Vagina. It has always been a word that rolls off the tongue a bit too awkwardly for me. It has always struck me as an incredibly clinical word – a word you should be ashamed to utter. The word has always been seen as something with negative connotations.

It has always been a word you whisper, feeling almost guilty of something for saying it. It has always been a word that would make persons glance at their vaginas and feel ashamed. This is not surprising. It has a lot to do with the way in which gendered approaches to anatomy have consistently castigated the vagina as something unworthy to be discussed and celebrated.

Twenty-one years ago, Eve Ensler wrote an episodic play dedicated to discussing the vagina. The play displayed a diverse set of women and their vagina-related experiences. Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, became an important conversation piece in the way women’s bodies, particularly their vaginas, were monitored fiercely. When the play was written, Ensler said that, “it was very difficult to say the word vagina anywhere. The public utterance of the word alone was explosive as so much of the truth about what happened to vaginas was repressed, denied, kept secret, and coated in shame and self-hatred.”

It is no surprise then that businesses have always been profiting from the cloak of silence and shame in which our vaginas are tightly wrapped. Snake oil merchants have come up with hordes of ideas to get us to spend money that we do not need to spend. They capitalise on our ignorance of our vaginas by selling us “tightening sticks,” “vaginal steams” and “douches,” just to name a few.

Of course, no one openly discusses the vagina, so how should we know that these things are dangerous to our vaginal health? They have monetised our fears regarding our vaginas and continue to sell us “solutions” to our vaginas — but we do not need solutions because there was absolutely nothing wrong with our vagina in the first place. We have continuously instilled in our girls that vaginal functions, smells and excretions are dirty. As a result, we grow up thinking that we need to mask and tame our vaginas. We always need to keep it in check, right?

Here’s the thing, vaginal smells do not need to be cloaked. Vaginas are supposed to smell like vaginas. They are not supposed to smell like floral breeze on a calm day. Everyone has their own particular smell and that is perfectly fine. If you are concerned about your scent, then you can place organic fragrances around, (inner thigh, abdomen etc.) but never on your vulva (outer parts of female genitals) itself. Placing things that contain any kind of chemicals in or around your vulva is a big no-no, unless specifically advised by a certified and competent gynaecologist. Also, the vagina is self-cleansing.

Douches and sprays upset the delicate PH balance of the vagina and flushes out healthy vaginal bacteria. This leaves your vagina as a sort of safe haven for bad bacteria that can cause some serious harm.
One of the most popular vaginal myths is that of the “loose” vagina. There has always been the belief that vaginas get loose after frequent sex or multiple partners. That is a myth that is actually kind of laughable. This myth most likely stemmed out of society’s need to control women’s sexualities and to ensure chasteness and fidelity. Age and childbirth are the two things actually responsible for the vagina becoming looser.

In the case of age, pelvic floor muscles become looser as you age, causing a looser vagina. In the case of child-bearing, the vagina becomes looser than it previously was given the relaxation of the pelvic floor during childbirth. Vaginas often take up to six weeks to heal after delivery. If you want a safe and actual effective way to tighten your vagina, then Kegel exercises are the way to go. Kegel exercises are honestly the mecca of vaginal health and are extremely fun to do. For those of you who don’t know, Kegel exercises involve the squeezing and relaxing of your vaginal muscles.

They help to tighten vaginal muscles and prevent a horde of other things such as leaking, which you absolutely do not want.
As an aside, a loose vagina during sex is actually a really good thing. When women are aroused, their vaginas become lubricated and looser so as to prepare itself to be entered. So, if it’s the case where the vagina is extremely tight during sex, that might not be a good thing as it may not be aroused enough. This of course can be uncomfortable, so communicating with your partner/s is very important.

The way, in which we truly take care and control of our lives and bodies, is by educating ourselves on it. A happy, healthy vagina is a big part in having a less stressful life. Do not continue to let big and small businesses alike continue to profit off of your fears that are frankly, not fears you should be concerned about. Your vagina needs no alterations. A happy, healthy vagina is a vagina that is left alone.