Free The Vagina || Let's Talk Lady Parts

Happy Valentine's Day guys. Let's celebrate it by talking about the vagina on the day of acceptance, romance and love. The day that most folk expect a bit of a fumble with their body parts. 

V-a-g-i-n-a, it's not a dirty word, it's not one that makes me snigger uncontrollably after saying it out loud and it's not one that's said with any embarrassment. There's too many people who are so ashamed by this word and what it portrays and you know, that kinda makes me sad. I'm not on the rampage here to change everyone's opinions on this taboo topic but, I am here to write about my opinions, give you some facts in hope that it increases your acceptance - if it inspires the inner feminist in you then even better (both male and females). 

Let's chat about those lady parts. 

What is a vagina? It's officially described as the ''muscular tube leading from the external genitals to the cervix of the uterus in women and female mammals''. Nothing grotty or disgusting with that is there? So there's been quite a bit of vagina shaming over the years and on the same hand there's been quite a growth in vagina warriors. 

The latest major shaming was Celebrity Big Brother where the housemates blatantly shamed Stephanie Davies about her discharge while sorting through the housemates undies. The terms used for this discharge was shocking, immature and downright infuriating as a woman and someone with common sense. It's this sort of behaviour that leads younger ladies to feel shame and embarrassment about their natural lady parts and that just makes me so sad. 

While it's easy for us to switch off a show but it was the shaming that came from the general public, social media and even celebrities after the episode had gone live that further propagated the idea that Stephanie's discharge was a shameful and hideously disgusting thing. I seriously thought that those spouting unnecessary hatred over that period had been hit with a stupidity stick. Maybe they had. 

So here's the down low on lady parts.... 

Discharge. It's normal for the bodies of girls of all ages to make discharge. Even girls who have yet to start their menstrual cycle can have discharge. Discharge amounts vary almost daily but the average amount of daily discharge released by the vagina is around a teaspoon (4ml apparently, like who seriously has the job of measuring the discharge for scientific value?). In the lead up to ovulation the consistency and volume increases and can include watery discharge and thicker stringy discharge which will vary in colour, and this can increase to thirty times more after ovulation as your body prepares to hold a baby or start a cycle. 

The colour of discharge can vary too. It can go from thin, watery and almost transparent, to a stringy egg yolk consistency to thick, white, lumpy or yellow tinged. Of course nearer the cycle or at the end of a woman's cycle this can become pink, red or almost brown as normal discharge becomes tinged with fresh and old blood. All of these colours are totally normal colours though! 

Vaginal discharge is made up of bacteria-both friendly lactobacillus bacteria, vaginal cells, proteins, amino acids, normal vaginal mucus which is released from the bartholin and skene glands to keep the vagina from drying up. You know it would actually be more worrying if a woman who was of menstrual age had no discharge. This would mean that the cervix and uterus wasn't cleaning itself, the vagina wasn't removing what it was supposed to and that the lady would probably be having a lot of pain down there due to vaginal dryness, thinned skin, cuts and tears, fissures, cysts and of course the inability to get pregnant or maintain a pregnancy. 

So why is the vagina such a taboo topic? I just don't get it? 

The worrying thing is that more brands are targeting these worries and creating unnecessary health and beauty products aimed at cleaning, deodorising (which makes me so mad), spritzing, tightening, bleaching, fragrance, grooming and even dying down there. One of my ultimate bug bears is that Always sanitary protection have added fragrance to their towels. 

Yes someone did say to me that I should buy ''unscented towels'' after I write the Vagina Flowers post but, here's the thing, I checked all of my local supermarkets and none of them had any unscented Always towels. I checked on Amazon and yes they have them but you're talking about £28.60 for two packs of 20 (this was the minimum price by the way) which is over seven times more than the normal cost of £2 for 18. It's so unfair. There's no way I was forking out that price either even when it would mean I could suffer through my cycle without vagina pain caused by an intolerance to the fragrance. 

I wonder if it was a male product if they would add fragrance to hide the natural scent of a penis? Hmm.... 

And you know what, don't even get me started on the miracle of birth, I mean a full baby being pushed out of a body part. I know that people talk about having a mangled vagina afterwards but seriously, the look of it doesn't really differ that much. Yes some people can get stitches, it does take a while to tighten up your pelvic floor but come on. A human baby comes out of the vagina. You came out of a vagina. Are you embarrassed by your house? The place that keeps you safe, warm and comforted? No? Then why be embarrassed by the word vagina and what it entails. 

Five random facts: 

Apple will let you engrave the word 'penis' or 'dick' on an iPad but not the word 'vagina'. 
There are many ladies who will go through life never having orgasm's during sex but can through masturbation. Again that's totally normal as statistics show that only 30% of ladies will orgasm through penetrative sex. 
There is still a tax on tampons which means that tampons are deemed less necessary in comparison to shelled nuts, cold takeaway food and bingo. The
The vagina will let you know when there's something not right but changing the colour, consistency or smell of your discharge. It will also tell you when you're fertile too. 
The vagina can expand up to two hundreds times the size during childbirth. 

I'll not keep this rant going but keep in mind vagina's are self cleaning. Don't use those heavily marketed products because they will throw off your PH and cause thrush. Keep in mind the vagina is an incredible and logical body part, it does amazing things guys. 

Free the vagina! 

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