iTunes Doesn’t Like The Words Penis and Vagina

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After three episodes of our Guys Have Penises, Girls Have Vaginas podcast, I noticed for the first time a very disturbing thing.  My shows were called Guys Have P***ses, Girls Have V***nas.

What the fuck is a P***s?

I completely understand censoring for general audiences, especially in an online store where people could be about who can't see certain words.  Well, even if I don't completely understand it, I can tolerate it, in the same way I tolerate that I shouldn't say titty fuck in front of a 6 year old girl in the line at the grocery store. (That example was purely speculative, and not based on anything that has happened…seriously.)

This is, of course, indicative of the larger issue.

Why on earth is penis and vagina bad words? I mean, I remember grade school library time as much as anyone else, when we discovered that the dictionary actually had definitions for these two naughty words. Sure we giggled and pointed and showed our friends. But the irony was, these are the least offensive versions of these terms.

That's the thing. Censoring the clinical name just amounts to giving credence to the usage of slang.

As someone who says “cock” and “pussy” this doesn't bother me. But hiding the legitimate terms seems to me the most ass backwards way of kowtowing to the (let's be honest here) religious right, the ONLY folk who can still get all uppity about those awesome parts we all carry around betwixt our legs.

So, thank you, iTunes, and Apple once again, for “protecting our children” from the realities of human sexuality and life.

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About Cooper Cooper S. Beckett is the co-founder and host of Life on the Swingset: The Podcast since 2010, author of swinging & polyamory novels A Life Less Monogamous and Approaching The Swingularity, and memoir My Life on the Swingset: Adventures in Swinging & Polyamory. He teaches and speaks on swinging, polyamory, pegging, play parties, and coloring outside the boundaries of your sexuality. He is a graphic & web designer, photographer, and voice over artist, has been a guest expert on Dan Savage’s Savage Lovecast, & is the announcer of Tristan Taormino’s radio show Sex Out Loud. He is currently working on two instructional non-fiction books, one about beginning non-monogamy, and another about pegging.

6 Comments

  1. But but but… If our children know the names of their junk then they are going to use them! Who knows what will happen if they get this elitist “education” thing going?!

  2. iTunes is part of a private entity. It is not censorship. If the government was doing it, it would be censorship. We do not have to like how Apple runs its business, however it is Apple's business, and they are free to run it how they please.

    I do agree its silly, however.

    • Actually, just looked it up, Censorship is done by a Censor, which is “any person who supervises the manners or morality of others.” Including those at Google. Like it or not, they’re Censors…

  3. I blogged about this hypocrisy in the past. Same happens for applications. You can't sell an app that is remotely… unless you have a legal department like "Swimsuit illustrated" or even "Playboy". Also know that "The Steve" will happily sell you songs with explicit lyrics or even "R" rated movies.

    • Actually Playboy can’t get the ipad to carry it. They’re creating a specific ipad viewable collection of their magazines on their site because they can’t get an app in there…

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