2013: A Year in Vaginas (Maybe NSFW)
In Case You Didn’t Realize This Yet, Petra Collins Is Amazing: Artist Petra Collins, the creative force behind our beloved American Apparel shirt, had another vagina-related controversy this year, when her Instagram account was deleted because of an image she posted (see above). Despite the fact that, Collins points out, bikini images are posted on Instagram all the time without problems, her account was deemed inappropriate because of the presence of pubic hair. Collins calls out how hypocritical our culture is because we find it acceptable to see horrifically violent things (including the battered and “beaten up face” of Rihanna after she was abused by Chris Brown), but reject images of a woman’s natural hairline and un-photoshopped body. Collins asks why it is that we “find this image so shocking” and why it is that we “have no tolerance for it,” perfectly encapsulating how ridiculous it is that women’s bodies are constantly exploited and evaluated by our society, and how quickly women are shunned for falling outside what we deem acceptably attractive.
As I compiled this look back at “the year in vaginas,” I realized that, as inclined as I am to joke about, well, everything, this list is far more than just a facetious look at pubic hair trends and American Apparel T-shirts. Even in the year 2013, a woman’s body is a thing that can inspire awe, discomfort, and even terror, because a woman’s body is a thing that wields real power. If it wasn’t so powerful, there sure as hell wouldn’t be lawmakers all over the country trying to curtail what rights a woman has over her own reproductive freedoms. So, yes, it’s fun to laugh at a stadium that looks like a vagina, but it’s also important to acknowledge that this stadium is being built in a country where women were only given the right to vote in 1999. Women’s bodies are inextricably tied up with women’s economic and social power, and the more we acknowledge and celebrate our bodies—no matter what they look like—the better chance we have of moving toward gender equality and freedom for everyone.
Follow Kristin Iversen on twitter @kmiversen