Saying it Makes it True

There are a group of jokes and urban legends that get passed around that center on the concept of "vagina infinita."

Exemplum gratia:

A man gets lost in a vagina and is wandering around for days when he finally runs into another man. He asks, "Hey, do you know the way out of here?"
The other man answers, "Not exactly, but if you help me look for my car keys we should be able to drive out."

The lead cheerleader acrobatically makes her way to the top of the human pyramid and once she is up there the class rings of the entire football team fall out of her skirt.

Now, it's bad enough that men tell these stories, thereby perpetuating the belief that the vagina is a mysterious and frightening place, but even worse, some women are starting to buy into this mindset, as well. They don't tell the stories the same way, but they have the same message:

My friend knows this girl who had sex with a tampon in and then afterwords she couldn't find the tampon.

Women, seeing as how they possess the equipment, should know better. What is it that lends these stories enough credibility that women start to be suspicious of their own bodies? I think it is that they are primarily passed around by word of mouth.

It is true that urban legends and jokes are widely circulated on the internet. However, they are usually outside the context of a conversation. People send e-mails that consist only of jokes or have only "this story that you need to read because it could happen to you!" I don't know about you, but when I get an e-mail like this the first thing I do is check it out on snopes. These e-mails are also easy to disbelieve because they often aren't very personal. A friend has forwarded the story to you and 100 of her other closest friends after receiving it from someone else who also forwarded it to 100 people.

But, when you are having a private conversation with a girlfriend and she says, "listen to what happened to a friend of mine..." Or maybe you're even talking to a guy friend who says, "you won't believe what happened to my buddy who dated a cheerleader..." You don't automatically go into skeptic mode. Talking to another person is more intimate than e-mailing them and it is this intimacy that makes what you say more believable. And regardless of what might be scientifically accurate, if you believe a story, in some ways it becomes true. When you treat your body like it is something beyond understanding, you won't understand it.