I didn't know "beaver" was a derogatory expression.

Regarding the second ad, I'm with something I think I remember some of the commenters saying: it's a nice change to see a woman happy to be taking care of her vag. To be enjoying her vag, instead of being ashamed of it. Yes, it's kind of strange pseudo-anthropomorphism, but the bottom line is, to my eyes, still positive. Especially when facing other "feminine hygiene" products where the angle they take on advertising pads & tampons relies so heavily on shame and embarrassment around vaginas & menstruation.

I mean, the majority of advertising is weird to me, and that ad is no exception. But I don't find it offensive-weird, you know? There are smiles, and sunshine, and as much as I hate the use of men ogling women, I give them props for not going the vaginas-are-gross-and-scare-men route.

*shrugs* That's my two cents, anyway.

I don't think of beaver as an offensive term, just as a slang term for a woman's vagina. Maybe this is a regional/generational difference? Of course, similarly, if I saw an ad directed at the gay community that used queer in an upbeat manner, I wouldn't see it as offensive.

I either do not watch enough TV, or the right channels at the right time, for I never see commercials for feminine products beyond an occasional pad or tampon pitch.

The commercials I do see, and which offend me, are the ones for Cialis. To me it seems to put across the message that, all the woman has to do is lay there, so who cares what she needs or wants, it's the guy that we have to make sure is ready and able to screw whenever he wants, to hell with what the woman might want.

Misogynistic male sexual oppression of the female, that is what it says to me.

Yeah, I am going to run right out and ask my doctor all about Cialis, twits.

As far as beaver, it must be a regional thing, because here it is just another term for pussy, cunt, hole, or whatever you might want to call it besides vagina.

I'm with the others here: I think beaver is just slang, not derogatory.

And I'm with Elliott (in more ways than one!): the commercials stink because they play on the myth that ALL vaginas stink (not just those with a yeast infection or other health problem).

The commercials' subtext is one that females learn at a pre-verbal stage of life: they are inferior to males, and that inferiority has to do with their genitals, in particular, they're weird, dirty, smelly and "need fixing."

Which is simply false in every regard. But you'd be amazed at how many females have incorporated the myth.

Gee, Bil, where I went to school in Indiana 'beaver' wasn't so much a derogatory reference to the vagina as it was what every little school-boy wanted to see (well, almost every little school-boy). I don't think the object of so much interest is necessarily bad.

So, I guess you really stuck your... whatever, into it this time by unilaterally deciding it was a bad, nasty thing.

Beavers are cute, industrious, ingenious, soft, and life-changing for their immediate environment. The animal's pretty spiffy, too. I'll add myself to those who haven't had a bad brush with the beaver word. It's mostly a giggle-inducing term of endearment, 'course most of my friends also proudly reference their "cunts." (which is from the Old Germanic word "kunton" simply meaning female genitalia, and not the Latin "cunnus" which means vulva, but comes from a root word that means to cover or conceal. Thank you polysyllabic.com.) And how is "pussy" so bad, either? But then, I am a cat person. My favourite term is "yum-yums," but that has nothing to do with animal names, it's just fun to say.

There are also names for penes (yes, correct plural form) that come from the animal kingdom that are not necessarily offensive, cock, one-eyed trouser snake, trouser mouse (love that one, and I saw a bar of that name in MO), iguana and lizard (needs moisturizer?), and on and so forth.

Taking the cake for most offensive, however, my boss' mom referred to her and her daughters' vags as their "stink," as in "Did you wash your stink?" Not the sex-positive household, that. I bet they had "dirty pillows," too.

Yum-yums. See, you're smiling now.

I'm having a hard time seeing this stuff, like the Vagisil or FDS ads, as misogynistic. Ads for anything having to do with underarm odor, hemorrhoids, jock itch, incontinence, even toilet paper, have the same squeamish, embarrassed quality. I don't see how the women's ads are distinctly hateful. I think we're just obsessed with and terrified of our bodies.

Of course we say "beaver." What else do you think we put under a (dental) dam? :-)

A word on the origin of the term beaver.

The use of the term beaver originated with the NYC Police in the 1st half of the last century. They used it whenever a deceased woman was found with clothes in disarray (or no clothes) to alert other officers to the gratuitous show. This may be in part where Bill picked up the negative connotations to the word, since for obvious reasons feminist women reacted to the term as a term of sexual objectification.

Since that time, much water has obviously passed under the bridge, but it is still important to recognize the origin of terms. Over time, it has come to be used colloquially as just another term for a womans vulva without thankfully the old connotation beyond the general objectification that hetero men hold for women at large. Still, Bill is right to be cautious in using the term because as a male he might never be sure how it might be received by various women in his audience.

All that being said, the funniest part of this whole discussion for me is that I learned this not in some feminist seminar, but rather while studying Art History and specifically the photographer Weegee, thus proving once again one of my old teachers mantra that all information is ultimately useful.

I thought it was cute, as a non-vaginal American.

But "one-eyed trouser snake"? That's a new one for me. :)