Penis: The forbidden word that little Johnny must not use - by Rose DesRochers

" When God made little boys, He made them out of string. He found he had a bit too much so he left a little thing. "

Recently I was faced with a question that got me thinking and pondering why is it that parents tell their children penis is a bad word. Is the word penis really bad? No the word penis is not a bad word; just children say it at the impropriate times. I once sent an email to a man concerning his poetry and invited him to take a look at the todays-woman.net website. In my email I used my somewhat warped sense of humor. I used the word penis in terms to the emails we receive in our inbox that are spam. I told him that he needed not worry I was just inviting him to check out my website, that I was not sending him any spam email to enlarge his penis or that he was approved for a home mortgage.

Everybody gets spam be it Viagra, porn sites, penis enlargement, breast enlargement etc. So when I quoted this in my email I was shocked to receive an email back that the man judged me for using profanity. His email quoted "I am not happy with vulgarity. If you want to use it, fine, but that precludes me from your site." I went through my entire email to see what word he could have viewed as vulgarity. The only word that I used was penis. So that brings me to my question, is penis a bad word? How much damage is being done to our children when we say no Johnny do not say penis, bad word Johnny. Should we not teach our children that penis is not a bad word but there are certain times we should not use it in? It only becomes bad if associated with name calling like penis head"

According to Webster's 1913 dictionary penis means: The male member, or organ of generation. So are we living in that close minded of a society that we judge an entire website and one persons character on the bases they used the word penis?

My reply to this man's email:

Are you referring to my use of the word penis in an email? I understand that you are a grown man and you do in question have a penis. However my email in no way was meant as profanity or vulgarity. I used the word as a joke towards the spam emails we receive on a daily bases to enlarge organs of our body or home loans or other spam emails. I'm guessing as a grown man you do not call your penis a peepee or do you? I most certainly apologize if I offended you however I find no offence in the word penis.

Now if this was not bad enough six months later the webmaster of an Ezine website that will remain nameless is censoring my views based on the word penis. He told me personally that he did not have a problem with the fact that I used penis in my article that discussed family values however maybe we could remove them from the website and I could submit them when the website had more articles coming through. Therefore he was censoring my writing all because of the word penis. Now he has apologized and is begging me to come back. I don't know I mean if he is going to get uptight over my use of the world penis in future articles I may write; should I submit my content there? I don't know about you but in my house the word penis is not a bad word. Bad words are the words that we use to hurt one another. A common word that describes the male member can not compare to the powerful painful outcome brought on by bad words that we throw around to hurt one another. I would never scold my son or daughter for using the word penis in reference to the male organ. Could you imagine saying "Now little Johnny don't ever let me hear you using that word penis again. " "Johnny you call it a weewee you hear me? " Why is it that we are teaching children that the word penis is a bad word?

Curious about how many parents allowed their children or grandchildren to say the word penis I asked 648 adults if their children would be scolded for saying the word penis and if they were ever scolded as a child for using the word penis in reference to the male organ.

One Mother replied, my daughter is 2, so we call a penis a "pee-pee". In my home growing up, my folks were very strict. I was not allowed to say the word at all. I was raised to believe that sex was dirty and bad. Glad I outgrew that. One gentleman replied in the early 60's you never said penis lol it was like a dirty word. Another gentleman replied my children were never taught to say um the p- word lol. I am even having trouble saying as an adult we say wee wee or just or private thing. Some said they did not use the word penis in their household as a child because it was taboo but have brought up their children to use the proper name for body parts. The largest majority of men and women surveyed had no problem with the word penis and it was not a taboo subject in their house as a child or is it a taboo subject now.

In my opinion the word penis is proper. There are words thing that you could call it that would be classified as obscene. In my household we have always be open and honest with our children. My son has known since the age of seven where babies come from so words like vagina and penis is no mystery. As a parent I think we all need to give our children reliable accurate information as their questions arise about sex and not bring them up to be adults who are not comfortable with the word penis.

In conclusion I will just say mom's and Dad's think about it next time you tell little Johnny that the word penis is really a bad naughty word how it will affect him as an adult and how it might affect the people around him. Also on a serious note if the word penis makes you uncomfortable and you associate it with being dirty maybe it is time that you talked to a professional about it. Now everyone say it with me. When God made little boys he made them out of string he found he had too much so he left a little thing and we call that a Penis.

About the Author

Rose DesRochers, Canada
admin@todays-woman.net
http://www.todays-woman.net
Rose is a published author from Canada Ontario and is also the founder of Today's Woman a community for men and women over 18, where writers/poets/columnists meet and exchange ideas, contest, rate and review and help each other succeed in the writing industry.