But the more she thought about photographing women’s vulvas, the more necessary she felt it was. I feel like it’s just men telling women what to do again with their bodies. It’s so important for women to know what vulvas look like.
Dodsworth’s book and film arrive at a time when the vulva appears to be having a cultural moment. She says the project has had a profound impact on her own life. However, body parts play a very definitive part of what it is to be a man or a woman.” There is a spread of shapes, sizes and pubic hair that you don’t see in pornography, or in any mainstream context.
I marched at Pride decorated with body paint and had my tits out but there were objections. There are two things that my family don’t know about me that would push them over the edge. I want to find out who the real me is because, at 30, I still don’t know. I’m trying to stop worrying about what other people think of me. My labia also used to get caught in tampon applicators, so now I can use tampons. I feel more comfortable day-to-day; sitting down or crossing my legs in jeans.
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“This time, women were revealing themselves to themselves. “I feel like men were revealing themselves to a woman, in a sympathetic space,” Dodsworth says. Dodsworth’s vulva shoots were a very different experience from Manhood. Vulvas are rarely seen outside porn and childbirth, which Dodsworth puts down partly to their position on the body. Then there was a description in a health leaflet of the vagina as a “front hole” – language she felt was inaccurate and harmful. I felt a deep sense of shame about my body, which over time became crippling.
“I thought perhaps the rise in labiaplasty wouldn’t be happening if people understood more about what other women looked like,” she says. The ageing process is interesting, because people talk about your body going south and they mean your breasts, face and tummy, but of course your vulva goes south, too. I don’t buy into other people’s cuntspin ideas as to how I should view my body. I ask Dodsworth if it feels right to call a project about vulvas Womanhood, since it implies that sex equals gender. The very fact that vulvas feel so controversial to look at underlines the power of the project. For many women, being photographed was the first time they had looked at this part of their body in close detail.
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If I had read this book during my adolescence, would my perspective on my body be different? She states that the vulva is often perceived solely as a location for sexual activity. In my mind, touching it gives the impression of vastness—because I clung to significant memories from a traumatic birth. She informs me that she wouldn’t ask anyone to do anything she wouldn’t do herself. I’m in it,“ she shares. „Some women were trembling, questioning whether they were normal.
I underwent a procedure to remove my cervix, the adjacent tissue, and the upper third of my vagina, and thankfully, I didn’t require any additional treatment, such as chemotherapy. Many vulvas have been seen, touched, and indeed revered by me. Although I identify as Pakistani, I don’t often disclose that I am no longer a Muslim. I frequently discuss how women seldom look at their vaginas; we rarely even converse about them.
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I felt angry that the part of my body which defines a lot of women, and is central to women’s identity, had done a number on me at such a young age. I had my cervix removed, the surrounding tissue area and the top third of my vagina and, thank God, didn’t need further treatment, like chemotherapy. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at vulvas and watching them open as babies come out. The pages are filled with people of all ages and sexual orientations, speaking honestly about key life experiences. They are visible, whereas vulvas aren’t. When I read about women around the world having FGM, I felt sick.” She read a news story about girls as young as nine asking UK doctors for labiaplasty.
As far as I’m concerned it’s better than what was there before. I feel relief after an orgasm, rather than confusion. My vagina is just as sensitive as the penis before it. The testicles go, and they use the scrotum skin to make the labia. The whole thing gets sewn up, inverted and they make a space, between the prostate and the anus, so it’s in there.
These six anonymous women – who bravely bared all for Laura’s project – prove just that… If I’d seen and read this when I was 18, I think my entire life would have been different. It’s a pivotal experience to do something like this because it’s so exposing. “I’ve always made a conscious attempt to photograph body parts in a way which is simple, comparative and non-sexualised. Because if you find yourself feeling admiration, pride and inspiration for another person, it becomes easier to apply that to yourself, too.”
I thought the area of the vagina should look like the ones that I’d seen in porn on the internet, and they looked the exact polar opposite to mine. We saw the variations in labia and inside vaginas, the ways in which we were incredibly different, and yet had something in common, too. This little vulva is 77 years old now, so it’s gone through rather a lot. My legs, my face, my hands, I can see those changes, but I don’t see the changes in my vagina all the time.
Moreover, my vagina is now shorter, preventing me from experiencing the same level of pleasure I once did. As a woman, I feel somewhat incomplete since we are expected to bear children.
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It took me a good few months to feel like it again. It’s amazing to think how much the vagina stretches. Both of my births were vaginal and pretty good. Your partner can support you, but other than the initial sex, all the rest of it is up to you and your body. When I was younger, I didn’t think a lot about what being a woman was. I have some similar experiences to other women.