"The rule is perfectly normal and not dirty at all!" reads the poster
Let's start with three facts: 65% of women between the ages of 16 and 25 admit to having a problem with the words “vagina” and “vulva”. More than half of the British public cannot describe the function or visually identify the vagina (52%), the lips (47%) or the urethra (58%). And the third: more than a quarter of English women between the ages of 25 and 29 feel so embarrassed about having Pap smears used to detect cervical cancer… that they don't do them.
Against this background, it is not surprising that Florence Schechter decided to open the first Vagina Museum of the world. After all, there is already one about the penis in Iceland, thought the science communicator, who owns a science channel with millions of views and has worked as a television presenter.
Located in Camden Town (London), The Vagina Museum aims to create a safe space in which to publicize the female sexual system, or a subject that is still taboo even in “developed” societies , as Schechter herself has been able to verify.
In fact, the pioneer finally came up with the idea of giving the center a stable space after organizing itinerant exhibitions related to the vagina since 2017. During them, she realized something: “ People are desperate to know more about these matters because it's something they care about, but they struggle to find a safe and inclusive space in which to have these conversations,” she says.
It seems to be true: her museum, Free seven days a week It has been built thanks to more than a thousand individual contributions that have managed to add around 50,000 pounds (almost 60,000 euros).
Opened at the end of November, the center is showing its first exhibition: Muff Busters: Vagina Myths and How to Fight Them, which aims to break with the lies generated around this part of the body through the centuries -and the internet!-, many of which have penetrated to the bottom of society.
“The myths and legends surrounding gynecological anatomy have perpetuated a 'norm' according to which this area of the body should look, smell and taste a certain way, and even how its owners and the rest should interact with it. This, when added to a lack of basic anatomical knowledge, leaves people with vaginas and vulvas in the worrying scenario of not knowing how to relate to their bodies. My hope is that this exhibition marks the beginning of that change of mind, and starts a conversation about it”, defends Sara Creed, curator of the necessary museum.