Words

So as you may know, I am a big believer in the power of words - which is why it bothers me we still use the word "hysteria", based on the Greek word for womb, and based on the concept that wombs cause women to be crazy, ie, hysterical. (Was this man's ancient identification for PMS?)

Recently, I had a discussion about "grabbing life by the balls". This is typical of our male, phallocentric society, so I tried to say "grabbing life by the cunt", but my friend pointed out that that's harder to do, from an anatomical viewpoint. I came up with licking life by the cunt, but then a different friend pointed out that that implies one is giving life sexual pleasure, whereas grabbing life by the balls hurts and does not give sexual pleasure, and then we got into an argument on how hard one is presumed to be grabbing when one uses that metaphor. This led into "copping a feel on life" (which a friend came up with) and "teabagging life" (which I came up with) - which, while still male-centered, is focused on a sexual move that can give both men and women pleasure.

Of course, the entire "life has balls" metaphor is problematic, since we all know life is a bitch - our patriarchal society must define anything chaotic as a woman, since woman is untamable, and it scares them. Then again, there is the possibility that the bitch of life is just a drag queen with really good makeup, so (s)he could have balls after all.