Over HALF Of All Women Can't Identify Their Own Vaginas
I. Just. WHAT?!
WeHeartIt Did you know that according to a new study, half of all adult women can't identify their own vagina? When presented with a detailed chart of the female reproductive system, women couldn't identify the vagina, the clitoris, the fallopian tubes, the uterus or anything else!
Ready to get more incensed? When presented with an anatomical chart detailing a penis, foreskin and testes 70% OF WOMEN WERE LIKE, BOOM, I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THOSE THINGS ARE CALLED.
One in seven women, according to the same study, can name only one of the 7 most common forms of gynecological cancer.
God, I wish this were more surprising.
Generalizing about the female anatomy is a thing we're all guilty of doing.
For some, it's a holdover from an age where talking about your vagina was just not something that was ever acceptable. For others (myself included) using the catch-all word vagina to refer to a woman's junk is sometimes just easier to do than sitting down and writing out a chart labeling each particular part.
So, I get it. But I also don't get it.
Because while I might speak in broad strokes about my vagina I can break that whole shit down for you externally AND internally.
Yup, from my clit to my cervix, I get what's going on down there. I've never boasted about it before because I HAD NO IDEA THAT SO MANY PEOPLE ARE STILL SO DISCONNECTED FROM THEIR OWN BODIES.
We might poke fun of those 1970s era housewives who got together in groups to look at their vaginas (see what I did there?) and figure them out, but apparently it's a practice we shouldn't have stopped.
If you honestly don't know what is what down there, you don't know yourself.
Like, when someone offers you a cookie with nuts you can say "Oh no thanks, I've got a nut allergy", because that is a fact you know about yourself. But if you don't know where you clitoris is and a man assures you that it's your urethra, you have to take him at his word! With the cookie, not knowing about a nut allergy can lead to death. With your vagina, not knowing what's going on could lead to a totally unfulfilling sex life or worse!
If we don't familiarize ourselves with our bodies how can we fight for them? If we insist on remaining ignorant we're contributing to a culture that says women's bodies are dirtier or less valuable than men's bodies. If that sounds like a reach you just aren't thinking it through.
Our bodies gives us pleasure and give the human race life. The least we can do in return is be like, "oh yeah, those are my labia."