STI capaign; baby incubators get fearful, lesbian/ bi women get erased.

Readers, I have some terrible news for you. It pains me to reveal that despite our attentive policing of women's sexuality, some girls are actually acquiescing to dudes putting the penis in the vagina. Or in the mouth. Or in the anus. It's all about the penis, hear people. No sexy times without it.

Now, don't be alarmed, I too was shocked, but, our friends in the public service have helpfully provided us all with an STI advertising campaign to alert us of the dangers involved with sex. Unfortunately it's really vexing me. You see, it's obsessed with dick-centric sex, erases sex that doesn't involve penis and has this annoying aftertaste of female sexual submissiveness and a vague "SHE'S IMPURE! THREAT! RED ALERT! NON-VIRGIN WOMAN!" thing that I really don't dig.

I'm not against getting this information out to young people, in fact I've written about how important sex education is in the past, but by pitching condoms as an STI panacea as the STI Questions section of the website does, this campaign invalidates young women engaging in same-sex lovin and puts them in jeopardy by withholding facts about how to have safer lesbian sex (hint: barrier methods like dental dams, cutting fingernails). That whoever put this campaign together failed to include this information is mind boggling and makes me really fracking angry.

Even the answer to the question If I only have oral sex can I get an STI? fails to mention barrier methods pertinent to women getting eaten out; seriously- you're already talking about sex here, is there really a special level of obscenity-hell reserved for women being pleasured by their partners orally? Plug your ears and sing la-la-la for this next bit if you're squeemish about female orgasms- but cunnilingus happens. In fact it's probably happening in a relationship near YOU! Straight or otherwise! Shocking hey?

The second disconcerting thing about this campaign is the print material thats been showing up on buses and train stations (and, conveniently, at the top of this post). The women, pictures of heteronormative innocence, are in positions of diempowerment- hiding behind their boyfriend or facing away from the camera. They are passive victims, for example in both the first and third poster one woman is staring moodily out a window and the other is wide-eyed leaning on her male partner. They're also potential carriers of STIs who are scared and ashamed to learn they might be putting their lover at risk (the combination of images and text in the third poster shows this particularly well, she's a damsel in distress who looks like she's about to bust into tears). However in the second poster the text and the images frame the man as an active subject- you see his face, you're told about the pain the STI is causing him (significantly, the pain it's causing his dick- again with that pesky penis-centric notion of sex!). He's almost in that "Thinker" pose and his brow is furrowed because he is actively engaged with, and concerned about, his health.

If you are at all inclined to dash off a note pertaining to the conspicuous absence of safer sex info for Lesbians and Bi women then you can! sti.campaign@health.gov.au

Vaginarama!

Today I was checking out Dodson and Ross, which is the site Betty Dodson runs with a fellow pro-sex feminist Carlin Ross, and found a link to an amazing project called Beautiful Cervix. A doula and student midwife took photos of her cervix every day of her cycle and both pre- and post-coitus to show how it looks in various healthy states (none of which are Vagina Dentata, above.)

Christ on a cracker it's insane! I've gone back several times today just to look at the pictures again. I'm not going to lie- for me they have the same abject, repulsing/ fascinating thing going on that all photos of the inside of the human body have. Having said that, the fascination was generally a lot stronger than the repulsion. Vagina Pagina has the somewhat similar Everyday Bodies Project, and a recent post at Homebirth: A Midwife Mutiny came with photos of a baby being born that completely blew my mind.

Projects like Midwife Mutiny, Beautiful Cervix, The Everyday Bodies Project and even the galleries at Dodson and Ross are so important. The shame and lack of understanding that many women have of their bodies is one way that patriarchy uses to control us and prevent us from becoming a threat. This shame/ ignorance combination is a really effective tool. It's carried out by limiting the opportunity for honest, woman-to-woman discussions about what it's like to have a vagina and disseminating misogynistic myths about how unhygienic and gross they are. This is all overlaid with a narrative of moral obligation and threats to those who don't keep in line. In my own experience it can all become completely overwhelming and a bit of an obsession at times. When I was a little younger, less comfortable with my sexuality and didn't have anyone to talk to about vaginas and sex I thought my vag was broken. It wasn't pink enough or the discharge wasn't right or it was all dry and wrinkly looking. I thought it was sick, sick, sick!

One of the problems here is secrecy. I'm convinced that until we teach meaningful sex education to kids in school that goes beyond anatomy and advertising opportunities for tampon companies (another post in itself) there will always be girls who think and feel this way. We need to let kids know that it's ok to explore your own body yourself and tell them what they need to consider when exploring it with other people (including how to make sure it happens on their terms, physical safety and emotional safety). They also need to know that talking about this stuff is positive becasue sex and bodies aren't shameful or mortal pleasures that we'll suffer for sooner or later.

Of course ending shame and secrecy relating to sex and our bodies isn't just for the classroom. I'm continually in awe of bloggers like Renee from Womanist Musings and Deborah at Strange Land who openly talk about raising children as a feminist, a difficult thing which is essential to eradicating hierarchies of oppression (as well as simply being worthwhile and valid in its own right).

These attempts to empower women with understanding and images of their vaginas in different states is important. We need to let people know that vaginas are not obscene, gross, evil or the copyrighted property of men.