Mad props to all OB/GYN’s who work to demystify the care and keeping of our vaginas! (With a special thanks to Dr. Sheryl Kingsberg — the inspiration behind this blogpost.) Does it work right? Does it smell okay? Am I cleaning it properly? Am I grooming it correctly? Is it healthy? What is healthy? Well, don’t ask the interwebz because you’re likely to be sold a bill of unnecessary, and possibly toxic, vag-shaming goods.

“Whether these products are sold by big companies or a lone purveyor on Etsy, whether sold as medicinal in drugstores or marketed under the guise of ‘natural’ and artisanal by brands like Goop, the intent is the same: to monetize intimate fears about intimate places. The idea is to profit from our society’s inability to have public, non-sophomoric discussions about the vagina and vulva. These products and their messages are no different from the Lysol ads telling women they could be like ‘the girl he married’ again.” So says Dr. Jen Gunter, OB/GYN, activist and writer in her New York Times in her article My Vagina is Terrific. Your Opinion About It is Not.

Seems that when she spoke up in a previous article in The New York Post, I Dumped My Boyfriend After He Said My Vagina Smelled Off, a bunch of men jumped on the vag-shaming bandwagon, hurling insults that had to be censored. Yes, it was THAT bad!

Thank you, Dr. Jen for speaking up, again and again. Thank you, Dr. Sheryl for advocating. Thank you to every woman who defies the mansplaining of our convoluted current-day Puritanical porn culture, in order to begin to establish a healthy regard for own vaginas and set a new standard for generations to come!