Social Representations and Gender Profiles in Names of Genitalia in the InFormal Dictionary

Abstract

Sex and sexuality are socially organized by social representations and supported by a variety of languages that seek to say what can and should be expressed. The taboo censors language and promotes the creation and circulation of new denominations. We aim to investigate how people categorize gender based on social representations referring to the categories of male and female imbricated in genital naming. Based on the Theory of Social Representations, we performed the analysis of synonymous words of the lexia penis, vagina and vulva present in the InFormal Dictionary. The results showed that, in the evaluative polarization, the synonyms of penis and vagina/vulva are evaluated and defined with a balanced valuation, without demonstrating a well-marked superiority and inferiority between the genders. In the dictionary, the data point to a subordination within a category that already implies contempt. The use of diminutives, on the other hand, relates the female genitalia to something lovable (when beautiful) and unimportant (when not in a dictionary), while the male genital organ is supposed to be of greater importance, as they are more dictionaries and have fewer diminutives. The augmentatives reinforce that the appointments of both genitals correspond to the dangerous and unpleasant.