I want to dedicate this post to a topic that has been brought to my attention a lot recently. It is not necessarily related to fertility but I believe it is an important topic to share. There are many taboos and expectations placed on the vagina/penis. I was speaking with a close friend of mine and realized how disrespectful and outright mean people can be when referring to other people's genitalia. First of all, there is no golden standard as to what a vagina and vulva or penis should look like. There are a lot of varieties and each person's vagina/penis might look slightly different. Just as we have different fingerprints and handwriting, our vaginas/penises are also different. And just like we don't judge someone for their fingerprint or handwriting, we should not judge the way a vagina/penis looks. With the rise of the porn industry and social media, there is more access for people to decide what a "normal" vagina/penis looks like. I agree that we have more access to learn about our own bodies and that is wonderful but there is also the negative side of comparing and wanting to "fit the norm" portrayed in society. If a vagina/penis looks different in any way when compared to the ones seen in the sex industry, that person may be judged and made to feel ashamed.
In the cases where we get some sort of sex education, whether in school or from our parents, it is rarely mentioned that not all vaginas/penises look the same. We are brought up in a society where even images used for our education all portray the vagina/penis in the same way and so I don't necessarily blame teenagers and adolescents for thinking that their vaginas/penises have to look like these images to be normal. However, in the general population it is unlikely to find two vaginas/penises that are identical and the fact that people judge the way our genitalia looks is unacceptable. I like to emphasize that even though women seem to be judged more harshly for the way their vaginas look, it does happen to men and their penises as well. With the rise of information, I think we all owe it to ourselves and others to educate ourselves. We all need to learn to embrace our own bodies and accept that we are all different. We should not have to strive for the "picture perfect" vagina/penis. One of the reasons, it is harder for women when it comes to this topic is the fact that women are not allowed to speak about their vaginas/sexual arousal/orgasms/periods openly and are judges in a more harsh manner. Looking back in history, it took a long time for scientists to begin studying the vagina because it was considered unholy and wrong. Even to this day, in some parts of the world, women are shunted from society during their menstruation cycle because it is considered dirty. If we are not able to talk about normal physiological phenomenon, how are we able to learn and accept the differences that are among us. If we learn to speak openly about our vaginas and learn to embrace our differences, it takes away the taboo and could even lead to genital equality. The penis is not superior to the vagina just like men are not superior to women. We are equal and talking about/understanding/accepting our genitalia should also be equal. Expectations of a "normal" vagina/penis and judging someone for the way their genitalia looks is shallow minded and wrong. It is time for us all to embrace and accept our differences.
