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LADY P-ARTS:
HOW ART IS AIDING SEXUAL LIBERATION AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN
September, 2020
Vagina, Vulva, Pussy, Flower or Hairy Potter. Whatever you choose to call it, creators are breaking down the stigma down there
Published in Issue 1, 2020 of the Swanston Gazette. Click the link to read the magazine or see the story below.
PUSSY POT VIA INSTAGRAM @P.U.S.S.Y_P.O.T.S
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HOW ART IS AIDING SEXUAL LIBERATION AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN: Work
School girls whisper it, their cheeks painted scarlet as the word slips between their lips. Grown women pause before uttering it in a busy café, worried they will receive looks. We have other names for it, ‘nicer’ sounding ones, in order to escape having to say the word.
49.8% of the current world’s population has one, yet we struggle to say the word vagina, often too embarrassed.
Vulva Tea Cosies artist, Lulu Geraghty recounted a conversation with a mum at school. The mother couldn’t say vagina when talking about some “work” she’d had to have done. “It really surprised me, I’m a woman having a conversation with another women and she couldn’t say the word”. She recalls the other mum going red and giggling when Geraghty said “do you mean vagina”?
This inability to use the term and openly talk about vaginas means women have been and still are in the dark.
Meredith Ford, ceramicist and creator of PUSSYPOTS, spends a lot of time surrounded by other young feminists. However, even amongst progressive groups the conversation is hard to have. “We talk about a lot of things but we don’t really talk about our bodies or our anatomy...it’s only with a very few select people that we talk about sex and pleasure”. She feels if they aren’t having the conversation others “aren’t even getting near them, and [there’s] the simple fact that people don’t know the difference between their vulvas and their vaginas”.
For those wondering ‘How does someone not know what a vagina is’? Well it’s actually quite common, and not just restricted to men. The vagina, speaking anatomically, is an internal organ while the vulva - most commonly and incorrectly referred to as the vagina - is the external part. A 2016 survey of 1000 English women (The Eve Appeal) found 44% were unable to name the vagina on a medical illustration while 66% couldn’t identify the vulva.
A conversation with a friend led Ford to realise how unsurprising the mistake really was. “[My friend said] is it really any wonder the word we use to sum up [Female Sexual Organs] is the place where the dick goes in and the baby comes out”.
The lack of knowledge surrounding female gynecology is alarming and has led to many misconceptions. According to the Camden Vagina Museum “Like many subjects underrepresented in society and education, more myths and legends exist in popular culture about all things “down there” than fact”.
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HOW ART IS AIDING SEXUAL LIBERATION AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN: Text
NEWEST ATTRACTION IN TOWN, CAMDEN VAGINA MUSEUM. CLAUDIA SKUBEL
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HOW ART IS AIDING SEXUAL LIBERATION AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN: Image
These myths range from cleanliness – it’s not supposed to smell like flowers - to the actual appearance of the vulva (genital self-image is a thing by the way). “Many young women feel anxiety about what their vulva looks like” says Geraghty. She isn’t very surprised though. “It’s such a taboo topic and all you’re seeing is an airbrushed image...mainstream media delivers a very narrow and sanitized version”.
While many are ready to point the finger at porn, which is to an extent still to blame, it needs to share its blame with something more serious. Vulvas are also commonly found in textbooks and doctors’ offices in the form of anatomical illustrations. Almost always rounded, perfect and symmetrical. How is society supposed to know what’s normal if the experts can’t even represent it correctly?
This is where art is helping educate and redefine the norm. Both artists mentioned the worrying rise in Labiaplasty – a cosmetic surgery which alters the flaps around the vulva opening – as one of the reasons for starting their vulva art. They wanted to show the diversity and how beautiful vulvas are.
“I try to make them all different and normal, I don’t use a pattern. I make them frilly, and big, and small, and hairy” laughs Geraghty. Ford states how the diversity has really surprised people “and I probably haven’t even scratched the surface of the diversity that exists”.
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HOW ART IS AIDING SEXUAL LIBERATION AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN: Text
VULVA TEA COSIE VIA INSTAGRAM
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HOW ART IS AIDING SEXUAL LIBERATION AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN: Image
This is what art is about, it shows people what’s out there and starts the conversation on harder more controversial topics. Art is “something that can speak to a really wide audience...it’s accessible and prominent in everyone’s lives” says feminist and artist Amy McCole. “With more exposure, we’ll become more comfortable with talking about vaginas and it being part of our lives rather than shying away”.
Conversation was what surprised Geraghty most. “I had this idea that it would open up conversation, and that seems like a pretty idealistic and wholesome idea, but it works”. Ford says it may be because “rather than approaching someone and saying “um do you feel comfortable with your vulva? Should we have a conversation about it? Do you know what other people’s look like?” It can kind of be one step removed”. “[You] can approach it together...and sort of say “ooh that’s interesting, that makes me wonder how many other people look like that””.
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HOW ART IS AIDING SEXUAL LIBERATION AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN: Text
PUSSY POTS VIA INSTAGRAM
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HOW ART IS AIDING SEXUAL LIBERATION AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN: Image
While both have had fairly positive experiences. They have also experienced their fair amount of trolls. “There’s been a chain around women’s bodies for so long and I think men are intimidated by women owning their pleasure and knowing about their bodies’” McCole says. There is also the idea “that they’re gross, and smelly, and ugly” she adds. While trolls are unfortunately commonplace on social media, Ford says it has opened up some good educational conversations. “I’ve had a few people leave quite negative comments on my page, who I have then invited to pick up the conversation by private message”.
Creators like Ford and Geraghty are helping change and shape society’s perceptions. By crocheting and carving vulvas into their art they make it easier for women to say that word, that stupidly simple yet difficult word. They show women and others what vaginas should and do look like, all frills attached. But most importantly, they start the conversation. They make it normal and make women feel normal. Ford says “it’s not rocket science, it’s a pot with a vulva on it”. Unfortunately breaking stigmas is sometime rocket science.
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Like what you saw?
Lulu Geraghty is an artist based in Brisbane, Australia
You can find her on Instagram @lulugeraghty
Or visit her website: www.lulugeraghty.art
Meredith Ford is a ceramicist based in Hackney, London
You can find her on Instagram @p.u.s.s.y_p.o.t.s
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HOW ART IS AIDING SEXUAL LIBERATION AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN: Text
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