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Can't We Call It Cock?

I can’t say the word dildo. It just sounds too much like Bilbo, as in Bilbo Baggins. It makes me hear all the lyrics of Leornard Nimoy’s "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" in my head. In fact, it’s so insidious I will now force you to make that connection as well by presenting you with this video:


Why not dildo? Well, it’s not sexy. Why can’t we say cock? Queer females have de-maled, de-masculinized and de-gendered that word. Masculine or feminine, it belongs to us if we choose. I call Kate my boyfriend because that’s what she wants to be called. And if I said dildo, she’d probably lose her hard-on.

Last year I published a book called Girl Meets Girl. My goal was to present dyke dating that includes all the ways in which we experience gender and sexuality. I stand by my scissor-kickin’ sisters of the 80s that eschewed the dildo as heteronormative and a tool (ha!) of the patriarchy. But that experience is not mine.

By the time I got down to writing Girl Meets Girl, I had just left On Our Backs magazine after five long years. I’d moved from San Francisco to New York and started working with Velvetpark. I had spoken at pride celebrations in big cities and small towns all over the counry, and I’d toured with two other books, Box Lunch and Bottoms Up.

I was living on Parisa Parnian’s couch during that time and we talked sex all day long. Grace Moon and I were traveling to big gay gigs in other cities and passionately discussing gender and sex during 17-hour car rides. I talked to dykes everywhere about their dicks and dates.

Much like feminism, we’ve entered a new wave of lesbianism. Even the meaning of lesbian is obscured by the politics of who qualifies as a lesbian and who doesn’t.

In our world, gender and biology aren’t related. We created a postmodern butch-femme where either role is anything and everything, and you can’t make assumptions about someone based on the way they dress.

We’re over identity politics. We love our trans sisters, and we’re working our asses off to make up for the fact that transwomen have often felt excluded from the lesbian community. We are deconstructing the lesbian community and rebuilding it from the ground up to suit the way we fuck and fall in love.

When I got the first draft of Girl Meets Girl back from my editor, her queries were all about my use of language and labels. My editor changed cock to dildo. In the end we agreed to mix it up.

It’s difficult to talk about the experiences of queer women in a language that doesn’t recognize our existence, but it’s as relevant to change the meaning of language as it is to create new language. The beauty of English is that it’s mutable. Our society is a mixed bag. The language we use every day includes all ethnicities and all experiences of people in this country. Together we have created a wonderfully integrated language.

Think about the words you use every day. Where did they come from? The Spanglish of East L.A., the creative, culturally representative spelling and pronunciation of Ebonics, the shizzle my nizzle of hip hop culture, the charged language of queer sex, the visceral terms of leather sex, the abbreviations of text messaging and IM and the LOL of Internet culture... Even the Farkian slang on the Internet is used by all of us.

That said, I believe in the power to de-hetero and reclaim words by bringing them into the vernacular of queer female experience.

I use the language that comes from my own community. And I understand that it doesn’t really matter what you call yourself or your girlfriend or your strap-on. The information still applies. Go ahead and use whatever words you like, but don’t feel hemmed in. And let the dyke next to you use the words that hold meaning for her.

33 Comments

I make COCK and soon Pussy too...

You know "dildo" was the only word I remember being embaraced about. Some kid used it on the playground and I didn't know what it was- but I knew it was being used derogaroty. I looked it up in a dictionary and once I had the definition- it no longer had any power. I didn't feel it was derogaroty at all.

Funny I hadn't thought of that til this morning.

Oh I sooooo need to talk to you. I'll call... it's funny.

what about dilda? haha.

what about dilda? haha.

The play

My school is putting on the play The Hobbit the Musical. I'm Bifur one of the dwarves. Well, the person who plays Bilbo Baggins is a freshmen girl whos real dramatic. Well, theres this one other girl who doesn't like the girl playing Bilbo, so one day at rehearsal, she called Bilbo Dildo on purpose. Boy was Bilbo angry. but i was rolling on the floor.

Oh no

I can't believe it, now every time I'll think about bilbo bagins I'll have that purple silicon dick coming in my head.

The worse is now every time I'll think about Stephanie's nice blue cock i'll have a picture of Bilbo Baggins in my head haaaaaaaaaa!!!!

Here in France we call a Dildo a God (seriously it's the word for it God michet), lol, just like God, it always cracks me up.

Dick, cock, dildo, somehow the dildo always makes me think of plastic, and the dick, cock words make me think about the pleasure a dildo can give.

I like cock, I mean the word, and dick, the word, better than dildo, the word, but it all works out once my girl is wearing one, or me.

HAAAAAAAAAAAA, bad bad Diana, I see Bilbo Bagins now !!!

C.

I should've read this before...

..I wrote my blog on underwear. I really wanted to talk about how boxer-wearing women like being able to stash their cock inside their boxershorts till they are ready to come out and play...but instead...I said dildo b/c I wanted to be p.c.

I'll consult you next time before I get too p.c.

Creating queer style, one homo at a time.

Mad love,

Parisa

Go Spock, it's your birthday...

Thanks for the video, that s@#t was great! As for the question, I'm with you. Call it whatever is satisfying for you and your lover. I like to name it. Something Biblical with reference to the sea. I've been told when you do it right, it is a religious experience. Yeah that sounds about right! I'm just sayin'.....

sure we can

call it a cock; go for it. to me, its a lot sexier a word than dick, dildo, strap on, whathave you. and it's sort of hot to imagine a gorgeous woman fucking you with her form of a cock...i duno, i dig it.

I have always found

that women I know like to call a strap on a "strapper". I dont know I think I kinda like it. Has a nice ring to it. Personally dick, cock, dildo or anything else is fine with me. Wait I take that back I have never liked dildo. It does kinda make my stomach turn.

hmm....

I don't know, but I don't like "cock" (the word or the object) because it comes from the word for rooster (ie male) in other languages (eg coq--in French) and can be used in English, too.
I know other words traditionally evoking masculinity (butch, stud, etc) have been claimed by the lesbian community (butch is pretty much exclusively lesbian now--I know someone with a really tiny dog named butch, but other than that...and honestly, does any straight person--other than someone in the Nick at Nite line-up refer to a guy as stud anymore?--) but somehow using the word cock feels wrong.
Most men think with their dicks anyway. I agree with what one of the other comments said about that sounding too much like straight men and feel like it would encourage them if it were called a cock or dick or anything that they use to refer to their favorite body part.
It would open the door for way too much chauvinistic assumption that lesbians really do want/need cock, and I think we can all agree that's not the case.

If you deny any affinity with another person or kind of person, if you declare them to be wholly different from yourself, you have, in fact, alienated yourself...~Le Guin

Etymology of "dildo"

The OED says the term "dildo" has "obscure origins." Thomas Nashe -- one of my favorite perverse early modernists -- is actually first credited with using the term in his poem "Choise of Valentines" (~1593): "Curse Eunuke dilldo, senceless counterfet".

Aurally awful sounding (alliterative consonants), but, historically entertaining...for me, at least.

nice

you're right about the consonants, though.
If you deny any affinity with another person or kind of person, if you declare them to be wholly different from yourself, you have, in fact, alienated yourself...~Le Guin

someone get me some maxalon!!!!

oh i can't use the word cock! lol. It reminds me way too much of straight males "if you had a piece of my cock you wouldn't be gay".......... *barf*

Actually, dick too. dick makes me feel slightly nauseous. But cock makes me throw up a little in my mouth.

what about "schlong". that doesn't give me nausea. or "ding dong" or "willy" or "weenie" but then I guess if you're wanting to use those words in the throes of passion, they're not the sexiest words to use....... *imagines.......... ohh yeah, fuck me with your ding dong........... hmmmmmm* lol

if someone said

fuck me with your ding dong - i'd probably head to the kitchen and bring back the box of 'em.... mmm... treats and teats!!

i'm lost....

I assume a ding dong is some form of food in the US??? or you enjoy munching on dildos? hahahaha

Ding dongs

Ding dongs are processed baked goods with loads of petroleum products and corn syrup. Some people like that sort of thing, but I wouldn't call ig food.
Lezbeth

haha!

that was funny. lol! i don't enjoy rubber treats, no.

I couldn't eat a baked good

I couldn't eat a baked good "ding dong" purely based on the name! LOL

editor

Ooh, another fun blog topic

I try to mix it up a bit when I'm writing straptastic erotica, but "cock" is decidedly my favorite term. I found a book of Victorian erotica when I was in high school and my porny syntax has never quite been the same... those 'c' words all slay me. (I almost said "slap me" by accident. Which would be... well, different.)

Well, hmmm

Well, hmmm, what's wrong with just saying dick, as in Dykes with Dicks? I don't want to entirely get away from a "d" word because I love alliteration, as well as penetration.

For some interesting background and etymology of the word, Dildo, go here:
http://www.answers.com/topic/dildo

author

I like dick. I mean, uh...

I like dick. I mean, uh... well. nevermind.

I understand your nevermind

Hahaha, Diana. I completely understand your "nevermind." Okay, I have decided that from now on I will call it a "Bilbo Baggins." Rusty is going to hate me for that. ;-)

If Tolkein was thinking

If Tolkein was thinking about dildos when he named bilbo then maybe you've unmasked a secret size fetish. I mean what would someone do with a dildo that's 3 feet tall other than dress it up and sing about it?

Why not call it a dick or a pogo stick or a dancing pole or a latex laddie? Heck, if you have several of them in the toy chest, you could call them different things, like: the siamese twins or the tickle twister combo or how about the wee g-twanger? I say call it a cock if that turns you on. Good news is, the strap-on won't lose its hard-on for lack of a sexy name.
Lezbeth

"It’s a lovely cock," said...the parish vicar

“It’s a lovely cock," said Anna-Maria Larsson, the parish vicar,...

Read the full story here: Swedish town celebrates Church Cock victory.

“I'd like you to think of me as someone you'd put your teeth in for.”
The Roches

Cock vs. Dildo

In Great Britain they called the pacifier a "dummy tit." So what would one call the dildo? "a dummy cock." That might make it more palatable (pardon the expression)to some of us. :)

HAHAHAHHA... that song is

HAHAHAHHA... that song is awesome! Now its the only thing i'm gonna think of when people say dildo.. and that was already funny!

*Dreamer.D*

Who doesn't think of Bilbo?

Diana, Girl Meets Girl was the first book I bought after I came out and wanted to start dating. I'd read a lot of lesbian erotica (thank you, again, for all that you've contributed to the genre), but I really appreciated your humor and frankness in Girl Meets Girl. I enjoyed it so much that I gave it to my mother to read, mostly because of the way you handled gender. Although some of it scared her (especially flagging - "But you're not going to turn promiscuous, are you?"), I think it helped bring things to a new light for a woman who was struggling with the reality that after all those years of mentioning it but never leaving the man, her daughter really and truly is a lesbian. Thanks. And I think cock is as hot as the other C word, when used in the right context.

author

HAhahaaa. I am so glad you

HAhahaaa. I am so glad you liked it!!

bilbo!

i like the word ding dong instead of dildo.

it sounds ridiculous, and *they taste good* mmmmmmm chocolate filled with vein-clogging creamy filling - or rubber weenie - i just can't take a plastic penis seriously - except when in use.

Thanks

I'll never be able to look at a dildo the same way again.
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http://scoopstheblog.com

But I'll never be able

to read Tolkien the same way again, either.

Your friend,
Rusty
[lesbian humor; what a concept]
+ + + + + + + +
I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.
~ Groucho Marx

I honestly thought I was the

I honestly thought I was the only one that was reminded of Bilbo Baggins when someone said dildo. Although I've never seen that video, saying dildo would just make me laugh.

Ive thought it as well. mr

Ive thought it as well.

mr tolkien could not possibly have heard of the word dildo when he picked that name.