I don’t know about you, but if anything, I’m maybe more offended by the idea that the word “hoohaa” is an acceptable substitute for “vagina” — or that “vagina” is itself somehow a dirty word:
“We got a complaint about this play The Vagina Monologues,” said Bryce Pfanenstiel, of the Atlantic Theater.
The Hoohah Monologues is a replacement title for The Vagina Monologues — a well-known play about that part of the female body.
“We decided we would just use child slang for it. That’s how we decided on Hoohah Monologues,” Pfanenstiel said.
That’s right, one complaint. That seems pretty ridiculous to me — and, like Neil Gaiman says “seems to miss the point on a scale that’s positively awesome.”
Do we need to start resorting to childish slang and code words every time someone might overreact and be easily offended by something they walk past? Does Arthur Miller’s Death of a Saleman, for instance, need be renamed The Salesman Ran Away While You Were At School (But He’s Living on a Really Nice Farm Now, Honest, So Don’ You Worry)? Do we excise from public discourse every word or phrase that might conjure up naughty images or lead to awkward question from children?