This Week in the War for Women: Fighting-for- Independence-Well-Armed Edition

     Costumes, dances, comedy nights, school tours, and art/artifact exhibits may be new for confronting stigma about female genitalia, but that’s what the world's first vagina museum means to do.

     Learning of Iceland's Phallological Museum—with hundreds of animal penises on display— Londoner Florence Schechter decidedt an outreaching museum for ladyparts could serve real needs, so she’s making it happen, currently by work-shopping and crowd-funding after a successful first exhibition in Scotland, August 2017.

     Schechter aims to create a space bringing together young and old, all genders —because "not everyone who has a vagina is a woman, and not every woman has a vagina"— to address female genital mutilation, rape, domestic abuse, sexual health, and related tough issues.

It’s important because this is a hugely stigmatized part of the body and that leads to real world consequences … anything and everything that's taboo with that part of the body is what we're going to be addressing.

     Feeling awkward about gynecological check-ups —cervical cancer screening, discussing menstruation etc— is very common. Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust charity did a survey in January, finding about 1 in 4 British women saying they don’t go, nearly 3/4 due to embarrassment. Periods alone are taboo in many cultures— e.g., Nepalese women banished to crude huts for the duration, an illegal centuries-old custom, yet deaths still occur from inhaling smoke of fires lit to keep warm.

     So, child-friendly school and family programs in the community are part of the museum’s local sex education outreach, to help kids feel safe talking from early age. "When they're ashamed of their bodies, it becomes really difficult for them [so this is about] destigmatizing this part of the body and being honest about what it does," Schechter said.

     The exhibit plans —ranging from science to society to culture to art—  won commendation at the 2017 Women Of The Future Awards. A crowdfunder was launched March 2019 to open free-admission temporary premises in Camden Market, warmly welcomed by the Camden Council, whose Leader, Georgia Gould, said:

Camden has a proud and radical history of challenging prejudice and orthodoxy ... we acknowledge that the stigma associated with talking about gynaecological health has meant ignorance, confusion, shame, and poor medical care for too many. 65 % of 16-to-25 year olds say they have a problem using the word vagina or vulva with almost half of 18-to-24 year old women say they are too embarrassed to talk about sexual health issues.

“We are therefore incredibly excited that the Vagina Museum is seeking to establish in Camden, and hope that it is funded to provide an inclusive and intersectional centre for learning, creativity, activism, and outreach that will add immeasurably to our collective understanding of our bodies.”^[33][34]

Opening is slated for November. Schechter says, "Having a bricks and mortar museum offers a space for the community to come together to say that this is a part of the body that should be celebrated.".