Dam, Ma’am?
Back in March, the Women's Caucus of ACT UP initiated a contest to rename the dental dam, a latex barrier used in safer oral–vaginal sex. The purpose of the "cuntest" as it was billed, was to popularize the concept of safer oral sex with women, according to Caucus members. They also said they wanted to demonstrate a new market for the dental dams, in the hopes that condom companies would redesign them for oral sex, and make them more widely available. Many find dental dams too thick for adequate sensation during sex, if they can find them at all.
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Now, just three months later, the results are in. The Women's Caucus received 466 entries, the best 50 of which were leaked to Out Week, and reprinted below. The contest winner will be announced at a caucus-sponsored women's safer sex forum on July 13th [1989] at the Community Center.
Given the unwieldy success of this contest, and the rash of creativity it seems to have unleashed, and in the interests of gender parity, OutWeek editors have decided to hold a contest of their own. On June 21st [1989], they announced the "Rename the Condom Competition," with the goal of inventing a new word to describe the ever-present prophylactics, which are so important in the world of safer sex. Gabriel Rotello, OutWeek's editor-in-chief, said the contest will develop a word "that is as much fun to say as the damn things are to use."
— Andrew Miller, OutWeek Magazine No. 2, July 3, 1989, p. 45.
