Women! Be Ashamed of your Genitalia!

Vojera

I saw this article on twitter this morning, complaining about the launch of a new range of products to help your vulva look nicer. I have to say, I do tend to agree with the attitude that this is all a bit stupid.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with people who want to use products to pamper themselves, but it feels to me like this message of "hey, your genital area is rubbish and you need to buy our products to be acceptable" is becoming more and more widespread. Between this and Gwyneth Paltrow's "vaginal steaming" and jade egg nonsense, is there now no part of a woman's body that can't be marketed as needing improvement?

What do ye think?

sullivlo

Vojera wrote: »

I saw this article on twitter this morning, complaining about the launch of a new range of products to help your vulva look nicer. I have to say, I do tend to agree with the attitude that this is all a bit stupid.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with people who want to use products to pamper themselves, but it feels to me like this message of "hey, your genital area is rubbish and you need to buy our products to be acceptable" is becoming more and more widespread. Between this and Gwyneth Paltrow's "vaginal steaming" and jade egg nonsense, is there now no part of a woman's body that can't be marketed as needing improvement?

What do ye think?

Yeah, saw that lovely V highlighter advertised last night. Sign me up!




Not.

Wtf like. We all have genitals. Nobody has amazing looking genitals. There's no need to make your genitals look pretty. I can't ever see a scenario where you're getting down and dirty and your partner in crime says "no, sorry, your vag is too ugly, put on some primer".

baby and crumble

The one that got me was the glitter pill.

No. Just no.

robyntmorton

baby and crumble wrote: »

The one that got me was the glitter pill.

Because everyone should be shiny and sparkly and glittery down there all the time!

The trouble is someone will buy into it though.

baby and crumble

TBH if I was having fun with a lady and started getting even more frisky and all of a sudden there's glitter everywhere I would freak the hell out. It's a nightmare to get out of clothes, imagine getting it out from between your teeth?

Vojera

baby and crumble wrote: »

TBH if I was having fun with a lady and started getting even more frisky and all of a sudden there's glitter everywhere I would freak the hell out. It's a nightmare to get out of clothes, imagine getting it out from between your teeth?

:pac::pac::pac: Too right!

I would hate to think my missus was buying into all this crap because she was worried about me not liking her appearance.

Which makes me wonder - do partners really give a crap or is this a marketing invention? Wrong forum to ask, really.

baby and crumble

TBH I reckon it's like most nakedness. If someone likes you enough to want to see you naked and do things, they're not going to be like "oh god, cellulite" or whatever. It's going to be like "OMG dude she's naked. Don't **** this up"

Scarinae

It's just another thing to make women feel insecure about so that they can market products to us that we don't need.

I don't see the point of putting makeup on my genitals to be honest; and even if I did, wouldn't it all get smudged off by my underwear? I don't always wear makeup on my actual face so I'm certainly not going to be applying it anywhere else.

Also do you remember that vajazzle trend a few years ago where you'd put patterns on your pubic region with diamenté gems - that sounds like it would incredibly uncomfortable if you actually did get the ride :eek:

At least bleaching your vulva doesn't seem to have become a big thing over here the way it has in other cultures, as exemplified by this Indian advertisement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i172liZ8Rk4

bee06

Jesus! I don't put highlighter in my face never mind my vagina! I can honestly say, with even asking, that my husband doesn't give a flying f*ck what my vagina looks like.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

How's it even work? Pretty awkward angle like, do you squat of a mirror or what the ****?

The anti-wrinkle cream is the funniest one, I'm imagining a wrinkle free vulva and er, no.

It is pretty striking that they can't even seem to bring themselves to use the words vagina or vulva or labia. This can go feck off. I'm able to laugh at It but for young girls or people with serious hang-ups I'd be worried.

Well, facial real estate has been absolutely exhausted now that eyebrows have about ten different products aimed at them, and women aren't groomed until they look either surprised or suspicious or even just like Groucho Marx. It's not surprising they had to look elsewhere to foster insecurities that can only be allayed by the purchase of a product.

I watched a friend put highlighter on her collarbone once, because nothing boosts your confidence like a shiny collarbone - a tip she picked up in a magazine. Beauty editors are given trips to product launches, generous gift packs to sample and review, and other incentives to plug a product, so of course you're going to see crap like this rubbish being promoted by rags with no conscience when it comes to creating insecurities.

I was always suspicious of the beauty industry giants, but talking to a friend who's a cosmetic chemist formerly employed by the biggest of those companies would turn your stomach at the underhand tactics used to make women feel bad enough about themselves to buy whatever they're trying to plug at the time.

It absolutely doesn't surprise me this is a thing now. Porn and the prevalence of the labiaplasty and other enhancements availed of by porn performers has given people an artificial expectation of how genitals should look, and in comparison an unenhanced vulva looks different - and different is now inferior in many peoples minds.

Hopefully the ludicrousness of putting makeup on your undercarriage will kill this crap dead in the water, at some point it's up to women themselves to put an end to the constant cycle of manufacturing and exploiting insecurities by faceless corporations who think we're just stupid enough to worry that our functional body parts aren't pretty enough to be loved - because nobody loves a wrinkly vulva. Or even recognizes one. Or ever thinks about it. Until now.

RacoonQueen

Hang on. This is make up? For you vagina? Really?

pwurple

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Hang on. This is make up? For you vagina? Really?

Surely vulva. Unless you're getting the speculum out, who ever sees a vagina?

Actually, this is a little bugbear of mine, where women are told the wrong names on media etc.
Here we go. Vagina is internal. Vulva is the grouping of the labium, pubis, clitoris.



I even saw it on that naked dating channel 4 program, which is supposed to body positive.

bee06

The title of the article is "Don’t Panic, You Can Now Get Highlighter For Your Vagina" which is most likely the reason other posters (including me) were referring to vagina with our disbelieving comments.

Ice Storm

It's actually a bugbear of mine how on a thread like this, there is guaranteed to be a woman along to inform other women that their terminology is incorrect.

pwurple

bee06 wrote: »

The title of the article is "Don’t Panic, You Can Now Get Highlighter For Your Vagina" which is most likely the reason other posters (including me) were referring to vagina with our disbelieving comments.

Exactly. It is so bloody annoying that women's own body parts can't even get the basic respect of being named correctly. It is EVERYWHERE.

Wtf is that about?

pwurple

Ice Storm wrote: »

It's actually a bugbear of mine how on a thread like this, there is guaranteed to be a woman along to inform other women that their terminology is incorrect.

Oh lord, don't wave that red rag at me!

I find it odd that you think it's ok to just muddle up women's body parts like it doesn't matter.

Sure they're all the same area is it? Or, pfft, it's only the females, who cares, AmIright?

Teachers, the media, chlidren themselves... remembering someone, or somethings name is respect. And it filters down.

Pet names, grand, whatever works... my eldest daughters called her vulva her "front bum" for ages... but when she started calling it her vagina (because this is what they were talking about in school) , damn right I corrected her. It is a different part of the body. We don't go around calling our shoulder our knee. Why is this ok for women's genitals?


Oh and yeah, sorry, back on topic, cosmetics for your genitals is baboon-like. Is this what millenials are at? Inspecting each others genitals by whatsapp before agreeing to meet up? Give me strength.

Hannibal_Smith

pwurple wrote: »

Oh lord, don't wave that red rag at me!

I find it odd that you think it's ok to just muddle up women's body parts like it doesn't matter.

Sure they're all the same area is it? Or, pfft, it's only the females, who cares, AmIright?

Teachers, the media, chlidren themselves... remembering someone, or somethings name is respect. And it filters down.

Pet names, grand, whatever works... my eldest daughters called her vulva her "front bum" for ages... but when she started calling it her vagina (because this is what they were talking about in school) , damn right I corrected her. It is a different part of the body. We don't go around calling our shoulder our knee. Why is this ok for women's genitals?


Oh and yeah, sorry, back on topic, cosmetics for your genitals is baboon-like. Is this what millenials are at? Inspecting each others genitals by whatsapp before agreeing to meet up? Give me strength.

If you're going to be that pedantic, how is putting cosmetics on your genitals baboon like? I've never seen a baboon with a compact applying make up to their genitalia. Isn't that disrespectful to baboons ? :pac:

bee06

pwurple wrote: »

Exactly. It is so bloody annoying that women's own body parts can't even get the basic respect of being named correctly. It is EVERYWHERE.

Wtf is that about?

I get what you're saying now. To be honest I can't say it's something I've ever noticed or thought about though. And I think we all agree that whatever it's called it doesn't need highlighter!

meeeeh

I would think it's actually real life mimicking porn. Everyone is outraged about this but it's just the next step after hair became unacceptable. It's a bit late to complain about it now. People in general are becoming more narcissistic anyway. After lip fillers, botox, breast enhancement, anus bleaching and whatever else is out there, this isn't surprising, it's not even particularly extreme. In a way it's good if people are worried about the look of their vulva, it means they are not worried about where their next meal is coming from.

Anyway I don't like it and if was majority of women don't like it, it will flop and then we can go back to teeth whitening or some other 'essential' procedure.

pwurple

Hannibal_Smith wrote: »

If you're going to be that pedantic, how is putting cosmetics on your genitals baboon like? I've never seen a baboon with a compact applying make up to their genitalia. Isn't that disrespectful to baboons ? :pac:

Lol.

Sorry, that was slightly obscure alright! I meant the display and comparison of genitalia pre-mating. Going for the 'right' shape and colour.

I think mandrills do it too, just in case any baboons reading this were offended by being compared to vuvla bleaching women....

eviltwin

Personally I think companies can try flogging any old crap they like, we ultimately choose whether to buy it or not. I think make up for your bits is comical, it reads like a sketch, hard to believe it's genuine but we should treat it as the joke it is. I think sometimes we give too much space and time to these things like they are worthy of the attention and that just gives them the publicity they need.

robyntmorton

Unfortunately there is always someone willing to buy.

When I was blogging I received a press release about a new IV fluid treatment that was meant to be the bees knees. It was essentially a bag of saline. Price tag attached - about €400 a go. I broke myself laughing then remembered that someone would see it and say "yeah, I need that"

RoisinClare6

I think she's grand the way she is!

Neyite

baby and crumble wrote: »

TBH if I was having fun with a lady and started getting even more frisky and all of a sudden there's glitter everywhere I would freak the hell out. It's a nightmare to get out of clothes, imagine getting it out from between your teeth?

Glitter is the herpes of the craft world. It's bad enough in something your kid brings home from playschool but in my underwear or all over all my clothes? No way!

kylith

pwurple wrote: »

Oh lord, don't wave that red rag at me!

I find it odd that you think it's ok to just muddle up women's body parts like it doesn't matter.

Sure they're all the same area is it? Or, pfft, it's only the females, who cares, AmIright?

Teachers, the media, chlidren themselves... remembering someone, or somethings name is respect. And it filters down.

Pet names, grand, whatever works... my eldest daughters called her vulva her "front bum" for ages... but when she started calling it her vagina (because this is what they were talking about in school) , damn right I corrected her. It is a different part of the body. We don't go around calling our shoulder our knee. Why is this ok for women's genitals?

Fair point, IMO. No one would call a penis a scrotum and say 'close enough'. In a world where knowledge about the female anatomy is so poor that there are grown adults that think women urinate through the vagina and babies are born from the anus using correct terms is important.

Candie

Candie wrote: »

Well, facial real estate has been absolutely exhausted now that eyebrows have about ten different products aimed at them, and women aren't groomed until they look either surprised or suspicious or even just like Groucho Marx.

:pac::pac: feckin' brilliant :pac::pac:

eviltwin wrote: »

Personally I think companies can try flogging any old crap they like, we ultimately choose whether to buy it or not.

And therein lies the problem, these people can make whatever the hell they want. If someone wants to buy it, why wouldn't they?

But then ...

Candie wrote: »

I was always suspicious of the beauty industry giants, but talking to a friend who's a cosmetic chemist formerly employed by the biggest of those companies would turn your stomach at the underhand tactics used to make women feel bad enough about themselves to buy whatever they're trying to plug at the time

At this stage I have no sympathy for women who buy beauty magazines and fall for this crap, they're their own worst enemy.

Did you hear the one about the mother who was going to see her gynaecologist for a check up and gave herself a quick wash with a cloth and then threw it in the laundry.

When she was in the stirrups the doctor murmured something like "nice to see someone making an effort".

She gets home and her daughter says, "Mom did you see my cloth full of sparkles anywhere?" :pac:

Bambi985

Candie wrote: »

I watched a friend put highlighter on her collarbone once, because nothing boosts your confidence like a shiny collarbone - a tip she picked up in a magazine.

I do this quite regularly. It makes you look fabulous particularly if your shoulders will be on display, all dewy and glowy It's just a bit of fun with makeup really, a tip I read online or in a magazine or something. Nothing that represents a deep-seated sense of inadequacy over my own bare shoulders. Just...makeup.

Listen, we can take or leave these things as we choose at the end of the day. For every handful of women who see this glorious V-highlighter and think "fcuk right off" I'm sure there'll be at least one who thinks "hmm, this might enhance that Hollywood I've just had" or whatever. We're already at the point where waxing your lady bits bare is considered "the norm" and the regular state of affairs down there - a concept which didn't even exist outside of pornography 20 years ago. How can an already-naked vajajay be profitable? Ah yes. Some slap for it. etc

Vojera

Bambi985 wrote: »

For every handful of women who see this glorious V-highlighter and think "fcuk right off" I'm sure there'll be at least one who thinks "hmm, this might enhance that Hollywood I've just had" or whatever.

I know it's a choice for each person, whether they go with something like this or not, but I worry a lot about the self-esteem of young women being constantly told that they need to buy products or look a certain way to be attractive. It's part of a larger conversation, I suppose.

I think I'm a bit sensitive to this sort of thing because of a conversation I had with my niece last week. She's eight years old and she was showing me an app to give us "crazy make-up faces", and we had a lot of fun giving ourselves outrageous hair-dos and funny lipsticks and that sort of thing. But then she started using this slimming tool on herself and, in all sincerity, told me that she really needs to because "look how fat [her] arms are". I'll say again: she's eight and she's perfect. Not just through rose-coloured glasses, she really is a normal weight for her height and is quite active. And it makes me sad that she thinks that about herself already.

Bambi985

Vojera wrote: »

I think I'm a bit sensitive to this sort of thing because of a conversation I had with my niece last week. She's eight years old and she was showing me an app to give us "crazy make-up faces", and we had a lot of fun giving ourselves outrageous hair-dos and funny lipsticks and that sort of thing. But then she started using this slimming tool on herself and, in all sincerity, told me that she really needs to because "look how fat [her] arms are". I'll say again: she's eight and she's perfect. Not just through rose-coloured glasses, she really is a normal weight for her height and is quite active. And it makes me sad that she thinks that about herself already.

Indeed it is sad. And I also I remember playing dress-up in a friend's house as a kid during the early 90s, her mum having a great laugh taking photos of us and me being appalled at how "chubby" my ten-year-old legs were when I saw the photos a week later. As a healthy and sport and completely normal-weight kid. Skinny if anything. I remember dieting too. I had a bad ass take-no-prisoners crime-fighting superhero mother who never stopped telling me how great I was and it was before I'd ever buried my nose in Bliss or Sugar magazine or any of that shyte too.

It starts from a young age but that's not a new thing. It might be more intensely focused now with social media but those kinds of pressures and that kind of predatory marketing directed at women's insecurities has always been around and probably always will be. The "BE X/Y/Z OR YOU'RE NOT BEAUTIFUL" AND "BE BEAUTIFUL AT ALL COSTS". It's a multi-billion dollar empire after all.