What Would You Call Female Masturbation? Sweden Calls It Klittra!

The other day on BaDoink’s bi-weekly #SexTechTalk (which happens every other Wednesday) one of our moderators O’actually asked, if we could rename porn, what would we call it – something that doesn’t have such a negative connotation. That was a fun chat and we got some pretty funny names in. I suggested Splorn, only because I’m not that creative… ah well.

Another thing that doesn’t quite have a slang term is female masturbation. I mean, yes you could call it that, but while male masturbation has a bunch of different slang terms, female masturbation has maybe one? Flicking the bean. Which sounds oddly sexual and non-sexual at the same time and (no pun intended) leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

However, fear not because Sweden – that country full of sexual education surprises – has come to the rescue. The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) held a competition to come up with a name to describe female masturbation. Why? Because previously Sweden didn’t have one for women. So RFSU set out to find that name with the aim of promoting an open, positive view of sex and relationship issues.

The competition received over 1,200 entries in the form of emails, letters and postcards. Some of the names suggested? Pulla, Selfa and Klittra. After a poll at a conference at Stockholm, Klittra came out the winner. So yeah, the Swedes are calling female masturbation Klittra. And guess what? So can we! It’s an adorable name.

What Would You Call Female Masturbation? Sweden Calls It Klittra!

“Historically, women’s sexuality and not least female masturbation has been taboo,” the RFSU said in a statement. “Women are not expected to have desires and be turned on in the same way as men, which is reflected in the lack of words [for masturbation],” it added.

“We are trying to put sexuality on the agenda – the positive aspects, not just the negative ones like sexual abuse. We want to focus on the good parts, the lust,” she said. “When it comes to masturbation, people mostly think about just men doing it and we don’t think of it as common for women. If we don’t have a word in the language, how can we even talk about it?”

That is true indeed. Even till this day there are many women who don’t like to admit that they masturbate even though it is a totally natural thing to do. Perhaps we too should think of a name for female masturbation for the English language? Or should we just adopt Klittra? Either way, tweet me your suggestions here.

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