Questions about word choice for genitalia in fiction

[only_more_love]

I know that's a bizarre subject line, but it's accurate. :) For a while now, I've been curious about readers' preferences around what words are used to describe male and female genitals in fiction. Then someone left me [Poll #1109682][Poll #1109682]

Comments

[adinfinitum.livejournal.com]

can i just raise my hand and say i'm proud to be the only person (thus far) who also checked "genitalia? what is this genitalia of which you speak?" score.

however, i do think this is a really interesting topic. to be honest, i think the key thing is to be tasteful. i think some terms are just way to graphic and explicit for me to take seriously when i read a fic, and when i do i am immediately turned off by it. you know what i mean? i think a lot of the times it can be really unnecessary to go into such explicit detail about a dude's "throbbing member" or whatever. at the same time, it really depends on the author and the story. but i guess my bottom line is that the key is tastefulness. and somehow being classy even in the face of such a graphic act.