Take sexual orientation, for example—a subject that’s been in the news once or twice lately. As recently as 10 weeks ago, Oprah was asking psychologist Lisa Diamond if women turn to other women sexually “because of a shortage of men.” Oprah also wondered why, when women turn away from men, so many seem to choose women who don’t, um, look so feminine. [...]
Oprah is so focused on female victimization, in fact, that she even tells the astounding untruth that doctors pay more attention to the sexual aspects of prostate surgery than to hysterectomy. She also forgets to mention that more men die from prostate cancer than from breast or uterine cancer.
While I admire what Oprah did to make it okay for people to talk about being the victims of sexual assault, perhaps someone who is still so traumatized by her assault that she can't name her own body parts is not the person women should turn to for advice on how to nurture their own sexual and reproductive health.
Well, you may call it the vagina, but poor Oprah just can’t stand that ugly word. “Don’t you think vi-jay-jay sounds better than vagina?” she asked with a pained expression. And the urethral opening? That’s “where you pee-pee,” said the 55-year-old Oprah on national TV.
Thanks to Lou for the link.
5 comments:
Wow. This changes my opinion of Oprah not a whit. She's already a woo magnet, and that evidently extends to her juvenile mental state about sexuality. Sad that so many people follow her.
That chick has some serious problems, I would guess. She's filling people's heads with all kinds of ignorant crap, and raking in the cash for doing. I don't know if she's malicious or just honestly mislead, and I don't really know which would be worse.
Actually, I'm pretty sure there is a subset of the population who has flexible enough sexuality that a shortage of men statistically drives up likelihood of forging a lesbian relationship.
I'm very confused by the second statement. If Oprah is really concerned that doctors pay more attention to the *sexual* aspects of prostate cancer vs. hysterectomy, that is completely unrelated to how many people die of each. Natalie Angier's Women: an intimate geography is probably a much clearer source than Oprah, but there are (or at least were) enough doctors performing total hystectomies with the guiding principle "it's just more stuff to get cancer" then is probably medically indicated. Removal of non-cancerous, but hormone secreting ovaries, can and does impact sexual function.
Look, Oprah is not a place I'd look for sex or relationship advice. But I don't think she's doing anywhere near as much harm in that arena as she was might with medical stuff. Not everybody likes to discuss sexuality the same way.
(Truth is, medical advice is tricky stuff. Sadly, I'm not going to be going to PalMD for medical advice after the link you posted; given that 80% of women end up with uterine fibroids, and they are generally harmless, calling them a "disease" is overblown)
She also forgets to mention that more men die from prostate cancer than from breast or uterine cancer.
Well, relatively few men die of breast cancer and I've never heard of one dying from uterine cancer.
Or maybe I'm misreading that statement ...
Becca:
Sadly, I'm not going to be going to PalMD for medical advice after the link you posted; given that 80% of women end up with uterine fibroids, and they are generally harmless, calling them a "disease" is overblown
It may well be -- but then, Dr. Lipson didn't call them a "disease."
In any case, I would be inclined to follow the advice of an attorney who posts to boards covering legal topics:
"I am an attorney, but I am not your attorney."
Dr. Lipson is a physician, but he's not my (or your, or ...) physician and the ethics of his giving you specific advice (rather than general discussion of medical topics) is at best ethically dubious.
That's really sad. One of the first things I was taught as a kid in 'Personal Development' class was that calling your genitals by their proper name was the first step to feeling comfortable with them and yourself.
Sure 'va-jay-jay' might sound 'nice' to some people but I don't think the technical term is going to change any time soon so why not just call it what it is? A vagina.
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