01x05 - p*ssy

[bunniefuu]

[Nicolas] It is a thing

of great wonder and mystery,

quivering with complexity,

strength and resilience.

However, also, buried within,

a delicate femininity.

And dare I even say, naughtiness.

Look one way

and you see a gentle feline innocence.

Look another way and… oh, my.

[coughs]

Yes, it has the power to steer our souls

and intoxicate our minds.

Men have died for it.

Women have moved in

with each other way too soon for it.

And to fully capture its essence,

we must plunge unafraid

deep within its enchanted garden.

Oh, my friends, we are so close now.

Feast your eyes upon

the very house of life and death,

the temple of sensuality.

And a term for that kid too afraid

to play dodgeball in gym class.

Behold!

It also could be a cat.

[bleep]

[cat meows]

- I love the word "p*ssy."

- p*ssy.

- [laughing] p*ssy!

- It's sexy.

p*ssy. Do you want me to define it?

[laughs]

p*ssy is the vulva or vag*na,

but it's a much more fun word.

It's not too harsh.

It sounds, like, light and airy.

Cutesy…

p*ssy, p*ssy, p*ssy, p*ssy, pusssssy.

"You're acting like a p*ssy."

You see the word "p*ssy" everywhere,

but there's some sense

that it's still off-limits.

[woman] This man boasting

- about grabbing a woman's p*ssy.

- Exactly.

Will you stop saying that word?

My daughter is listening.

"p*ssy" is like a…

I think a more potent swear word.

Definitely an attention-getter.

Oh, and this one time, at band camp,

I stuck a flute in my p*ssy.

[spits]

I say all the sh*t in the world,

m*therf*cker, d*ck,

but p*ssy's always weird saying it,

I don't know,

because I have so many sisters.

It is something that we,

as women, are… um…

feeling more empowered to say in public.

"p*ssy" is comfortable.

[laughs] p*ssy's comfortable.

It's the only acceptable word

to refer to a woman's vag*na

if you are wanting

to have sex with that woman.

- Knee-deep in p*ssy.

- Uh…

- Oh…

- No…

Today, the word has several definitions.

Cat. Vulva. Sexual intercourse.

Derogatory slang for a weak man,

and the h*m*, "full of pus."

Pus-sy.

A cat was a cat and a kitty.

And it wasn't until I was way older

that I heard someone call it a "p*ssy."

And I was like, "You have a very

strange relationship with that animal."

[Nicolas] While we know

its modern sexual connotation,

the meaning of this word has had

several iterations throughout history.

However, there's no one theory

about how the word developed,

but there are similarities between them.

The earliest meaning of "p*ssy"

is as a slang term for a cat,

and that's in the early 1500s.

[meowing]

Immediately afterwards,

It becomes a term of affection

used for a specific woman,

like "darling" or "gal."

A woman that you have affection for

might have cat-like features, right?

She's cuddly or she's sweet

- or, um… she's she's tender.

- [purring]

There were pamphlets

and screeds from 1583.

It uses "p*ssy" as a pet name for a wife.

The phrase says, "Taking a saucy boy,

making him marry a woman so that

he has his pretty p*ssy to huggeth."

Pretty soon after that, "p*ssy"

comes to refer to female genitalia.

"p*ssy" I think comes from cat,

because it's, like, furry and feminine.

Because these meanings

all come in at the same time,

there are competing theories

as to where the word comes from.

[Mireille] Theory one is that the word was

derived from the Germanic call sounds

- used to attract a cat.

- [Nicolas] Here, p*ssy, p*ssy, p*ssy…

[meows]

[Mireille]

Theory two is that the word stems

from the Scandinavian word in Old Norse,

uh, referring to a pocket pouch or purse.

- [Nicolas] Here, pursey, pursey, pursey…

- [giggles]

The idea of a pouch or a bag.

Something that's a receptacle

that's there to be filled.

[Nicolas] Over time, the popularity

of profane words fades.

Slang terms for "vag*na" are no exception.

So what were some other names

for "vag*na" through history?

Old words for vag*na,

they're all hysterical.

Honeypot. Hoohaa.

Garden of Venus.

Cypriot bag.

Cooter.

Flower pot.

Quim-whiskers.

Cecily Bumtrinket.

This is sort of everything that you want

in wordplay for genitalia.

First, it takes a common

woman's name of the time, Cecily.

So we've personified the vag*na.

And then it gives,

as a surname, Bumtrinket.

So "bum" meaning, you know,

the bottom part of your body,

and "trinket" being something

that ornaments it.

I guess a vag*na is a bumtrinket.

It's like… it's like a hood ornament

to the arsehole.

Sadly, it's out of use now.

Writers have played

with the word's double meaning

since it first appeared in print,

in the 1500s.

The jump from woman

to genitalia is entirely wordplay.

And it's wordplay on both

the "woman" meaning and the "cat" meaning.

The earliest use

where we know it means "genitalia"

has more to do with, um…

stroking your p*ssy, meaning your woman,

but also, obviously, her genitalia.

I remember being at Spencer Gifts.

There was a book in the adult section,

How to Wash Your p*ssy.

And it had, like,

a picture of a cat, you know.

And my sister, who's Jodyne, said…

"Um… 'p*ssy' means 'vag*na.'"

And I was like, "No, it doesn't."

There's a time

at the end of the 19th century

where there were adult stage acts,

there were the Barrison Sisters.

[Mireille] The Danish-born

Barrison Sisters were

a traveling dirty stage act

during the 1890s.

They would sing about their pussies.

[Mireille] Most notably,

a song where they'd sing,

- Do you wanna see my p*ssy? ♪

- [applause]

[wolf-whistle]

By the end of the song, they'd pull up

their skirts to reveal cute live kittens

- strapped to their groins.

- [meowing]

Be clever with your p*ssy.

You know what I mean?

Don't just put your p*ssy on a pedestal.

Hide your p*ssy in innuendo,

and surprise me with a kitten.

That's what I want.

And that's what led

to the formation of PETA.

So "p*ssy" has maintained

the same meanings

for all 500 years of its existence.

It only adds one additional meaning.

It's in the late 1800s, early 1900s,

to refer to a weak or ineffectual man.

I hate you. Stop smiling!

You p*ssy.

It's very gendered.

If someone's calling,

like, someone a p*ssy,

they're calling them, like, weak.

"You a p*ssy.

You a p*ssy-a*s b*tch."

A man who is a p*ssy is likened

to a vag*na in that it is passive.

It is meant to be a receptacle.

It is not meant to be active.

I hear a girl at the office

got you p*ssy-whipped.

Don't be p*ssy-whipped.

Whip that p*ssy.

I really actually like

calling guys "pussies,"

because it seems to really upset them.

And there's not that many words

that you can call a guy

and have them get as mad as, like,

the c-word would make a woman.

And "p*ssy" is just one of them.

The male use of "p*ssy"

to mean a weak or ineffectual man

has kind of dropped off in use.

And the reason that you don't

It's not because it's negative to men.

It's because it is denigrating

a woman's body part.

Now I'm at a real crossroads

with the word "p*ssy,"

because I really did love

calling people a p*ssy.

But, like, that connection is, like

negative

for my people.

You know, we should be calling people,

like, "b*ll s*ck."

Because "b*ll s*ck" are like

f*cking Fabergé eggs.

We're calling people "pussies"

when b*ll s*ck are like, "Oh, I'm cold.

I have to get up close to the body."

Whenever you have anything

that refers to genitalia,

it pretty quickly will generally refer

to the person who has that genitalia

as a sexual partner.

It's purely sexual.

And it eventually became taboo.

There used to be a time where

"p*ssy" was part of the underground.

It's this thing you didn't say out loud

in front of mixed company.

Unless you lived in the city, heard it

all the time, and thought, "So what?"

In the '30s and '40s, "p*ssy" was glimpsed

in Henry Miller novels,

heard in old blues songs.

So you knew somebody who knew somebody

who had it, they'd bring it to the house,

and play it in the basement

when everybody was asleep.

Lots of titles of books and movies

about p*ssy cat,

pussyfoot, pussying around p*ssy.

Dirty versions of comic books,

books that were printed by small presses.

The 1937 novel

I Can Get It For You Wholesale

really grabbed people's attention because

it was frank about sexuality,

it used the word "p*ssy."

That really galvanized

attraction for that book.

You just pick the book up,

put it inside another book,

and look at that word

as much as you wanted to,

and feel like you had done

something wildly different.

According to recent statistics,

many of us actually get our sexual

and anatomical education from porn.

[gasping]

Phew…

- Wow, this is graphic.

- [gasping]

From the '70s on, we see "p*ssy" being

used pretty frequently in p*rn*graphy.

However, it really goes

into hyperdrive in the '90s.

It makes sense

that porn popularized the word "p*ssy."

First of all, people are watching

more porn than they ever admit to.

So it influences pop culture, I think,

more than anyone would ever let on.

I learned about sex from porn.

They had it as a VCR tape,

so my grandfather left

and I put in one of his tapes.

It was called…

Something of the Gods. Something of the…

I can't think of the word but I put it in.

I tried to rewind it to the place

he had it. It just didn't work out.

More people talked about sex.

You had the sexual revolution, the women's

movement, the g*y rights movement.

And you had disco.

But I think it's the mainstreaming of

p*rn*graphy that happens in the early '70s

with films like Deep Throat

and Behind the Green Door

brought p*rn*graphy

into the popular culture.

It was called porno chic.

And everyone from

Johnny Carson to Barbra Streisand

were going to see Deep Throat.

It's such a graphic word

and it's so informed by, I think,

the male gaze through porn, that, like…

It's like, when men talk

about, like, a woman's p*ssy,

it's usually in. like,

a very disrespectful,

like, hyper-sexualized way

that I think can be degrading to women.

This is embarrassing,

but I remember as a kid…

there was, like, a porn magazine…

that it was a Penthouse Forum,

that was in my older sister's bookshelf.

And I would sneak it out and just look

at the word "p*ssy" to, like, masturbate,

'cause it was so dirty to me.

It was, like, electric inside my body.

Just to read the word "p*ssy."

[Nicolas] Why do we use

animal nicknames for vaginas?

A lot of our slang terms for genitalia,

um, also have analogs to animals.

Kitty, coochie.

Clam, chowder, clam chowder.

Because sex is an animalistic act

and we've always kind of seen it

as sort of the thing that animals do.

- Pussycat.

- Cat trap.

My mom calls her p*ssy a lizard.

Our society tends to normalize "d*ck."

Kids draw them on desks,

and you might say I've drawn one.

But across much of mass media,

female anatomy is usually

hidden away, invisible.

Women are just made

to feel bad about the way they look

and who they are so often.

Especially this thing in between our legs

that we're never supposed to talk about,

never supposed to look at,

and only supposed to share with, like,

Jesus and one man we choose to marry.

I am 52 years old.

My p*ssy is not containin' itself.

[laughter]

[applause and cheering]

My p*ssy is like lava. You understand me?

We've become obsessed with our pussies

because for so long, we couldn't even

acknowledge that we had them.

And so now it's like,

"Yeah, it's all I wanna talk about."

I think words can be reclaimed.

And I think "p*ssy" is one of those words

where we're watching it happen.

Okay, back up a second.

Before we can talk about

the reclamation of "p*ssy,"

we need to go backward

and talk about Rudy Ray Moore.

He was a phenomenal comedian.

He put out comedy albums in the '70s,

uh… often under his character, Dolemite,

speaking about explicit sex

in really funny ways.

It was a big influence on the vulgar type

of rap that we saw later in party rap.

Case in point is 2 Live Crew.

They came out with a song

called "We Want Some p*ssy" in 1986.

Any woman who hears

a group of horny-a*s men goin'…

Hey, we want some p*ssy ♪

…like 50, 60 at a time,

they are going to run.

I'm talkin' Flo-Jo,

Jackie Joyner-Kersee speed. [laughs]

Whether by design or by accident,

the raunchy rap group 2 Live Crew just

can't seem to stay out of the headlines.

And after last night's

South Florida performance,

some members of the group

couldn't stay out of jail.

[Baron] 2 Live Crew was making

very sexually explicit music.

People are driving around playing it,

they're playing it from the club.

Of course, people walking by are like,

"That's pollution."

And so law enforcement

would show up at their concerts,

would confiscate

their albums at record stores.

And actually led to

a really famous court case where…

2 Live Crew took

the issue of censorship to court.

And they won.

It doesn't feel good

to be referred to

as women who are penetrated by men

as just "p*ssy."

I mean, we're so much more than that.

We're our necks, our backs,

our pussies and our cracks.

While groups like 2 Live Crew,

up through Ice-T, NWA

were pushing the boundaries

around censorship,

they were absolutely being

conventional and problematic

when it came to… oppressing women

in their videos and in their music.

And so it really took a huge revolution

among the women

to be able to speak up

and speak back to men.

People like Lil' Kim. I'd say Foxy Brown…

Talking about their p*ssy

as a powerful thing…

that can do sh*t,

and that you will ruin

your life for this p*ssy.

That's the way they were talking about it.

And so, like, Cardi B

and Megan Thee Stallion

are definitely standing on those shoulders

and definitely taking it

to the next level.

You heard the song "WAP"?

It's "Wet-a*s p*ssy."

I think there's an interesting

conversation to be had about the way that

"Wet-a*s p*ssy" got such a reaction,

specifically amongst white conservatives.

Because so much of profanity is

us quoting songs and quoting movies.

And even lines from poetry.

It's good to let them

short-circuit a little bit.

I think it's That's like, good art.

Yeah, and I think

"Wet-a*s p*ssy" is poetry.

[Nicolas] How is "p*ssy"

being used in protest?

Currently, "p*ssy" is undergoing

this really interesting transformation

in that there's an attempt to reclaim it.

Um… you really start seeing that…

uh, actually with Riot Grrrl punk music.

So p*ssy Riot is a great example of that.

It's the name of a band,

and they were jailed in Russia

for saying negative things

about the government and the church.

Part of reclaiming a curse word

that is derogatory, like "p*ssy,"

is, like, understanding

where the power is in the word.

You know, we're talking about

the way the male gaze has been projected

onto cis women's bodies.

And to take that back in

political protest, it's a powerful tool.

You start also seeing

a lot of backlash to, uh…

Donald Trump's reported comments

that came out in 2016,

where he said that he, you know,

moves on women like a b*tch

and he grabs them by the p*ssy.

Don't tell me you're offended

when I say "p*ssy,"

- but you're not offended when Trump does.

- I am very

And suddenly you have

a whole lot of marches.

Women who are so incensed at that action,

that suddenly you see "p*ssy"

all over protest signs.

There were p*ssy hats

that were pink with cat ears.

So really, in recent years,

you're starting to see a push

into at least the acknowledgment

that this word has been weaponized

and can be unweaponized by women.

But it's right at the beginning

of this reclamation process,

which means it's really controversial

still for a woman to use the word "p*ssy,"

even of her own anatomy.

I personally have…

criticisms of the pink p*ssy hat.

I think there's some complex layers

uh, to mainstream feminism.

I think the p*ssy hat stuff,

that was not for me.

With its many uses and evolutions,

it seems that the word "p*ssy"

is a universe unto itself.

Or is what we call the universe

actually just one giant cosmic p*ssy?

And what will

the pussyverse's future hold?

Will it blow up like a supernova,

or collapse into a black hole

and suck us all in?

These are the questions

I ask myself at night.

Our new society is

redefining gender, sexuality,

to think in really inclusive ways,

so that we could talk about pussies

as anybody having a p*ssy,

as including trans women,

but including men having pussies.

In the q*eer community,

there's like, "bussy…"

Butt-p*ssy…

So, really detaching the language

from the actual physicality

or what somebody's body looks like

in the traditional ways.

And that, to me, is really exciting.

I think the word "p*ssy"

has a bright future.

Be strong.

"p*ssy" is for everybody.

Not just comedy clubs and strip joints.

Be flexible.

I think it's gonna go to,

like, a cool school.

Be resilient.

Your Aunt Susan is puttin'

p*ssy memes on her Facebook right now.

Be a p*ssy.

Uh, it's gonna make

a lot of friends and, um…

it's gonna come out as, um, bi.

p*ssy just may be

the strongest muscle in the human body.

p*ssy. Pass it on.