Technically speaking, the vagina is the canal that leads from the uterus to the outside of the body, a fact that has led both Ensler and Steinem to write that "vagina" - while not a word that should be stigmatized - is inadequate because it is not inclusive enough. It does not, they have pointed out, include the labia and clitoris, the nerve-rich center of a woman's sexual pleasure. "I'm hoping that the use of this new word is part of the objection to only saying 'vagina,' since it doesn't include all of women's genitalia, for instance the clitoris, in the way that 'vulva' does," Steinem said.
Another view was offered by John McWhorter, a linguist and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who pointed out that the women associated with introducing the word - Winfrey, the Miranda Bailey character on Grey's Anatomy - are middle-aged African-Americans.
"The reason that 'vajayjay' has caught on, I think, is because there is an African American black - Southern especially - naming tradition, which is to have names like Ray Ray and Boo Boo and things like that," McWhorter said. "It sounds warm and familiar and it almost makes the vagina feel like a little cartoon character with eyes that walks around."
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