@tova_leigh: "I recently visited a women's s*xuality exibition in Lisbon. The most striking piece was by an artist called Jamie McCartney @mcc.art.ney titled: The Great Wall of VagIna @thegreatwallofvagina which displayed hundreds of different vuLvas. There they were - all ages, all body types, with piercings, without, big lips, small lips, big cLits, small cLits, external, internal, some looked like flowers, some were round, some long, some were wide and some narrow... In fact, if you look closely you will notice how no two are exactly alike. Literally like snowflakes. I realised that if mine was on that wall I wouldn't be able to recognise it! What was also interesting was the conversation this wall instigated amongst those staring at it. One of my friends said "it's nice to know that mine is not 'droopy', I always thought it was but I see now that it's normal". My other friend didn't like it "being in her face" and couldn't shake the feeling of it being a little gross. It made me think about where that comes from. How is it that most of us don't even know what our downstairs looks like? How do we not know that there are so many different shapes? And why does society idolise the male genItalia but shame the female private parts? Female genItalia is often thought of as disgusting, the C word is considered the rudest word in the English dictionary. Many of us feel the need to present it well when we visit the gyno, we apologize for it being "odd" or "strange", we are grateful for anyone who wants to go down there to give us pleasure and these days many are even opting for plastic surgery to make it look "nice". It's startling when you realise how our culture has made many of us feel about a part of our body that is so unique that no two on this planet are exactly alike! The shame many of us feel, the fear that something is wrong with us just because society has brainwashed us to think so needs to end. So I went home after the exhibition, grabbed a mirror, lifted up one leg over my bathtub and said hello. I don't know about you, but personally I'd like to be able to recognise my own snowflake in a line up." @tova_leigh #art #exhibition #artist