The University of Sydney is dealing with an X-rated controversy caused by its student newspaper, which deliberately printed pictures of 18 students’ vaginas on its front page cover.
The student government, which officially publishes the paper, had learned about the planned cover ahead of time, and asked the editors of Honi Soit to censor the vaginas — the labia’s and clitorises, at least — by drawing black bars over them. Australia’s obscenity laws prohibit the publication of indecent images.
But the bars weren’t dark enough, and the printed covers left little to the imagination. Censored and uncensored versions of the cover can be found here.
Honi Soit’s editors said the entire project was intended as a protest against the idea of the vagina as an indecent image.
“Here they are, flaps and all,” wrote the editors on the newspaper’s Facebook page. “Don’t you dare tell me my body offends you.”
The editors also described the obscenity law as “ridiculous” in an online editorial.
The 18 women who participated in the cover shoot were all students at Sydney. Letting the newspaper take close-up shots of their vaginas and then publish the pictures was a liberating experience, the women said.
“It was a big ‘fuck you’ to all of the ideals, all of the shame, all of the hurtful lies that we are told about ourselves day in and day out,” said an anonymous student who posed for the cover.
We are tired of society giving us a myriad of things to feel about our own bodies. We are tired of having to attach anxiety to our vaginas. We are tired of vaginas being either artificially sexualized (see: porn) or stigmatized (see: censorship and airbrushing). We are tired of being pressured to be sexual, and then being shamed for being sexual.
The vaginas on the cover are not sexual. We are not always sexual. The vagina should and can be depicted in a non-sexual way – it’s just another body part. “Look at your hand, then look at your vagina,” said one participant in the project. “Can we really be so naïve to believe our vaginas the dirtiest, sexiest parts of our body?”
We refuse to manipulate our bodies to conform to your expectations of beauty. How often do you see an ungroomed vulva in an advertisement, a sex scene, or in a porno? Depictions of female genitalia in culture provide unrealistic images that most women are unable to live up to.
Beautiful vaginas are depicted as soft, hairless, and white.
The reality is that my vagina is dark and hairy, and when it isn’t it is pinkish and prickly, said one of the participants in the project. We believe that the fact that more than 1200 Australian women a year get labiaplasty is a symptom of a serious problem. How can society both refuse to look at our body part, call it offensive, and then demand it look a certain way?
As one participant put it: “When it comes down to it, my vagina is just another part of my body, which can be viewed in a number of different ways, but the majority of the time is completely neutral, just like my mouth or my hands. It is not something to be ashamed of; it is not my dirty secret.”
Just before we went to print, we were told that our cover was illegal, possibly criminal. But why? According to the SRC’s legal advice, this publication might be “obscene” or “indecent”, likely to cause offense to a “reasonable adult”.
But what is offensive or obscene about a body part that over half of the Australian population have? Why can’t we talk about it – why can’t we see it? Why is that penises are scrawled in graffiti all around the world, but we can’t bear to look at vaginas?
I raise a glass to these women.
As pointed out above, 1200 women get labiaplasty surgery in Australia every year and many thousands more worldwide, I’m sure, mostly to nip and tuck their labia to look “pretty” and “normal”…i.e. “porn vadge”.
Speaking as a vulva lover I think it’s very nice to see vulva’s portrayed in their natural states. Since porn images generally depict such a skewed view, where else are women going to see reality?
There is a reason that the media need to start publishing more realistic representations of women’s bits. Because at the moment women are being held up to an impossible and not real standard that is being applied to every single body part.
Faces must be pimple and wrinkle-free.
Breasts must be pert. And large. But not too large.
Stomachs must be smooth and abs distinctly visible.
Thighs must be skinny. Boxy gaps must be boxy.
Behinds must be curvaceous.
Legs must be waxed.
And vulva’s must be pretty.
In porn, where, let’s face it, most young people are learning about sex today, before they even get close to having sex, vulva’s are waxed, and cleaned, and anything but natural-looking. And that’s before the photo shopping even begins.
In men’s magazines labia’s are digitally removed and skin imperfections smoothed away, until all that remains where a vulva once was, is a Barbie-like lump.
The only way women will stop comparing themselves to these unrealistic images, is if the media starts pushing the envelope and publishing images of what women actually look like.
Whether the university or the government will take action against Honi Soit is currently unknown.
All the above reminds me of a old Jewish “muff” diving joke I heard some time ago: “With gums like that, how could you have teeth?”
