Sweden = Awesome
Amazeballs!
I stumbled across this article the other day in the Women section of the Huffington Post. Apparently a sex ed group in Sweden decided to do something about the fact that there is no Swedish word for female masturbation, held a nationwide competition, and recently revealed the winner: "klittra," a combination of the Swedish words for clitoris (klitoris) and glitter (glittra.)
From their spokesperson Kristina Ljungros:
"If we don't have a word in the language, how can we even talk about it?"
Well said, my dear, well said.
The sponsoring organization, the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education, is currently lobbying to get klittra added to the official Swedish dictionary. It's not their first time playing with language - in 2010 they translated a Swedish pamphlet combating misinformation about virginity and the hymen, instead using their newly coined English phrase "vaginal corona."
I'd love to see a national competition to create new English words not only for female masturbation, but also for female anatomy and experiences, words that celebrate sexuality, the body, and the feminine. Anyone else? Adding it to my to do list...