It’s time to shine the spotlight on the humble vagina.
Snatch, Foo Foo, Poonanie, Vajayjay, whatever you chose to call it your vagina is likely to be an unrepresented thing. I’m comfortable saying this because research carried out by a leading female cancer charity has found that nearly a third of us are too embarrassed to see a GP about a gynaecological problem and 65% of women can’t even bring themselves to say the word ‘vagina’. But with around 20,000 new cases of gynecological cancer – including ovarian, womb, cervical, vaginal and vulval – diagnosed every year in the UK, can we really afford to ignore it?
For sure there’s still a certain degree of embarrassment associated with discussing our nether regions. When was the last time you had an open and frank convo with your friends about it? In fact when was the last time you spoke about it fall stop?
So if we can’t even say its name without cringing what are the chances that we’re keeping a proper eye on the goings-on down there?
A new campaign is setting about to right our attitudes. The Lady Garden's mission is to empower women to be able to openly talk about their vaginas - without suffering the kind of embarrassment we’re all used to - and to simultaneously raise awareness for gynaecological cancers.
If you’re the owner of an Instagram account you can’t have missed the influx of ‘Lady Garden’ sweatshirts to your feed – everyone from Cara Delevingne and Amber le Bon, to Ellie Goulding and Cressida Bonas is wearing one – with proceeds of the sweatshirt going to The Gynaecological Cancer Fund who steer the cash in the direction of clinical trials and research carried out by Dr Susana Banerjee at The Royal Marsden. The sweatshirt goes on sale tomorrow and will be available at Topshop.
If a big arrow pointing at your lady parts isn’t your kind of thing (it’s a grey marle though and hence terribly chic) then you can donate £5 by texting LADYGARDEN to 70755.
A quick poll of the Marie Claire office revealed some interesting names for the vagina with everything from Vadge, to Magic Pocket to Tiffany (yes, seriously). What do you call yours?
