Pity the humble vagina. It is the Rodney Dangerfield of genitalia, unlike the jaunty, extroverted penis, the vagina just “don’t get no respect.”
But if there’s anyone who can turn the vagina from a sow’s ear into a silk purse, it’s the dream team of ABC’s nighttime medical soap “Grey’s Anatomy” and the Queen of Daytime (or pretty much Anytime) Oprah Winfrey. After the word “va-jay-jay” was used on “Grey’s Anatomy” as a slang expression for the vagina part of Grey’s anatomy, it was picked by Oprah (or “Oh-pray-tay,” as we call her) who has used it repeatedly including while hanging from rock climbing equipment, when she exclaimed, “My va-jay-jay is painin’!”
Here at the Old Yorker, we would like to salute the wordsmiths of “Grey’s Anatomy” for sexing up the vagina with a word that makes vaginas sound like fun — not a lot of hard work. Of course, we’re wondering if the formula might work for some other things that, frankly, can sometimes sound as boring — or even more boring — than vaginas.
Here then, some possibilities:
pajamas — pa-jay-jay
bus to the Veteran’s Hospital — bus-vay-vay
manic depression — man-day-day
Toyota — Toy-ay-tay
e-mail — ee-may-tay
diarrhea — dia-ray-tay
migraine — mi-gray-gray
Rembrandt — Rem-bray-tay
Google — goo-lay-gay
Nova Scotia — (undetermined)
torpedo — tor-pay-pay
blow jobs — buh-jay-jay
va-jay-jay — va-jay-jay-vay-jay
Osama bin Laden — Os-bay-lay
