Read My Lips (33 page)

What You Will Need

• alginate
  
• water
  
• a large, shallow bowl or medium-sized pan/tin
  
• plastic gloves
  
• plastic wrap (optional)
  
• Vaseline (optional)
  
• a large plastic bag (large trash bags work well)
  
• a comfortable place to sit sans pants for several minutes
  
• a book full of creative ideas for the vulva mold (check!)
  

Steps

1. Do you want to be a vulva moldel? There are probably lots of ways to go about this, but this is one way we recommend! You actually only need a few ingredients to create a vulva mold, and most of these can probably be found around the house. The only ingredient that you may not have is alginate. You can probably use several different things to make a cast, but we recommend alginate because that is what the artists we talked to recommend. Fortunately, purchasing alginate should not be a terribly difficult or expensive process. If they do not have it at your local arts-and-crafts store, you can find it for sale on numerous web sites. You don’t need a lot of alginate for a single mold, so no need to order a bulk size (unless you are having a vulva casting party!). When purchasing online, you may want to consider contacting the seller ahead of time to ask how much water he/she recommends adding to the alginate because it may vary by seller. However many cups of water it takes for you to completely submerge your vulva is probably about the amount of alginate you should order for a single vulva mold.
   
2. First things first, alginate can be messy and tricky to clean. You will want to cover your workspace with a non-porous material. Some extra trash bags or plastic shopping bags should do the trick! Cover all the areas of your home/clothing that you want to protect, as you would do with any other art project.
   
3. Once you have acquired some alginate and set up your workspace, the rest is easy. First, you have to decide how comfortable you are with the alginate touching your skin. It is possible that you may be allergic. If you decide to place it directly on your skin, it is a good idea to test it on your inner labia (they may be more sensitive than your other skin) at least twenty-four hours in advance. In addition to being sensitive or allergic, if you apply the alginate directly to your skin, you risk pulling out some very sensitive hairs down there. It may work for shorter hair if covered in Vaseline or another protective agent, but it is risky. Also, we don’t recommend putting it directly on your genitals if you have any cuts, sores, or scrapes. To be on the safe side, we recommend wrapping your genitals in plastic wrap or other material (e.g., latex for the allergy-free) that you feel comfortable placing on your genitals. Take some time with this. The more detailed your wrapping job, the more detailed your mold will be.
   
4. Once you have made sure that your genitals are ready to mold, pour the appropriate amount of alginate into a separate container (not the mixing/molding bowl), and fluff it with your hands until you have gotten out all of the lumps. Next, measure the appropriate amount of water. Every alginate is different, so be sure to follow the directions you were provided. Pour the water into the molding container, followed by the alginate.
   Quickly
   squeeze the batter through your fingers to smooth it as best you can.
   
5. Once the batter is mixed, you have to continue to move very quickly because alginate takes under ten minutes to dry. So place the molding tray on a pre-covered chair or floor, and position yourself strategically above it. Dip in as much of your genitals as you want included in the mold. Sit very still.
   
6. Approximately ten minutes later, the mold should have hardened. Carefully remove your genitals from the solution and . . . voila! Enjoy the vulvastic mold you just created!
   
7. The options are endless. You can paint it and put it on your wall (for the brave and bold) or in a drawer (for the brave and discreet). Consider adding some chocolate for a delicious, sexy treat or some soap for some good clean fun. Enjoy!
   

Interested but sound a little too complicated? You may want to consider purchasing a kit from an online retailer. We suggest the one from holisticwisdom.com.

During some of these parties, the women would gather together with speculums to look inside and learn all about their own vulvas, vaginas, and cervixes. We were not around during the time of these parties, so we can only imagine how liberating they must have felt for the women participants. Just think about how wonderful it would be to change your associations with speculums from the fear and discomfort you feel at the gynecologist’s office (if you are like many women) to feelings of excitement, curiosity, and sisterhood. Even if you are not interested in starting your own speculum party, you may be interested in purchasing one to learn all about the ins and outs of your vulva.

Betty Dodson

Many women in the United States attended and led consciousness-raising groups during the 1970s. One well-known group leader was Betty Dodson, a foremother in the genital advocacy movement. She has written several books (including
Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving
and
Orgasms for Two: The Joy of Partnersex
) that tell of her plight for genital-diversity awareness.
¹⁷
She came to accept her genitals only after looking over a series of “beaver shots” that depicted a normal range of genital images (these were obviously not today’s magazines—see Chapter 4: How Do I Look? for more information).

Inspired by the beauty of the natural diversity of women’s genitals, she took photos of numerous courageous women’s vulvas. Betty showed these pictures at a National Organization for Women conference in 1973 in a presentation titled “Creating a Genital Aesthetic.” For many women, this was the first time that they had ever seen genital images, and she writes about how shocked many of the women were to see these images.
¹⁷
After the picture show was finished, she was met with a resounding applause. Since then, she has continued to work tirelessly advocating for genital awareness and acceptance. One of the things she has become famous for are her masturbation workshops. Similar to speculum parties, Betty’s masturbation workshops focused on helping women to learn about their own bodies in order to enrich their potential for sexual pleasure and orgasm. She found that one of women’s biggest barriers to sexual pleasure was their anxiety about the appearance of their genitals. As such, in the masturbation circles, she would ask the women to go around and discuss these concerns honestly and openly with one another. Later in the session, they would have a genital show-and-tell, and some even had a genital portrait taken. It allowed the women to learn that their genitals were natural, normal, and beautiful. Betty has written extensively and taped several videos on this exact topic, which are now available on DVD. In our experience showing these films to women and men, we’ve found that more people come to appreciate their genitals—and learn a few tips for sexual pleasure as well.

Annie Sprinkle

Betty Dodson was not the only genital activist (or in her words, “vulvactionist”) who promoted genital acceptance through art. Annie Sprinkle has advocated similarly powerful genital messages. If the name itself doesn’t make you smile, maybe her work will. Sprinkle is a former sex worker/porn-star extraordinaire and a foremother in sex-positive feminism who continues to work as an activist and artist.
¹⁸
She has conducted a variety of art shows and engaged in numerous activist projects meant to disrupt the way that we think about women’s sexualized bodies. At one point in her earlier career, she created a small business with a close friend selling locks of pubic hair, vials of urine, and used panties. Does this sound like a list of things that you would dread confronting in a shared bathroom? Probably—but that’s exactly her point! They are all part of natural body functions and experiences and what it means to be human. And yet many of us feel repelled by these very things.

It makes us think of that book
Everyone Poops
.
¹⁹
Well, everyone urinates and pretty much everyone grows pubic hair and wears panties (at least some of the time). Yet, for some reason, we are embarrassed or ashamed about these things. Annie’s business venture pointed out that pubic hair and excretory functions are not only natural, but they can also be sexy! How great is that?! This is not her only urine venture, either. She would always end one totally amazing performance-art piece by standing upside-down and urinating a bright golden firework of a finale.
¹⁸
We never had a chance to attend the show, but we would put money on the fact that her audiences never left pissed (we couldn’t resist).

There are almost too many amazing Annie Sprinkle performance-art shows and presentations to count. However, one of the performance-art pieces of particular relevance to the vulva was her show “Post-Porn Modernist.”
¹⁸
Performed throughout the early 1990s, “Post-Porn Modernist” featured a segment brilliantly titled “The Public Cervix Announcement,” where she would unabashedly show her cervix to the audience members. She would start by douching, inserting a speculum into her vagina, and then asking the audience members to line up to view her cervix. Audience members who did were handed a flashlight and encouraged to ask questions. Sprinkle gave the audience three reasons why she thought it was important to show her cervix:
^{18, 20}

Reason number one: a cervix is such a beautiful thing and most people go through their whole lives and never get to see one. I’m really proud of mine, and I’d like to give that opportunity to anyone who’d like to have it. Reason number two is, I find it’s a lot of fun to show my cervix in little groups like this. And reason number three is, I want to prove to some of the guys out there that there are absolutely no teeth inside there.

Not only does Sprinkle try to remind the audience that the vulva and vagina are places of beauty and mystery, she also reassures the audience that they can be both safe and fun. Unfortunately, she no longer performs this particular performance-art piece, but she remains one of the foremothers of the sex-positive movement. For more about Sprinkle, check out our Resources section.

And Then There Was Eve

The 1960s and 1970s were a powerful time for the vulva-activism movement. Women from across the United States were uniting to discuss and discover their vulvas. Then, something happened. Maybe it was the new wave of feminism. Maybe it was everyone’s obsession with exercise (and body size) in the 1980s. However, feminist-consciousness groups came to a halt (not a screeching one—they still exist but are fewer and farther between) and with them, many women’s interest in discovering and understanding their bodies—or at least their vulvas. Sure, women like Betty and Annie persisted in their work, but overall, people stopped talking about vulvas, vaginas, cunts, and twats. For some time, vulvas and vaginas went underground and were rarely talked about in any mainstream way.

And then there was Eve.

In 1996, Eve Ensler came out with the now-infamous play,
The Vagina Monologues.
Based on interviews with approximately two hundred women, the play highlights a series of topics related to women’s vulvas and vaginas including menstruation, vaginal smell, taste, rape, sexual exploration, oppression, vaginal birth, pleasure, and the word “cunt.”
²¹
The play took off and became wildly popular. Over a period of years, celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, Julia Stiles, and Rosie Perez performed the monologues for various shows. It made the vagina a household name and opened up conversations around many topics that were previously considered too taboo to discuss. The show has been translated into numerous languages and continues to be performed across the globe (Debby has performed in local productions of
The Vagina Monologues
several times). If you are interested in seeing the show or being a part of it, many college campuses continue to perform the show annually.

FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention female genital-cutting practices, sometimes described as “female genital mutilation (FGM)” or “female genital circumcision,” depending on one’s perspective. Although many girls and women have suffered from the physical consequences or even died as a result of genital-cutting practices, the term FGM is offensive to many girls and women who have been circumcised and feel more beautiful or womanly as a result of the procedure. While we don’t like the idea of people cutting women’s vulvas—especially when they are children and may not be able to consent to the procedure or understand the potential for health complications—we also don’t like the idea of making women feel badly for something (like having been circumcised) that is a common part of their culture, which has happened to them (perhaps not by choice) and which they may embrace.

In fact, we’re far from the only feminists to face such a crisis of how to respond to female genital-cutting practices and even how to talk about them. Millions of pages have been written about the practice, and we certainly can’t do the cultural, sexual health, and very personal features of these practices justice in this book. But we do want to provide some basic information and suggest resources for more information in what we feel is culturally sensitive advocacy.

What It Entails

There are several different types of female genital-circumcision practices. In a 1994 article published in the
New England Journal of Medicine
, Dr. Nahid Toubia grouped these practices into four types
²²
: