Vulva workshop
Vulva workshop
Written by Katrine Berg Sommer
Hello, my name is Katrine, I am in my third year studying International Environment and Development Studies at NMBU and I am interested in feminism. On a lovely evening in November, I held a vulva workshop for some very nice women. Those who wanted could get a cast of their vulva and there was otherwise an opportunity to draw and embroider. Now you’re probably thinking ‘vulva workshop?!?! What is that?’ and I get it. Especially if you have a penis and/or don’t quite know what a vulva is. So, let’s start there. A vulva is the outer parts of the genitals, such as the labia, the clitoris and the opening of the vagina, followed by the vagina, the inner part of the genitals.
A vulva has two ‘lips’, which can also be called labia (Speciallæge Trolle, 2022). There are the outer labia and the inner labia. Now that you got some anatomy lessons on women’s bodies, maybe you are even more confused about what this vulva workshop was about and maybe also why?!?.
You see, there is a rising number of women/ girls who want their inner labia operated to appear smaller (Whitney, 2018). And there can be various reasons for this. In 2016, one third of women wanted them reduced for functional reasons, a third for cosmetic reasons and a third a combination of both (Rosenberg & Morken, 2017). Numbers like this are very similar in Denmark. It is very good that you can get help and I am not saying that you are wrong if you have or want a labia reduction. I am pointing to a problem behind the fact that the majority also have an aesthetic motivation, which points at something being wrong with the way we show and talk about vulvas. Professionals point out that this can be connected to the pornification of society, where there is a standard for the appearance of the genitals, which does not represent what is actually normal (Pedersen, 2021). Unfortunately, this is not something that has been prioritized in health research until less than 10 years ago, and there is generally lacking literature on female genitalia. Fortunately, someone did something about this, and in 2015 both a Danish and a German study found that the inner labia vary greatly in width and general appearance among women (Pedersen, 2021). Out of hundreds of women, it was found that it is 50/50 if the inner labia extend below the outer labia, the average width was 1.5 centimetres and for one in ten women, 2.6 centimetres (Pedersen, 2021).
So, the point of this workshop (and now this writing) was to show and tell dear women and people with a vulva, that what’s normal is that vulvas vary a lot and are exactly as they should be. If you want social platforms and book recommendations, I put them at the bottom of this text. If you want to do it at home, it is quite harmless with alginate pulp (which is also used by the dentist) and then plaster in that form. The casting is done with an oval bowl that you can sit in and otherwise you can follow the instructions for use of alginate online.
Footnote: The text talks about women’s vulvas, but it is important to recognize that this applies to all genders that have a vulva. Not just those who identify as women.
Do you want to know more?
Vg has created a page with a lot of different knowledge about the vulva and vagina, with stories from different women who have “female” diseases, a 3D review of the genitals and lots of other things. (https://www.vg.no/spesial/2023/vgina/)
Instagram:
@Cono_Jewelry (Danish jewellery artist who casts and makes jewellery of vulvas, and shows the diversity)
@the.vulva.gallery (artists illustrating vulvas from anonymous people and celebrating vulva diversity
@Vulvarium (Austrian artist who makes casts of vulvas)
Books:
’Gleden med Skeden’ by Ellen Støkken Dahl and Nina Brochmann
’Gjennombløtt: En Bog om Menstruasjon’ by Maja Nyvang Christensen and Sine Cecilie Laub
’Vulva: det usynlige kjøn’ by Mithu Sanya
References:
Pedersen, M. C. (2021). Hvorfor får kvinder lavet deres kønslæber mindre? Vi gik helt tæt på et tabu. Og fandt en knude af dilemmaer De seneste ti år er efterspørgslen på intimkirurgi for kvinder steget. Under udviklingen gemmer sig en række problemstillinger, der ikke kan skæres væk. Zetland. https://www.zetland.dk/historie/ sOMVaJ3z-aoV3ME1j-4bc22
Rosenberg, B. E., & Morken, N.-H. (2017). Intimkirurgi i Norge. Tidsskriftet, 14. https://tidsskriftet.no/2017/06/debatt/ intimkirurgi-i-norge
Speciallæge Trolle, D. (2022). Kvindelige Kønsorganer. Sundhed.dk. https://www. sundhed.dk/borger/patienthaandbogen/ kvindesygdomme/om-kvindesygdomme/ kvindelige-koensorganer/
Whitney, J. (2018). Beauty below the Belt. The Polyphony. https://thepolyphony. org/2018/12/20/beauty-below-the-belt/
