GLAMOUR Blog: Vitamin G

 

 

The Orchid Project was mentioned in a GLAMOUR Daily Health and Fitness Blog, Vitamin G!

Health Benefits of Regular Monitoring

buggie10 commented on the Jezebel article:

It’s fine to look if you want to, but who is this girl to insist all her peers do it? I’m not sure, but I don’t think I’ve ever looked. Why would you need to? What is the health benefit?

I originally came up with the idea for The Orchid Project after having read (I forgot where) that regular monitoring of the vulva is helpful in noticing when something is wrong “down there.” In my training to be a Sexpert, I learned that the gruesome, gory images we often associate with STI/STDs such as HPV and herpes are extreme cases and that in moderate cases, the warts and blisters that manifest on the vulva are not horrid-looking but rather are slight alterations on the skin. As Dr. Stewart warns in The V Book, “sometimes what looks reddish to the layman’s eye is actually an ulcer, an open sore where the top layer of skin has worn away.” If you do not regularly monitor your vulva, you do not know what your vulva looks like ‘normally’ and so when you do have a problem, you may not notice it.

“The V Book” by Elizabeth Stewart and Paula Spencer

The V Book

“A doctor’s guide to complete vulvovaginal health,” this book is a must-have, must-read.

It begins with explaining the need to address the mind first and foremost when considering vulvovaginal health, followed by sections on anatomy, changes with aging, healthy management, sexual pleasure, and addressing problems/bothersome symptoms.

An extremely comprehensive book that will inform you of all you ever wanted to know about the vulva and vagina!

More talk about the Orchid Project!

IvyGate, Jezebel, and The Huffington Post have all posted articles on The Orchid Project!

“No Offense Taken”

In his Opinion article, Chris Talamo mentions the Orchid Project:

Just consider most recently when Mayuka Kowaguchi ’11 and The Orchid Project sent small mirrors to women on campus with a note exhorting them to use the mirrors to examine their genitals. Or perhaps the seasonal anger at the distribution of condoms before College weekends. The response to the controversy (pre-empted response, in Kowaguchi’s case) is the same: if you don’t like what you see, don’t look at it.

I’d like people to question why a mirror, an anatomical region of the human body, and the topics of health and pleasure cause so much controversy, causing some to call the project “offensive.”

The Orchid Project: “A Direct Attack on All Faiths”?

Grace D’Arcy wrote an Opinion article explaining why she felt that The Orchid Project was offensive. She ends saying:

The Orchid Project’s backhanded dissemination of letters insulting and urging the abandonment of faith, cannot and must not be ignored for the action that they truly represent: a liberal attack on faith.

In response to D’Arcy, the project is not at all intended to be an attack on anyone. The part of the project she finds offensive is a paragraph on the note distributed along with the mirrors:

The Orchid Project aims to inspire, empower, and support women, to shift their perspective from the expectations and limitations of belief patterns, societal, cultural or religious conditioning, and challenging circumstances, in order to discover their true beauty and strength.

To make this lengthy sentence more comprehensible, I’ll break it down into sections:

• Our environmental influences greatly shape how we perceive the female body and in particular, the genitalia
• These environmental influences can be belief patterns, societal, cultural or religious conditioning, and challenging circumstances
• Sometimes these environmental influences set certain expectations and limitations, e.g. some women seem to think of the genitalia as “dirty” and “disgusting,” and some immediately think of the genitalia solely in terms of its role in sexual pleasure
• How are we to see the body as truly beautiful and how are we supposed to feel strong, proud and confident when environmental influences make us feel ashamed of or guilty about our genitalia?

D’Arcy mentions “sexual promiscuity” in her article and makes several reference about the “sexual” focus of the project. There are generations of taboos against erogenous zones but the female genitalia is not only the site for pleasure; it is also the site of menstruation and reproduction. It can also at times be a site of concern for health. 

Perhaps the misunderstanding that The Orchid Project is advocating sexual liberation came from the “Some facts about the vagina” section of the note, which was mainly related to sexual pleasure. These facts, and the diagram of the vulva, were copied word-for-word from an informational card from TAPESTRYHealth, as referenced on The Orchid Project note. As I was using the TAPESTRYHealth note as a model, I hadn’t thought about changing the content but if I were to rewrite The Orchid Project note, I would make the informational content more balanced between health and pleasure.

I respect everyone’s personal values and beliefs. Although I advocate women getting to know their bodies better, I totally understand that some people are uncomfortable talking about, looking at, or touching their genitalia. I would much rather women to feel safe than for them to forcefully develop a relationship with their body and/or genitalia. It’s usually a long, slow process so no one should feel pressured to immediately deal with something they would rather not right now. Moreover, some may even choose never to talk about, look at, or touch their genitals. I respect that choice, as long as they recognize what influences are causing them to think and feel in that way.

The Dartmouth Aires

An Aires advertisement poster

The poster advertisement for the Dartmouth Aires Freshman Show was a parody of the Orchid Project. Although some thought the poster mocked the project, I think it’s great publicity. Positive or negative, this keeps women thinking about their mirrors and their vulvas…

The Dartmouth Overheards

The Orchid Project was mentioned in one of the Overheards published on October 22nd:

’11 Girl 1: Did you see that Orchid Project blitz? Senior girls aren’t getting mirrors. ’11 Girl 2: I know! Shafted. We can’t even look at our own vaginas since no one cares about them.

The launch of the Orchid Project was originally scheduled for Spring 2010, but was delayed due to problems with the mirror distribution. The number of women on campus this fall was greater than that in the spring, leading to a shortage of mirrors. In conversations with female leaders on campus, such as the presidents of the Panhellenic sororities, I realized that the underclass women were the ones that most needed the mirrors, since many of the senior women already knew about the project.

Senior women received an email the night before the mirror distribution with an apology for the delay in the distribution of their mirrors. Now, all the mirrors have been sent out.

Dartmouth students: If you did not receive a mirror (women who live off-campus, etc.) and would like one, please blitz “Orchid Project” with your Hinman box number. I will make sure one gets sent to you immediately!

Discussions

The week of the mirror distribution, I facilitated four discussions:

• “Hey Hey to your Vajayjay”: This was a Sexperts event held at The Tabard. We all sat around tables coloring in illustrations of the vulva from the Big Coloring Book of Vaginas, while participating in an informal discussion about the project.
• “Our Bodies, Our Own”: This was an event hosted by FemNEW, a new feminist organization on campus. Lou’s pies and coffee were served while we discussed women’s sexuality, gender relations, and the perception of female genitalia in society. Angela Zhang ’12 posted a summary of what was discussed on the FemNEW blog.
• “The ‘V’ Word”: This was one of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program‘s “WGS-Tea” events. We enjoyed tea and refreshments while discussing topics such as how social structures affect the way we perceive the female genitalia and the relationship between genitalia and gender construction.
• “Gender, the Body, and Asian Cultural Values”: This was an event hosted by OPAL and the Pan Asian Council (PAC) interns, open to all women of Asian descent. Pizza was served as we shared our personal experiences of how having an Asian background influenced the way we perceive our own bodies.

My hope was that these discussions would provide a space for the women who received mirrors to discuss the project and their reaction, as well as the broader topics implied by the project. It was great to meet so many women (and men!) through these discussions and to hear their various responses to The Orchid Project.

President Kim’s Reaction

President Kim gave his opinion on the Orchid Project:

The medical community has not focused enough on women’s health in the past, Kim said. He called the Orchid Project, which distributed hand mirrors to campus women to encourage them to explore their bodies, a “courageous” attempt to promote positive views of women’s sexuality at Dartmouth, although he said he did not know whether it had been effective.

“If this sparks a more open and honest dialogue about women’s health and about how gender is really a critical issue when you think about individual health, I think that’s a good thing,” Kim said.

The difficulty with the project has been to publicize the reaction of the women who received the mirrors. I have personally gotten a lot of positive feedback, even from women who were at first uncomfortable when they found the mirror in their mailbox. I have also received criticism, as seen in the comments section under the Opinion article I wrote for The Dartmouth and Grace D’Arcy’s Opinion article.

I have heard from friends and strangers alike, regardless of whether they felt comfortable looking at their vulva, that the mirror distribution has definitely led to discussion about female genitalia. To start these conversations was the goal of the mirrors in the mailboxes so in my opinion, the Orchid Project is off to a successful start!