own away from connotations that a writer or speaker might be trying to distance themselves from for any number of reasons.
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Ok, back to helping my girlfriend get ready for her birthday party!
