Reclaiming Cunt

I co-organized and directed a production of the Vagina Monologues this week. We also held a V-day chapel service, lecture on Responding Faithfully and Effectively to Domestic Violence and tonight we will celebrate with a What Would your Vagina Wear Party on campus. We performed the Vagina Monologues in our Chapel. I guess, when I really think about it, that is huge. If we're not bringing these issues to the forefront in church, then where are we talking about them? Apparently not on TV! This link leads to this morning's segment on the TODAY show of an interview w/ Jane Fonda and Eve Ensler (the playwright). Cunt has been bleeped out and apologized for (its original airing was live and not bleeped).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23165403#23165403

I trust the research of one of my actresses, Audrey deCoursey, who wrote the following in our campus paper this week,
"The word ‘vagina’ originates in the Latin word for ‘scabbard’ or ‘sheath’ (i.e. for a sword). It’s named not for its crucial function of birthing babies, not for its function as an ‘out hole’ for monthly blood, not for its potential to provide its bearer with sexual pleasure. No, it’s named for what it does for the penis.
‘Cunt,’ on the other hand, is a cognate with such happy words as ‘cunning,’ ‘kind,’ and ‘kin.’ It has resonance in the names of goddesses like Kunda and Cunina. According to Barbara G. Walker, it was a title of respect for wise women in pre-modern times. And, yes, it sounds a bit more empowering to have a ‘cunt’ on your body than a ‘vagina.’"

Is there any word for penis that would get bleeped on national TV? I don't have time to look now, I must go and celebrate cunt with my dear seminarian friends.