Here’s a snippet from the email newsletter of surprising media snippets, Harper’s Weekly.
The New York Times Style
section published a feature on the rise of the term
“vajayjay” to describe female genitalia. “The reason that
vajayjay has caught on, I think, is because there is a
black–Southern especially–naming tradition, which is to
have names like Ray Ray and Boo Boo and things like that,”
said John H. McWhorter, a linguist at the Manhattan
Institute. “It sounds warm and familiar and it almost
makes the vagina feel like a little cartoon character with
eyes that walks around.” In Johannesburg a contestant on
the reality-TV show Big Brother Africa was caught on
camera digitally penetrating an unconscious female
housemate and then, after heeding the pleas of another
female contestant to desist, sitting alone sniffing his
fingers. The contestant explained his behavior by telling
his fellow housemates, “Well, this is Africa.” British
police documents revealed that the DNA of suspects accused
of crimes such as picking wildflowers or defacing coins
will be stored for life in a national database.
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