Vagina, vagina, vulva

Ok so I know I've been talking about vaginas a lot and at the moment I am fuming to say the least.

I will not use euphemisms.

I will not  be saying ladygarden, pussy, fanny, vajayjay or whatever cutesy name is currently in vogue.

Why?

Because more and more I am seeing women being infantilised ( good word! very proud)  by the media, by movies and, what is worse, we seem to be playing along with it!

I read a recent article on Mamamia about the photoshopping of female genitalia in porn magazines in Australia. It seems the Australian government ( I don't know about any other countries as the article deals only with Australia but I am sure that it will be a Universal practise) likes nice, neat , "tidy" vaginas ( or vulvas. Whichever term you prefer).

Vaginas that do not  have labia minora on display.

Vaginas that have been "neatened"into a single cleft.

Vaginas that look more like something Barbie would have  were she to have a cleft at all.

Our vaginas, in their true form, are deemed too "offensive" for the classification board that rates the porn industry.

So what are women doing about it? Are we rising up and declaring that "our vaginas are perfectly ok thank you very much and leave your photoshopping tools on the desk" ?

Are we starting petitions about the adrogenising of our genitalia?

Are we screaming form the top of our lungs that we love our vaginas just the way they are?

NO!

We are waxing, lasering and getting surgery to CUT OFF OUR LABIA so that we fit this "acceptable"image.

We have done it with our bodies: we have had surgery to enhance our breast, liposuction to remove offending fat, starved so that we resemble  the models we see daily.

We have beaten ourselves up for our lack of self control for eating normal quantities of food.

We have purged and binged.

 We have felt like complete failures because we have tried and tried and tried to look like the models we see daily in the magazines and billboards. Images that the models themselves don not even look like once the photoshoppers tools have finished with them.

We have so lost sight of what a real women looks like that when we look in the mirror we are disgusted and appalled and ashamed with ourselves.
 
And now the same thing is being done with our most, intimate and sacred body part, our vagina.

And we are taking ourselves off to the plastic surgeons office, again, to try and achieve the perfect vagina.,  just like the ones in the magazines.

Even if we are not taking this extreme route it is seeping into our subconscious and make us feel less than whole, less than a woman. Just less.

Please, please please love your body. Know that who you are, how you look, all of you is enough exactly as it is today. Are you perfect? No but you are human. You have value, far, far beyond your looks.

You are unique and full of beauty.

Love yourself. All of yourself. Get comfortable with yourself - truly, it is the greatest gift you can give yourself.

Check out my book "The Goddess Guide To sex, Love and Life" for more advice on loving all of yourself.