The Ignorant Shaming of Labia Shapes

Push back against ignorance about vulvas & vaginas. We need places where women can talk about our bodies.

Image: Two ham sandwiches, side-by-side, held vertically. The images are clearly intended to represent vulvas. The ham in one is protruding, and it barely reaches the edge of the bread in the other. The caption says, “The reason I preact #Christianity. My daughters represent the right. Taylor Swift’s vagina represents the left.”

This tweet, created a Louisiana housewife and mother who claims to “spread positivity through Jesus Christ,” was first posted a few years ago, in July 2016. It keeps resurfacing, and each time it does, I am compelled to look at the comments.

Blatantly Inaccurate Body-Shaming

One would think that this blatantly inaccurate, body-shaming tweet would be met with derision. That we would all laugh together at the astronomical level of ignorance it conveys. Well, not so.

When I last looked at the comments, on a thread on Facebook, I was astounded to find two very common themes: One was boys, and men, loudly expressing their grossly-misinformed opinions about the shape, function and components of the vulva. While disheartening, you could say that to some degree this was to be expected. But the other is from many women, expressing their deep insecurities about their vulva, and their uncertainties about the ‘normalcy’ of the shape, color, texture & symmetry of their labia.

I’m going to open a parenthesis here. Four distinct groups of human beings have vulvas. I want to acknowledge that, and then…