Vulvagraphics: The New View Campaign’s Art Show Displays the Beauty and Diversity of Vulvas!

By Natalie Peart

As part of the New View Campaign’s effort to celebrate depictions of true-to-life female genital diversity, the group held a political art show, activist arena, and salon in New York City last fall, entitled: Vulvagraphics: An Intervention in Honor of Female Genital Diversity. The event was an attempt to counteract women’s constant bombardment with messages that induce anxiety, insecurity, and unrealistic expectations about their bodies, and to demonstrate that vulvas that are differently shaped, colored, sized, and aged are OK just as they are.

An arts event with education and activism on its agenda, the exhibit included many representations of female vulvas. The opening reception honored Betty Dodson for her long-time work as a graphic artist and sex educator; Dodson let everyone know that her orgasms were still going strong at age 80! The event included a wonderfully explicit display of photographs of vulvas of all shapes, colors, and sizes, including the photo mosaic V by artist Gene Greger.  Zoe Markwalter’s photo exhibit, Addressing the Box, featured photographs of vulvas and women’s thoughts about their bodies “down there”.  Alexandra Jacoby’s piece, vagina verité, a collection of portraits showcasing the uniqueness of vulvas that will appear in a book in February 2010. A reprint of Gustave Courbet’s painting, L’Origine du Monde (Origin of the World), was also included due to the painting’s graphic and realistic nature, which was considered controversial when it was first displayed in 1866 and which retains a striking power in the present day.

Nearby, multi-colored knitted vulvas created by the International Vulva Knitting Circle were displayed on a table. Dorrie Lane’s inviting and colossal Vulva Puppet, a giant vulva sewn from cloth and padding emphasized vulva beauty using both size and detail. Joani Blank’s popular photography book, Femalia, showcased vulvas’ splendor while Nancy Redd’s book, Body Drama (Gotham Press 2007), highlighted and explained “body issues” that are, too often, points of contention for women, such as vaginal, breast, and sexual health. The book includes wonderful photographs of young women of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities that promote the message of body acceptance and reject the notion that real images of the female form should be taboo. Video pieces drew the viewer into a world of vulval splendor, including: Zen Pussy, by sexual artiste Annie Sprinkle; Viva la Vulva, by Betty Dodson; and Vagina De/ReConstructia, by the subRosa Collective.

The New View Campaign, formed in 2000 by Leonore Tiefer, PhD, is a grassroots network that challenges the distorted and oversimplified messages about sexuality that the pharmaceutical and medical industries rely upon to sell drugs. Both the medical and pharmaceutical industries want people to believe that sexual problems are simple medical matters and that drugs and surgery  are quick, harmless  solutions. But sexual problems are complicated, sexuality is diverse, and no drug or medical procedure is without side effects. The New View Campaign seeks to expose the deceptions and consequences of the pharmaceutical industry’s involvement in sex research, sexuality education, and sexual treatments, and to generate alternatives to the medical model of sexuality. The Campaign calls for research and services driven by women's own needs and sexual realities rather than by commercial interests.

The Campaign has coordinated several events including conferences and continuing education programs, and has participated in Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee meetings. In 2008, the Campaign held its first street demonstration to protest the growth and lack of regulation of female genital cosmetic surgery, and picketed a cosmetic genital surgeon’s office in 2009. Women often choose vaginal cosmetic surgery based on misinformation about what “normal” genitalia looks like and how safe the procedure is, while doctors often fail to advertise surgery’s risks and focus instead on improving women’s “self-esteem”. The New View Campaign believes that women who are deciding about surgery must have all of the health and safety information at hand, and know that, in real life, women’s bodies are very diverse in appearance. (SKF to add reference to NWHN vaginal surgery article.)

Vulvagraphics was an outgrowth of these activities, designed to highlight women’s critical attitudes about their own genitals and bodies, and to protest the genital cosmetic surgery.  The event included both artists’ perspectives and attendees’ participation. At an installation called The Fitting Room, which parodied vaginal cosmetic alterations, participants were invited to “try on” a new, cosmetically altered vulva. As shown in the accompanying photo, the attendee participated by sitting on a stool and holding up a photograph of a “new” vulva, and thereby allowing her to admire her altered self in a nearby mirror. If trying on a new vulva was not appealing, participants were also invited to participate in Betty Dodson’s The Vulva Drawings, by coloring drawings of vulvas (see photo) and writing a letter to university Women’s Centers across the nation advocating for the provision of improved, extensive body and sexuality education.

Part of the event was a salon entitled “Critical Issues in Genital Activism”, featuring Dr. Tiefer, founder of the New View Campaign; Jon Knowles, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s (PPFA) Director of Public Information; Svetlana Mintcheva, the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Director of Programs; and Meika Loe, Associate Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Colgate University. The speakers discussed how public and policy discourse focuses on men’s sexuality and health and tends to ignore women’s sexual health (other than efforts to prohibit contraception and abortion) Dr. Tiefer talked about this discrepancy as it relates to the pharmaceutical companies and the medical community and, in  particular, to plastic surgeons. Knowles noted that PPFA’s sexual health pamphlets on puberty have more detailed information on boy’s sexual health than girls’ and failed to address girl’s genital diversity. He commented that Vulvagraphics had inspired him to create a new PPFA brochure entitled, You and Your Vulva. Mintcheva described her research on the prevalence of censorship of artistic images of female nudes, when images of male nudes tend not to generate similar complaints. In Loe’s hopeful speech, she spoke about educating men on the way in which men’s sexuality is marketed is detrimental to both men and women, and she advocated for not viewing women as objects that should all look a certain way.

 We cannot talk about women’s bodies and sexual health without talking about the patriarchy. Too often, the expression of men’s sexuality is encouraged, while women’s sexuality is viewed as threatening and something that needs to be “fixed” and/or suppressed. Images and media portrayals of women often make women feel guilty or ashamed of their breasts, vulvas, and desires and have the potential to create a disconnect between and a woman and her body. For example, Ms. Mintcheva described a controversy that occurred when a bank placed flowers in a public space, generating complaints about their resemblance to female genitalia — clearly, we have a major problem as a culture. Vulvagraphics was both a testament to, and celebration of, women taking charge of their sexual health by becoming informed about their own anatomy and physiology, the role of culture and diversity, and the impact of power and politics on their self conception.

Rachel Liebert, founder of the International Vulva Knitting Circle and New View Campaign member, commented: “I don’t want profit-driven industries to be the source of women’s information about their bodies and sexualities. I joined this project because it speaks back to a long history of shame, fear, and silence. It shows how beautiful our genitalia are, and celebrates girls and women collectively crafting and sharing resistance to false messages.” As Dr. Tiefer noted, “Girls and women need positive attitudes about their vulvas to feel comfortable with sex and intimacy and to be proactive about their health. But we can’t develop or sustain positive attitudes if the vulva images we see are post-operative, air-brushed, or drawn as hairless stick figure cartoons. Girls and women in the 21st century require self-confidence to resist misinformation. The New View Campaign is creating a nationwide movement to celebrate depictions of true-to-life female genital diversity.”

The New View Campaign facilitated Vulvagraphics with the assistance of the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Graduate Center and students from The New School. To see more photos and learn about the New View Campaign, visit the website at: http://www.newviewcampaign.org

Natalie Peart is a graduate of the University of South Florida with a degree in Women’s Studies and a double minor in Spanish Language and Public Health.  A certified yoga instructor, Natalie is currently an intern at The Feminist Press in New York City. Photos reprinted with permission from http://www.newviewcampaign.org/vulvagraphics.asp