The power of language is an important element in both the book's intent and its execution. A stated component in the book's overall purpose (as indicated in the preface to the original version, included in this Tenth Anniversary edition) is to break down the barriers to free usage of the word "vagina", and by extension barriers surrounding what the word means (denotation) and evokes (connotation). This purpose manifests in several ways - as an urging to no longer use euphemisms, as a reclaiming of negatively connoted euphemisms, and as an encouragement to extend the freedom of using the word into freedom to both feel and communicate more positively about both having a vagina and being a woman.