Vajayjay Meets Registered Trademark

| Fri Apr. 17, 2009 8:18 AM PDT

You know a term has made it when there are patents pending. In the Urban Dictionary under the most popular spelling "vajayjay," the term benefited from the Oprah effect a couple years ago after Lady O gave it a bump. Firmly in pop culture verbiage, the vaginal euphemism has now seen its first official product (though not its first trademark application, apparently) as the Vaj-j Visor. The visor, which is meant to cover the goods during waxing, depillatories, and other landscaping efforts, is the brainchild of, yes, VJJ Enterprises, Inc. (three ladies, two dudes), though it doesn't seem to license any other vagina products at the moment.

The plastic insert claims to be "the first ever women's cup" and it comes in green and purple and pink. You have to discard it after a single use, which sounds a lot like other feminine hygiene products, spend and toss, buy some more. Protective men's gear, like the jockstrap and the cup, these are manly items (not in pink, green, and purple) that can hang for years (sometimes too long) in lockers. So let's see if the VJJ people can come up with a reuseable product. And one more wondering: Why wasn't vagina part of even one of the possible names batted around by the VJJ crew? Probably because they don't want to scare people off since the vagina is scary. Or maybe it's because vagina isn't even an adequate anatomical term (though neither is Hoo Ha or Beaver) leaving out the all-important clitoris, labia, and vulva.

I'm glad that the ladies who take so much care down there have options now, but it's too bad that the "women's cup" is all about cosmetic improvements. Where's the cup for horsebackriding, for hockey, for soccer? Because sometimes we need to protect our privates simply for the good of the goods, not just for tanning and waxing and making ourselves pretty.

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Elizabeth Gettelman is the managing editor at Mother Jones. For more of her stories, click here.

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Comments

NOT "the first ever women's

NOT "the first ever women's cup". Female athletes have had real cups for years. And so have women women who use menstrual cups. This is just plain lame.

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