Some some of you may have heard that story about the venerable Canadian history magazine The Beaver changing its name because of the confusion it caused over exactly what kind of magazine it was, and apparently also because a lot of school Internet filters blocked it.
It was a funny enough story that even the New York Times ran it, but it got me wondering: now that pubic waxing is apparently de rigueur among young women, are female genitals even called beavers anymore? I mean, when the hair is gone, the resemblance pretty well disappears.
So will “beaver” wind up being one of those funny little linguistic artifacts, like calling a remote control a “clicker” decades after they switched from sonics to infrared, or should the magazine just have held out until we start calling women’s privates “chinchillas”?
Bonus: Apparently the term “beaver” in this sense was popularized by Kurt Vonnegut in Breakfast of Champions. I couldn’t find Vonnegut’s drawing of a beaver anywhere online, so here is his rendition of an asshole.
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Chinchilla?
Personally, I thought the resemblance ended when they took out the buck teeth…
Asshole? That is clearly a Wal-Mart logo!
Here is your beaver. 🙂
I actually didn’t know that the term was coined by the book. I thought that the story of how “beaver” got to be used that way was actually how it happened, because I was sure that people had been calling pussies “beavers” since before 1973. But then, I wasn’t alive until four years after that, and didn’t learn that there was more than one meaning for “beaver” until the ’90s, so my knowledge on this subject is spotty at best.
The Canadian Blog Award that’s on THIS VERY PAGE? That’s NSFW.
Rob: Thanks for the link, I should have thought to try Google Books. And I don’t think Vonnegut coined the term, just popularized it.
coco67: And the resemblance surprises you because…?
It reminds me of how Disney changed “Kiki’s Delivery Service” to “Nicky’s Delivery Service” because to do a “kiki” is a NSFW activity here in Spain…
What I remember from Breakfast of Champions is that “beavers” was a code word exactly because people wouldn’t make a connection.
I believe the context is urban firefighters calling out “wide open beaver!” to clue in other firefighters to check upper-level fire escapes for female onlookers in skirts sans panties.
Mightygodking.com: Keeping it classy.
They should’ve kept the name. If they insist on using names that have no sexual connotations at all, there are going to be very few words to choose from. Just about every word has been given a sexual meaning at one time or another.
Isn’t the beaver an unofficial symbol of Canada? That should outweigh any other meanings of the word. (Canada’s supposed to be a fun place– maybe both kinds of beaver should be your symbol.)
I remember hearing that Beaver College had changed its name too, because high school internet filters were preventing potential students from accessing their site. I hate internet filters– let the kids see everything!
“Apparently” de rigeur is right.
Anyway, I doubt the beaver will be away from us for very long. From Day One there were already women who refused to de-hairify.
We used to sing a song in the 70s about being “Eager Beaver Girl Scouts”. Oddly enough, they don’t sing that song anymore in my daughter’s troop.
Just last year Australia had the repulsive Love Your Beaver tampon ads. It’s not a term actually used here, and yet everybody knew what was meant.
If there is one thing you can say in favour of the movie version of “Breakfast of Champions” at least it doesn’t feature a closeup of Bruce Willis’s asshole…
Lilacsigil’s link to the beaver ad doesn’t work. It says the video is private.
Sorry, Mary – it worked for me! Google “Kotex U Beaver ad” and you should find it.
Prior to 1973, Jim Bouton’s baseball classic Ball Four had frequent mention of a girl-watching pastime, “beaver shooting.”
I used to drive by Beaver College all the time, on the way to the dentist. It became less fun driving past “Arcadia University.”
Damn. Someone else also thought of posting this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkkTeAP8d5o
And it’s not disgusting – I thought it sweet.
I just checked out Marvinmartian’s link. It is sweet, and cute, and it actually doesn’t even use the word ‘beaver’.
It looks like there are other ads in the series, though, and I haven’t checked them out yet.
There’s a great show in Oz called the Gruen Transfer. A panel show about advertising.
That was how I found the Kotex ad. What was interesting was they had a discussion about the ad and apparently it was quite controversial at the time, in that there were complaints etc.
But just to look at it I don’t get why anyone would have a problem with it.
How can you not post this classic clip when talking about beavers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhyCL-ELRxg
Don’t worry. As long as there’s an internet, there’ll be beaver in all senses of the word.
Witness friend Raincoaster’s blog, where one of the most popular categories is “beaver.” Indeed, she had my wife’s beaver shots up for a while. And yes, it was exactly what you’re thinking.
Philadelphia used to have an all girl (or predominantly girl) college called Beaver College. It, too, caved and in 2001 changed its name to Arcadia University.
I am still a little sad about that.