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Using technical terms for genitals and etc, yay or nay?

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DragonCat91

Really Experienced
Joined
Jun 26, 2017
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Most of the tutorials on writing sex I've seen have said not to use words like "penis" or even "manhood". Yet I've used both, and nobody complains. So yeah, here's a discussion that's most likely been had before here, but it's not on the first page if it has been.

A list of terms I've used:

Male parts: penis, manhood, shaft, erection, testicles, balls

Female parts: breasts, slit, into her, oozing hole(see bottom of post for context on this one)

Semen: seed, cum, jizz, load, love juice

Actions: thrust, hump, grind

I avoid "cock" and "pussy". They seem overused to me, and maybe a bit vulgar if that makes sense. I can see avoiding "vagina" when it's so easy to just say "he shoved into her" or something like that. Idk though, is it odd to use one technical term and not the other?

Discuss. And since I've gotten laughs on "oozing hole", here's the exact paragraph:

He ripped her shorts and underwear off and noticed that she appeared slightly wetter than usual...she HAD been wanting this since before lunch though. Normally he'd also want her breasts exposed, but it wasn't absolutely necessary, and all he wanted now was to pound that oozing hole until he came.
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My thought is that which term you use should be dictated by what you want to convey about a character in the character's dialogue or by the narrator and/or by the tone you want to set with the story.
 
sr71plt said:
My thought is that which term you use should be dictated by what you want to convey about a character in the character's dialogue or by the narrator and/or by the tone you want to set with the story.
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Amen, Pilot
 
sr71plt said:
My thought is that which term you use should be dictated by what you want to convey about a character in the character's dialogue or by the narrator and/or by the tone you want to set with the story.
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Oh yeah, this is a good point. I haven't really had any characters mention any of those things in dialogue. I have them all over each other, basically. Not much talk, more action.

The one time I did, I used a term I'd forgotten to add. My female main character asked my male main character and her husband and lover if he was going to stand there with his dick hanging out or uncuff her. They'd just done a cop/naughty criminal roleplay, yeah. "dick" is somehow more pleasing to my eye than "cock".

I'm wondering now if I should've used "cock" in Streets to Sheets. Not the one I mentioned above, that's Calling in the Bomb Squad. Not approved yet, that one. Laurel's being pretty picky about spelling. Even though I spelled just about everything correctly as far as I know. But this isn't the place for that.

Anyway, Streets to Sheets...they're street punks/thugs/gangstas in that one. It's not a huge deal, but I'm wondering if I should've used more vulgar sounding terms than "manhood", "testicles", and "penis".
 
sr71plt said:
My thought is that which term you use should be dictated by what you want to convey about a character in the character's dialogue or by the narrator and/or by the tone you want to set with the story.
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What SR said. My protagonists tend to be university-educated folk and for most of them "penis" would be the default word choice. But the only story I've posted here that actually involved unequivocal penis had a randy village lad, so I went with "cock" and "shaft". (Also for reasons of rhyme.)

Note also that the meaning of "vagina" depends on who's saying it.
 
DragonCat91 said:
They'd just done a cop/naughty criminal roleplay, yeah. "dick" is somehow more pleasing to my eye than "cock".

I'm wondering now if I should've used "cock" in Streets to Sheets. Not manhood"
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In Australia small boys and young teenagers have dicks, youths and men have cocks - for me, the US insistence on 'dick' is disturbingly juvenile. Shudder.

oozing hole...
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No, just... no
 
LOL, I was gaping at the "oozing hole" as well. PUN INTENDED, MOTHERFUCKERS.

I don't think I've ever used "Penis". No particular reason, just doesn't sound all that sexy to me. "Manhood", on the other hand, I've used.

What everybody's saying, basically. Pick what works for the scene, for the characters... for you.
 
For me, it's a pop quiz:

1. Who is the speaker?
2. Is the setting (time/place) defined?
3. Is there risk of overuse on this page/in this chapter?

I recently completed a rather long story that was set somewhere in the 14th to 16th centuries. I eschewed as many linguistic anachronisms as I could possibly make, which was a fun challenge, and not as limiting as one might initially think. "Phallus" may seem funny, and "member" may sound generic, but they were remarkably specific for the period. "Prick" is a fun one, too, but I usually reserve it for crass dialogue, or for deliberate subversion (i.e., referring to a sex toy, and not a real penis).

For this story, female genitalia proved much harder on account of knowledge of female anatomy being virtually nonexistent at the time. Solution? I did what writers of the time did: metaphors. I could go high ("treasuring wave after wave of heavenly pleasure that ebbed from her golden citadel") or low ("to dance your tongue over the Lady Highness's private button"); either way, the choice is mine.

In any case, I would ask myself who was speaking (Princess? Knight? Commoner?), whether the setting was defined (context of conversation), and whether I was being too generous with the terminology that already existed on the page. If I could answer all three questions, then the final solution would unfold on its own.
 
I read a description that used the word "tunnel" for vagina and thought that worked pretty well. It had some other sex descriptors before it too.

What I get tired of seeing is the obsession with tightness and vaginas. When I see a description that goes on about lusting or revellingin a tight vagina, I am pulled out of the story and start questioning the writer's experience level. A penis being shoved into a too tight space hurts. Silky, slick and velvety warm are much more exciting descriptions. To me at least. :)
 
Each to their own, but I would avoid manhood (sounds juvenile, suggesting manliness is solely contained in the penis), oozing hole (ewe...), love juice (too much of a romanticized sugarcoating, or something. But I think "sugarcoating" might work ;) ). These are of course just my subjective opinions.
 
They all have their uses, even manhood.

Me, I like phallus. Don't know why, but somehow it strikes me as just the right balance between prim and proper and potentially filthy.
 
Charmolypi said:
What I get tired of seeing is the obsession with tightness and vaginas. When I see a description that goes on about lusting or revellingin a tight vagina, I am pulled out of the story and start questioning the writer's experience level. A penis being shoved into a too tight space hurts. Silky, slick and velvety warm are much more exciting descriptions. To me at least. :)
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This, I think, goes into the "Oh, so sorry for your inability to go with fiction" category. I know you can't help how you react, but one of the pillars of arousal fiction is to "go beyond" to spark the imagination and arousal. If you can't suspend literalist interpretation to a large degree, you unfortunately can't get full benefit of where arousal fiction is trying to help you go.
 
When She Announces Her Orgasm...

Not sure where to ask about this, but in many stories, the woman announces/shouts/ screams: "I'm cumming...." at the moment of her orgasm. I wonder why authors so often include that in the story. How many woman would do that? I can understand grunts, ungghhs, ahhhs, God, etc., but enunciating that she is cumming? Seems unnecessary and not likely to happen in real life. So, am I too particular or what?
 
txgent101 said:
Not sure where to ask about this, but in many stories, the woman announces/shouts/ screams: "I'm cumming...." at the moment of her orgasm. I wonder why authors so often include that in the story. How many woman would do that? I can understand grunts, ungghhs, ahhhs, God, etc., but enunciating that she is cumming? Seems unnecessary and not likely to happen in real life. So, am I too particular or what?
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The medium is limited to words. It's just the way to convey the action in words since there's no visual possible. In writing something up it's impossible to be literally faithful to what is actually happening. It's not a visual medium. It's the same with writing dialogue. You can't be literally faithful to actual speaking, because actual speaking, when literally transcripted, is incoherent. The same with stage sets and costumes. What you see from the audience isn't at all what is actually rendered on stage--it's rendered that way to give a certain impression when seen from afar.
 
txgent101 said:
Not sure where to ask about this, but in many stories, the woman announces/shouts/ screams: "I'm cumming...." at the moment of her orgasm. I wonder why authors so often include that in the story. How many woman would do that? I can understand grunts, ungghhs, ahhhs, God, etc., but enunciating that she is cumming? Seems unnecessary and not likely to happen in real life. So, am I too particular or what?
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Doesn't ring unrealistic to me, at all. Quite convenient if you wish to climax at the same time.
 
sr71plt said:
This, I think, goes into the "Oh, so sorry for your inability to go with fiction" category. I know you can't help how you react, but one of the pillars of arousal fiction is to "go beyond" to spark the imagination and arousal. If you can't suspend literalist interpretation to a large degree, you unfortunately can't get full benefit of where arousal fiction is trying to help you go.
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Ouch. I never thought about it as an inability that thwarts the full benefit of arousal fiction. I think of it as aiming to make erotic lit better and more believable by describing sexual responses in ways that are plausible. Unless like it's a fantasy alien genre thing.

If your stories are laced with tight pussy references, I apologize for offending. Another way I could describe it would be something like "His eyes rolled back in orgasmic ecstasy as her chipped tooth accidentally pierced the ridge of his pulsing cock." Would the reader really think, "yeah I wish I was in his shoes!". Probably not many would.
 
Charmolypi said:
Ouch. I never thought about it as an inability that thwarts the full benefit of arousal fiction. I think of it as aiming to make erotic lit better and more believable by describing sexual responses in ways that are plausible. Unless like it's a fantasy alien genre thing.

If your stories are laced with tight pussy references, I apologize for offending. Another way I could describe it would be something like "His eyes rolled back in orgasmic ecstasy as her chipped tooth accidentally pierced the ridge of his pulsing cock." Would the reader really think, "yeah I wish I was in his shoes!". Probably not many would.
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Rest assured that I don't have many tight pussy references in my stories :)D), but I stand by strict literalist thinking getting in the way of reading arousal fiction and that arousal fiction overblows to aid the desired response--and that I think this makes reading erotica less arousing to the literalist.

And you certainly are welcome to write your stories to your own specifications (and not to rewrite the stories of others to your own specifications).
 
I'm weird when it comes to terms. For an erotic story, I don't like technical terms. However, I don't like anything too casual. Words that are a turn off are: slut, whore, jizz, cuckhold, gangbang, get down, rimming etc. However I don't mind cock, pussy, cunt, boobs, etc.
 
The discussion here is awesome, keep it up! And for everyone laughing at oozing hole, check the OP and tell me if it's less laughable in context.

Also, love juice:

Since his vasectomy when Merc was seven, they had been somewhat regularly intimate. He'd had some of his "love juice" cyrogenically preserved in case they ever wanted another kid. There had been way too much drama over Merc existing because Cyrus wasn't thrilled with the idea of a "little brat" running around. He tolerated him now, but neither of them wanted to risk that again, so they'd made that decision. He had to admit, it was nice to have risk free intimacy when they could find a time to do so.
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Both are from my latest, Calling in the Bomb Squad. Yeah.
 
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txgent101 said:
Not sure where to ask about this, but in many stories, the woman announces/shouts/ screams: "I'm cumming...." at the moment of her orgasm. I wonder why authors so often include that in the story. How many woman would do that? I can understand grunts, ungghhs, ahhhs, God, etc., but enunciating that she is cumming? Seems unnecessary and not likely to happen in real life. So, am I too particular or what?
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If it's short and sweet, then I don't mind. What really bothers me is when the author goes overboard with capital letters and repeated characters to imitate the act of screaming or some such other exclamation.

Personally, while I would much rather the author be creative enough to explore (and articulate) what the woman is actually feeling versus what the woman simply says she's feeling, I understand that not every writer has the presence of mind or experience of craft to do so, or to do so well.
 
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I've been discussing the word "tits" with a female reader. She's of the opinion that it's a trashy, vulgar word, but, surprisingly, pussy and cock are just fine with her. I'm thinking she's in the minority, but I have to wonder: do many women dislike the word "tits"?

I'm well aware that it can be fine depending upon the context of how it's used/who's using it, but in general, is it a disliked word among female readers?
 
hylas_ said:
LOL, I was gaping at the "oozing hole" as well. PUN INTENDED, MOTHERFUCKERS.

I don't think I've ever used "Penis". No particular reason, just doesn't sound all that sexy to me. "Manhood", on the other hand, I've used.

What everybody's saying, basically. Pick what works for the scene, for the characters... for you.
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To me, "manhood" sounds like it should be in one of those Victorian romance novels where you always had to use euphemisms.

"oozing hole" sounds like she has a disease!
 
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