Blog of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
If you’ve been with us for a while, you may recall that last fall our friend and colleague Alexandra Jacoby participated in Vulvagraphics: An Intervention in Honor of Female Genital Diversity, sponsored by the New View Campaign challenging the medicalization of sex. For the benefit of those of us unable to get to New York for this event, there is now video available of some of the exhibits and speakers.
[via The Red Tent Sisters]
The feminist blogosphere has been buzzing lately over all the decorations available for ladyparts. We chimed in ourselves on the labia dye, My New Pink Button. Now, via Broadsheet, we learn of “vajazzling”, or bedazzling one’s vajayjay. Actor Jennifer Love Hewitt, star of The Ghost Whisperer, recently announced to George Lopez and his talk show audience that her “precious lady” now “shines like a disco ball” because it is covered with Swarovski crystals.
Note that I used the term “vajayjay” above only because that is the term used by Love Hewitt in advocating the practice of vajazzling. (She says all women should vajazzle their vajayjays, and has an entire chapter of her new book dedicated to the topic.) Perhaps I take things too literally, but I understood vajayjay = vagina, so when I read Mary Elizabeth Williams’ Broadsheet article, I had a lot of questions. Like, WHY? why put crystals in your vagina? No one but your gynecologist will see them! And doesn’t it hurt? Aren’t crystals sharp? And what, exactly, does one use to ATTACH Swarovski crystals?
Of course, Jennifer Love Hewitt isn’t putting crystals in her vagina. She’s decorating her vulva. But cutesy terms like precious lady and vajayjay obscure women’s anatomy even more than Swarovski crystals and pink colorants. Vajayjay entered the pop culture lexicon because network censors would not approve a Grey’s Anatomy script using the word vagina too many times:
Shonda Rhimes, the creator and executive producer of “Grey’s Anatomy,” who brought the word into full public view, never intended to promote a euphemism or slang term for the female anatomy. Rather, she fought to use vagina in the script.
“I had written an episode during the second season of ‘Grey’s’ in which we used the word vagina a great many times (perhaps 11),” Ms. Rhimes wrote in an e-mail message. “Now, we’d once used the word penis 17 times in a single episode and no one blinked. But with vagina, the good folks at broadcast standards and practices blinked over and over and over. I think no one is comfortable experiencing the female anatomy out loud — which is a shame considering our anatomy is half the population.”
When grown men start referring to their penises as “pee-pee” or “winky”, I’ll consider vajayjay an acceptable label for my vulva. As for vajazzling, I’m with Madeleine and the other Lunapad ladies:
At the end of the day, for all the language of self-love and empowerment used in the marketing copy for these products, I still can’t get around the underlying implication that our vulvas are not in fact just fine, thanks, without smelling or looking any different than they already do. To my way of thinking, even planting a seed of doubt of this kind in a woman’s (let alone a girl’s) mind about her bodily self-esteem is to perpetuate a dangerous climate of self-loathing against which most girls and women will struggle at some point during their lives.
Are you worried your labia just aren’t pornified enough? You’ve mowed the lawn and used expensive cleansers, but your labia just aren’t as pink as they used to be. Here’s a new labia dye, to restore that youthful pink to your pink parts. It’s available in four different shades! Each bottle contains up to 20 applications! It’s never been tested on animals! Each application last 48-72 hours, and you can reapply “as often as necessary”.
I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Please tell me this a hoax.
[via Shelby Knox]
Alert: Links are Not Safe for Work
German teen magazine Bravo, known for it’s explicit information on sexuality and sexual health has done it again with their feature: Vulva-Galerie: Schau, welche Unterschiede es gibt! which according to my Google translator means”Vulva Gallery: Look, what are the differences?”
The text says: The vulva is the externally visible part of the vagina. Do you want to finally know what it looks like on other girls? We show you the variations! If you click on Hier siehst du, welche Vulva-Variationen es gibt! (Here are the vulva variations!), you get a gallery of photographs of female genitals, photographed from the front. Some are pierced, some are hairy, some are shaved, some have larger labia…but unfortunately, they’re all white and none of the women seem to be on the larger side.
That’s too bad, because the underlying message is a good one: Stop comparing your ladyparts to women in mainstream porn. This is what we look like when we’re not being seen through the male gaze. Every vulva is different and special in its own way. Again, I wish there had been some diversity in race and size. Is Germany really such a homogeneous society? I don’t think so. The photo series ends with a more explicit photo of the inner vulva, complete with labels.
Not only would this never fly in the US, it reminds me of an interview we did with CosmoGirl! editor Susan Schulz who told us about an illustration of a vulva they commissioned in order to acquaint their readers with their own ladyparts. The title was ‘Vulva Love’ and it was done in a fun folksy way and totally non-pervy. Susan told us they got more hate mail from parents about that item than anything else they ever ran. The illustrator didn’t even want their name on the piece. I’ve searched online for the image but can’t find it, so I’ll post it and our interview with Susan in when I’m back in the USA.
By the way, the Bravo vulva item is part of a regular feature called Dr. Sommer which includes topics for teen boys and girls like vaginal health, penile pain, “Are You Really Ready for Sex?” and “Love School”(if you are ready, I guess). My knowledge of the German language is now exhausted, but if anyone wants to translate other items, please leave it in the comments!
Cross-posted at The American Virgin.
Obviously I’m spending waaay too much time on the interwebz these days.
My elaborate system of RSS feeds, Twitter messages, email alerts, and random blog surfing just pointed me to a website called “Twirlit“, with the subtitle What Women Really Want. What women really want, apparently, is a special scented soap cleanser for their ladyparts: thanks to a Twirlit review, I learned of Propoline® For Women Multi-Gyn Cleanser. From Twirlit’s product review:
I’ve been using this product for years. My husband always makes fun of me for it, he calls it my “vagina wash” but Propoline Mylti-Gyn cleanser is an all over, hypoallergenic body wash that also happens to be beneficial for your vaginal area.
“Vagina Wash”? Vaginal area? Sorry, Eve Ensler, but this is one of my biggest linguistic pet peeves. The body part we’re talking about here is the vulva. The vagina is an internal organ, and does not require special soap. Vaginas do not require any soap, as they’re self-cleaning, just like eyes (and in some households, ovens). Washing your vagina is called douching, and is more likely to disrupt the normal ph balance of the vagina than do anything beneficial. Douching can even lead to health problems, such as vaginal irritation, bacterial infections, and pelvic inflammatory disease.
This, by the way, is why the terms douche and douchebag are frequently used to describe anti-feminist people and actions: douches are unnecessary, harmful to women, and sold to women with assaults on their self-esteem.
Mutli-Gyn Cleanser is safe to use during menstruation, after sexual intercourse, after swimming or hot tubs and is especially calming to the skin if you have a dreaded yeast infection.
“Safe to use during menstruation.” You know, pretty much any soap is safe to use during menstruation. Or after swimming, sex, or hot tubs, or any other time you want to wash your vulva. Just don’t use it internally. It even says on the Multi-Gyn package, For External Use Only. In other words, it’s a not douche. Do not use in YOUR VAGINA.
I’m so glad that skin care companies are finally realizing that a woman’s sensitive area is different than the rest of the skin on our bodies. I stock up on this stuff as my local apothecary is always running out and don’t feel guilty because it’s surprisingly affordable (around $14.00 a bottle).
$14.00 for SOAP is “surprisingly affordable”?!? No recession in your neighborhood, huh? Where I come from, $14 for an 8 1/2 ounce bottle of body wash is hella-expensive. A bar of Ivory soap costs 69¢ and does the job just as well.
To be fair here, a woman’s “sensitive area” is different than the rest of her skin (for one thing, it’s sensitive!). But that doesn’t mean it requires a $14 bottle of special soap.
The idea that vaginas and vulvas are smelly or somehow ‘extra dirty’ and require special cleansers or deodorants is product of advertising. And of misogyny. The fact that someone is selling – and women are buying – a special “Multi Gyn” cleanser at 14 bucks a pop is sign of the effectiveness of both.
Vulva pendant image used with kind permission of QuiteCntrary.etsy.com.
Since September 2000, I’ve been capturing a glimpse of women’s most private selves. So private that most women have not seen their own, much less others. I’ve been making vagina portraits. They are close-up, documentary-style photographs of our vulvas—the elusive faces of our vaginas in plain view—so we can see ourselves for ourselves.
The project began when a friend of mine asked me if I liked the way my vagina looked. Apropos nothing: did I like the way my vagina looked? As I answered, I realized that I had never really taken a good look at it, and that other than a bit of porn, I hadn’t actually seen any other women’s vaginas.
I was pretty sure that they were all different, but had nothing to point to when talking with my friend, who clearly thought there was something wrong with how hers looked.
It struck me that there should be a book, a visual reference for women—of actual women. And, so began vagina vérité®—an unabashed exploration of the plain, ordinary, mysterious matter of our vaginas.
I’ve photographed 90 v-portraits so far—each beautiful and strikingly unique!
Before vagina vérité®, I hadn’t noticed how unusual it was for women to talk about our body-experiences. Not-talking was normal to me. In my experience, this silence, and the shame that underlies it, continues to be the norm. When I bring up the subject, and I often do, I am almost always met with surprise and discomfort.
In this space of not-talking, misinformation moves in, like my friend’s belief that her vulva was supposed to look a certain way.
I’d like to see this change.
I’d like us to talk about our body-experiences, and to have access to accurate information, images, and each other’s stories. I’d like to hear what you think, and about your experiences of your body. Mostly, I’d like this conversation to be normal. And, for that, I take action!
If you’re in the NYC-area, please join us at Vulvagraphics: an Intervention in Honor of Genital Diversity OCT 24-25, at The Change You Want To See gallery, 84 Havemeyer Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211.
It’s a space for conversation, organized by the New View Campaign, where you’ll experience vulva-celebrating art and crafts, including a preview of vagina vérité®. On Sunday, there’s a brunch salon. Check out the website for more details. Read the press release. I am VERY excited to be participating in Vulvagraphics! Come by and say hello. I look forward to talking with you!
