I think it might be the clinical word vagina vs wee wee, but vajayjay still would be weird in this context. Honestly, dont show strangers your kids genitals.
Yes, all genitals seem weird to show people. I don't even show them to my parents. I tried not to take them at all, and instead tried to take a few with angles that obscured any private areas. I think my parents have seen a couple of those, but I don't even send them.
Perhaps the comic is from the mindset 40 years ago. I could easily see parents of that era doing this and thinking it was fine.
I think it's more that adults sexualizing children wasn't considered a frequent risk, people didn't think anyone they knew would look at babies that way. Gen X parents really shifted a lot in terms of culture in the US, under their generation child sexual abuse cases have dropped significantly, and that's adjusting to unreported numbers.
under their generation child sexual abuse cases have dropped significantly
If this is true, that's really impressive. I've heard how insanely widespread all kinds of abuse used to be through history, often even openly. But if the culture shift was really as sharp as this seems to suggest, I'd be worried it could go almost just as fast back in the other direction.
I can't say world wide, but in the U.S., home photography was not new 30-40 years ago. I was a kid 30 year ago and I had real camera and various disposable ones over time. Maybe home videography was becoming more common 30-40 years ago, but photography had been around.