Why Campaigners Want A New Word for Labia: Vulvalippen

The Dutch are famously direct and intensely practical, and they often name things by what they do. The results can be charming to anyone learning the language for the first time.

• Stofzuiger (vacuum cleaner), literally a “dust sucker” from stof (dust) and zuiger (sucker)
• Handschoen (glove), literally a “hand shoe” from hand and schoen
• Koelkast (refrigerator), literally a “cool cabinet” from koel (cool) and kast (cupboard)

The twist comes when the topic turns to women’s anatomy. Dutch has long used a word that carries a moral sting. “Schaamlippen” translates as “shame lips.” It appeared in Dutch literature around the early 1700s, when naming things still sat within a religious framework. So where did that language come from?

When “Shame” Became Part of the Body

The term surfaced in the early eighteenth century, when body parts were routinely named through a religious lens, and nobody was weighing whether the vocabulary was misogynistic. Tying certain anatomy to shame felt ordinary then. The problem is that the word stayed in circulation long after the mindset behind it should have faded. Every time someone reads “schaamlippen” on a medical form, a quiet little judgment is baked into the vocabulary.

The Charge to Make Female Anatomy “Shameless”

European campaigners have spent years calling for a rewrite of the terms used to discuss women’s bodies, sexuality and health, and what unites them is a wish to retire wording that reads as judgmental. Shari Klein, who co-founded the Schaamteloos (shameless) campaign, says words shape how people see themselves, whether anyone notices or not. Her argument is straightforward. Women should have a clear anatomical term that does not drag shame along behind it.

It is not a small task. The “shame” root runs deep through the Dutch dictionary. Pubic hair, for instance, is schaamhaar, literally “shame hair.” Once you start looking, the pattern turns up everywhere.

Not Just a Dutch Thing

This is not only a Dutch story.

• Germany. Journalists Gunda Windmüller and Mithu Sanyal started a petition in 2018 to swap the German schamlippen for vulvalippen, after hearing how much shame women attached to gynecological exams.
• Sweden. In 2009, a campaign led an academic dictionary to replace mödomshinna with slidkrans.
• The UK. Some advocates want “hysterectomy” dropped, since it traces back to the old notion of female hysteria, and they prefer the plainer “uterectomy.” A number of obstetric clinicians are also moving away from blame-leaning phrases such as “incompetent cervix” and “failure to progress.”

The New Idea

Campaigners want doctors and local officials to use vulvalippen during ordinary appointments, and there is still a great deal of ground to cover. Not everyone is convinced. Critics argue that swapping a single word cannot change what women experience day-to-day. Even so, more clinicians are noticing something worth taking seriously. The language a patient hears in a consulting room can leave them feeling safe or judged, which is reason enough to think about it before the next visit to a Dutch doctor.

For Dutch Language Learners

If you are building your Dutch vocabulary, you can choose not to lean on shame. Use “vulvalippen” instead. A small switch with the potential for a much larger shift in attitude. Language accumulates over decades, yet this change costs almost nothing.