Dr Jen Gunter is explaining why I shouldn’t put parsley inside my vagina. I should also steer clear of vaginal marijuana and “cleansing” myself with colloidal silver, an alternative health remedy the gynaecologist says can damage skin tissue and, when absorbed in large amounts, can turn your skin permanently blue. “Yeah, don’t do that,” she
Dr Jen Gunter is explaining why I shouldn’t put parsley inside my vagina. I should also steer clear of vaginal marijuana and “cleansing” myself with colloidal silver, an alternative health remedy the gynaecologist says can damage skin tissue and, when absorbed in large amounts, can turn your skin permanently blue. “Yeah, don’t do that,” she deadpans over the phone from New York.
Gunter’s advice might sound strange. But in January, there were reports that women were inserting parsley into their vaginas in order to bring on their periods. The claim was swiftly debunked, but several others followed, warning women against inserting everything from garlic to ice lollies inside themselves, either to treat infections or simply “cool down”.
“It’s almost like a cartoon,” Gunter says. “That’s how much of a joke it is medically, and yet people believe this stuff and you can’t change it.”
Gunter graduated from the The University of Manitoba School of Medicine in 1990 before choosing to specialise in gynaecology and obstetrics at the University of Western Ontario. She is one of the many medical professionals advising women not to listen to the aforementioned vaginal mythology, which she says comes from feminist manuals written in the 1970s, whose non-medical advice has resurfaced online. In her new book, The Vagina Bible, Gunter confronts these and other misconceptions surrounding female sexual health.
“Women don’t randomly stick vegetable matter up their vagina, someone has told them to do it,” Gunter explains, adding that while the authors of these books might’ve had women’s best interests at heart, they didn’t necessarily have the medical background to be dishing out gynaecological advice. “There’s almost no information about the safety of these things for your vaginal health.”
1/14 Marley Dias @iammarleydias
At just 11 years old, Marley Dias gained international attention in 2016 after becoming frustrated with the lack of diversity in her school curriculum. What followed was a viral social media campaign, #1000blackgirlbooks, calling for titles featuring black girls as protagonists to be donated. Nearly 4,000 books were donated, and Dias now tackles prejudice and advocates for diversity in literature.
Getty
2/14 Rina Sawayama @rinasonline
Rina Sawayama came in a blaze of neon and sci-fi coolness in early 2016 when she released the single ‘Where U Are’, which explored how humans interact with digital media. Since then, the singer and model from north London has been a trailblazer for intersectional feminism. Whether it’s singing about her experiences as a pansexual woman or starting Twitter conversations about cultural appropriation in the media, Sawayama has taken both the music world and social media by storm with her politically vibrant work. A quick look at her Instagram account (@rinasonline) will reveal a confident woman who is not afraid to voice her opinions to her 141,000 followers.
Getty
3/14 Chidera Eggerue @theslumflower
At only 24 years old, Eggerue came to prominence with her viral 2017 social media campaign #SaggyBoobsMatter. ‘It was only small-boobed women who were ‘allowed’ to not wear a bra,’ the author said in an interview with The Guardian. “I couldn’t understand why … I had to challenge it.” Her decision to not wear a bra shouldn’t be deemed radical, yet here she is in 2019 challenging the ideas that women are pressured to confirming too. Women of all ages and shapes use the hashtag to show pride in themselves, as a result of the body positivity Eggerue championed. Her blog, The Slumflower, also discusses sexism, feminism and racism.
Getty Images
4/14 Scarlett Curtis @scarcurtis
You may know her as the writer who exposed Philip Green’s willingness to profit off feminism but reject the idea of having a pink pop-up stall in Topshop back in October 2018. However, Scarlett Curtis is a trail-blazing feminist in other ways too. The author of Feminists Don’t Wear Pink & Other Lies co-founded The Pink Protest – a collective helping young feminist activist to take action online – in 2017, all while using her social media to challenge misogyny whenever she encounters it.
Getty
5/14 Tarana Burke @TaranaBurke
Also known as the mother of the #MeToo movement, Tarana Burke is an American social activist who is largely responsible for the international movement against sexual harassment that went viral in October 2017. The phrase was first used in 2006 on Burke’s Myspace account after she responded to a 13-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted. The hashtag gained traction after actress Alyssa Milano encouraged victims of harassment to tweet the phrase. The call-out followed sexual abuse allegations against disgraced film producter Harvey Weinstein and has been used at least 19 million times on social media. Burke is a life-long activist for victims of sexual assault and harassment and continues to campaign such issues on social media. She has single-handedly changed the conversation on sexual violence.
Getty
6/14 Sophie Sandberg @catcallsofnyc
Tired of being unable to walk down the street without being constantly catcalled by men, activist Sophie Sandberg took to Instagram to expose an epidemic rife in society. Armed with multi-coloured chalk, she began documenting the horrific words that had been said to her all over New York in late 2016. Talking to the BBC about the project she stated: ‘By writing [catcalls] in the same place that it happened, I hope the words may remember and think “Oh those were my words”.’ Women around the globe have been inspired by Sandberg’s work and Instagram accounts of women chalking messages have since sprung up from Columbia to Bangladesh.
Sophie Sandberg
7/14 Hannah Witton @hannahwitton
Hannah Witton is a sex-positive YouTuber and author who has vlogged candidly about sexual health, relationships and women’s issues since 2011. Over the years, the Mancunian has amassed over 500,000 subscribers. Witton is inspirationally confident and isn’t afraid of talking about her sex life to her thousands of subscribers in videos such as ‘How Many People Have I Slept With?’ and ‘The Benefits of Porn’. The vlogger is also a champion for body positivity (her most viewed video with over 8 million views is about the struggles of large boobs) and invisible illnesses – as she herself suffers from ulcerative colitis and proudly wears a stoma.
Getty
8/14 Adwoa Aboah @adwoaaboah
British model Adwoa Aboah is no stranger to the crippling effect of depression having suffered from it herself. This is why the star established the mental health community Gurls Talk. It began in 2015 with an Instagram account and now serves as a place to discuss topics affecting women without any fear of judgement. It has since grown into a weekly podcast and a series of organised events that have brought women together from across the globe. Talking to the BBC about the project, Aboah noted: ‘At school there still isn’t a place for girls and boys to realise they’re not alone …There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I promise that.’
Getty
9/14 Laci Green @gogreen18
YouTuber Laci Green has been educating her subscribers on the nuances of sex education for over 10 years and has amassed over 1.4 million subscribers. The vlogger’s videos, which are prominent in the sex-positive movement due to their candour, cover topics such as birth control, hormones and abortion in an attempt to remove the stigma surrounding them. Green is also very outspoken against slut-shaming and sexual harassment, being one of the first YouTubers to address the sexual harassment claims levied against vlogger Sam Pepper in 2014.
Getty
10/14 Ash Sarkar @AyoCaesar
From describing broadcaster Piers Morgan an ‘idiot’ to declaring herself a communist on Good Morning Britain, Ash Sarkar is a dynamic journalist making waves on the internet and TV. The north London native champions the rights of women and immigrants on social media, with a Twitter account that is rife with political commentary with a humorous edge. Meanwhile, her Instagram showcases all her campaigning work including protests on climate change and Brexit. Sarkar is also a senior editor at Novara Media – an independent, radical left-wing news organisation.
Ash Sarkar
11/14 Gina Martin @ginamartin
Writer and activist Gina Martin hit national headlines when she began a viral campaign to make ‘upskirting’ illegal. Taking to Facebook, Martin explained how a man took photos of her crotch without her permission and got away with it in a post that subsequently went viral in 2017. She then launched a petition for her case to be reopened and for the action to be made part of the 2003 Sexual Offences Act. Using the hashtag, #StopSkirtingTheIssue, the petition managed to get over 100,000 signatures. As of 2019, ‘upskirting’ is now illegal and this is largely down to the efforts of Martin. The activist continues to promote feminist causes to her 40,000 Instagram followers.
AFP
12/14 Rowan Blanchard @rowanblanchard
When Rowan Blanchard isn’t taking over the world of acting, she’s taking to Twitter and Instagram to talk to her 5.1 million followers about various activist pursuits. The 17-year-old uses her platform to discuss social and economic issues, with topics as diverse as human rights and gun control, and isn’t afraid to give a voice to those who haven’t been heard. Blanchard was very vocal in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas shootings earlier this year, talking with activists and highlighting their plight on social media.
Getty
13/14 Liv Little @livlittle
As the founder of Gal-dem, a magazine produced by women of colour, Liv Little has gained international recognition for her work in diversifying print media. After becoming frustrated with the lack of representation at Bristol University where Little attended, the 25-year-old created the publication in an attempt to give women of colour a voice in the media. Her business is growing rapidly, alongside Gal-dem’s social media following which stands at more than 111,000. Little can be found on Twitter talking about everything from activism to literature.
Getty
14/14 Kat Blaque @kat_blaque
Blaque is a transgender activist who forged her career calling out racism, transphobia and white privilege on her successful YouTube channel of the same name. In an interview with The Huffington Post she said: ‘I’m a woman. I’m black. I’m curvy and I’m trans … when I talk about those things, I am literally talking about my embodiment of those intersections.’ Her series, ‘True Tea’, is where she candidly embraces controversial topics in an attempt to change the narrative around them. Videos include ‘Why is “LeftTube” So White’ and ‘Cultures Are Not Costumes’.
Getty
1/14 Marley Dias @iammarleydias
At just 11 years old, Marley Dias gained international attention in 2016 after becoming frustrated with the lack of diversity in her school curriculum. What followed was a viral social media campaign, #1000blackgirlbooks, calling for titles featuring black girls as protagonists to be donated. Nearly 4,000 books were donated, and Dias now tackles prejudice and advocates for diversity in literature.
Getty
2/14 Rina Sawayama @rinasonline
Rina Sawayama came in a blaze of neon and sci-fi coolness in early 2016 when she released the single ‘Where U Are’, which explored how humans interact with digital media. Since then, the singer and model from north London has been a trailblazer for intersectional feminism. Whether it’s singing about her experiences as a pansexual woman or starting Twitter conversations about cultural appropriation in the media, Sawayama has taken both the music world and social media by storm with her politically vibrant work. A quick look at her Instagram account (@rinasonline) will reveal a confident woman who is not afraid to voice her opinions to her 141,000 followers.
Getty
3/14 Chidera Eggerue @theslumflower
At only 24 years old, Eggerue came to prominence with her viral 2017 social media campaign #SaggyBoobsMatter. ‘It was only small-boobed women who were ‘allowed’ to not wear a bra,’ the author said in an interview with The Guardian. “I couldn’t understand why … I had to challenge it.” Her decision to not wear a bra shouldn’t be deemed radical, yet here she is in 2019 challenging the ideas that women are pressured to confirming too. Women of all ages and shapes use the hashtag to show pride in themselves, as a result of the body positivity Eggerue championed. Her blog, The Slumflower, also discusses sexism, feminism and racism.
Getty Images
4/14 Scarlett Curtis @scarcurtis
You may know her as the writer who exposed Philip Green’s willingness to profit off feminism but reject the idea of having a pink pop-up stall in Topshop back in October 2018. However, Scarlett Curtis is a trail-blazing feminist in other ways too. The author of Feminists Don’t Wear Pink & Other Lies co-founded The Pink Protest – a collective helping young feminist activist to take action online – in 2017, all while using her social media to challenge misogyny whenever she encounters it.
Getty
5/14 Tarana Burke @TaranaBurke
Also known as the mother of the #MeToo movement, Tarana Burke is an American social activist who is largely responsible for the international movement against sexual harassment that went viral in October 2017. The phrase was first used in 2006 on Burke’s Myspace account after she responded to a 13-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted. The hashtag gained traction after actress Alyssa Milano encouraged victims of harassment to tweet the phrase. The call-out followed sexual abuse allegations against disgraced film producter Harvey Weinstein and has been used at least 19 million times on social media. Burke is a life-long activist for victims of sexual assault and harassment and continues to campaign such issues on social media. She has single-handedly changed the conversation on sexual violence.
Getty
6/14 Sophie Sandberg @catcallsofnyc
Tired of being unable to walk down the street without being constantly catcalled by men, activist Sophie Sandberg took to Instagram to expose an epidemic rife in society. Armed with multi-coloured chalk, she began documenting the horrific words that had been said to her all over New York in late 2016. Talking to the BBC about the project she stated: ‘By writing [catcalls] in the same place that it happened, I hope the words may remember and think “Oh those were my words”.’ Women around the globe have been inspired by Sandberg’s work and Instagram accounts of women chalking messages have since sprung up from Columbia to Bangladesh.
Sophie Sandberg
7/14 Hannah Witton @hannahwitton
Hannah Witton is a sex-positive YouTuber and author who has vlogged candidly about sexual health, relationships and women’s issues since 2011. Over the years, the Mancunian has amassed over 500,000 subscribers. Witton is inspirationally confident and isn’t afraid of talking about her sex life to her thousands of subscribers in videos such as ‘How Many People Have I Slept With?’ and ‘The Benefits of Porn’. The vlogger is also a champion for body positivity (her most viewed video with over 8 million views is about the struggles of large boobs) and invisible illnesses – as she herself suffers from ulcerative colitis and proudly wears a stoma.
Getty
8/14 Adwoa Aboah @adwoaaboah
British model Adwoa Aboah is no stranger to the crippling effect of depression having suffered from it herself. This is why the star established the mental health community Gurls Talk. It began in 2015 with an Instagram account and now serves as a place to discuss topics affecting women without any fear of judgement. It has since grown into a weekly podcast and a series of organised events that have brought women together from across the globe. Talking to the BBC about the project, Aboah noted: ‘At school there still isn’t a place for girls and boys to realise they’re not alone …There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I promise that.’
Getty
9/14 Laci Green @gogreen18
YouTuber Laci Green has been educating her subscribers on the nuances of sex education for over 10 years and has amassed over 1.4 million subscribers. The vlogger’s videos, which are prominent in the sex-positive movement due to their candour, cover topics such as birth control, hormones and abortion in an attempt to remove the stigma surrounding them. Green is also very outspoken against slut-shaming and sexual harassment, being one of the first YouTubers to address the sexual harassment claims levied against vlogger Sam Pepper in 2014.
Getty
10/14 Ash Sarkar @AyoCaesar
From describing broadcaster Piers Morgan an ‘idiot’ to declaring herself a communist on Good Morning Britain, Ash Sarkar is a dynamic journalist making waves on the internet and TV. The north London native champions the rights of women and immigrants on social media, with a Twitter account that is rife with political commentary with a humorous edge. Meanwhile, her Instagram showcases all her campaigning work including protests on climate change and Brexit. Sarkar is also a senior editor at Novara Media – an independent, radical left-wing news organisation.
Ash Sarkar
11/14 Gina Martin @ginamartin
Writer and activist Gina Martin hit national headlines when she began a viral campaign to make ‘upskirting’ illegal. Taking to Facebook, Martin explained how a man took photos of her crotch without her permission and got away with it in a post that subsequently went viral in 2017. She then launched a petition for her case to be reopened and for the action to be made part of the 2003 Sexual Offences Act. Using the hashtag, #StopSkirtingTheIssue, the petition managed to get over 100,000 signatures. As of 2019, ‘upskirting’ is now illegal and this is largely down to the efforts of Martin. The activist continues to promote feminist causes to her 40,000 Instagram followers.
AFP
12/14 Rowan Blanchard @rowanblanchard
When Rowan Blanchard isn’t taking over the world of acting, she’s taking to Twitter and Instagram to talk to her 5.1 million followers about various activist pursuits. The 17-year-old uses her platform to discuss social and economic issues, with topics as diverse as human rights and gun control, and isn’t afraid to give a voice to those who haven’t been heard. Blanchard was very vocal in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas shootings earlier this year, talking with activists and highlighting their plight on social media.
Getty
13/14 Liv Little @livlittle
As the founder of Gal-dem, a magazine produced by women of colour, Liv Little has gained international recognition for her work in diversifying print media. After becoming frustrated with the lack of representation at Bristol University where Little attended, the 25-year-old created the publication in an attempt to give women of colour a voice in the media. Her business is growing rapidly, alongside Gal-dem’s social media following which stands at more than 111,000. Little can be found on Twitter talking about everything from activism to literature.
Getty
14/14 Kat Blaque @kat_blaque
Blaque is a transgender activist who forged her career calling out racism, transphobia and white privilege on her successful YouTube channel of the same name. In an interview with The Huffington Post she said: ‘I’m a woman. I’m black. I’m curvy and I’m trans … when I talk about those things, I am literally talking about my embodiment of those intersections.’ Her series, ‘True Tea’, is where she candidly embraces controversial topics in an attempt to change the narrative around them. Videos include ‘Why is “LeftTube” So White’ and ‘Cultures Are Not Costumes’.
Getty
Gunter has more authority than the average gynaecologist. In the last few years, she has become one of the most renowned voices on women’s health, known for her outspoken criticism of the wellness industry and her eviscerating Twitter takedowns of Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop. But Gunter’s concerns regarding obscure vaginal cleansing trends, either by way of a steam or a Greek yoghurt, don’t just stem from pseudo-science; telling women to detoxify themselves is fundamentally sexist. “The fact that people are profiting from the idea that a woman’s reproductive tract is dirty and filled with toxins is really the core tenet of the patriarchy,” she says.
Vaginal steaming, which has previously been recommended as a spa treatment by Goop, recently hit the headlines after one woman tried to conduct a steam herself at home and ended up with third-degree burns. “The whole basis of vaginal steaming is to cleanse the toxins from your uterus, but that’s not possible,” Gunter explains. “There are no toxins in there. If there were, how would a baby grow? It’s just common sense.”
The increasing use of vaginal astringents (which dry the vagina) is just as concerning, she says, describing them as a “chemical chastity belt”. “They can make sex a really uncomfortable experience for women and can be a way of controlling someone’s sexuality, because maybe there’s some men who get off from sex being a painful experience. It’s really sad to see that people are still recommending it.”
In early 2017, Gunter wrote an open letter to Paltrow after a Goop article touted the benefits of vaginal jade eggs. Gunter described the product as “a hot mess” and a group of district attorneys from California soon filed a lawsuit against the company, which stated that the assertions made on the site were unfounded. Goop agreed to pay a settlement of $145,000 (£112,514).
Gunter’s specific issue with Goop’s marketing of the jade eggs was that a post on the website claimed “queens and concubines used them to stay in shape for emperors”. She made fun of the statement in her blog at the time, writing: “Nothing says female empowerment more than the only reason to do this is for your man!”
Reflecting on the incident, Gunter argues that today’s wellness sites are “selling patriarchy but wrapping it up and calling it feminism”. They are also capitalising on fear, she says. “Most things advocated in the commercial wellness industry aren’t going to help you at all. Going for a walk is good for you, so is using sun cream. But those things are hard to monetise because they’re boring. You need fear to sell products, and so toxins appear wherever you need them.”
In The Vagina Bible, Gunter tries to dismantle some of the common misconceptions about vaginal health, touching on everything from what kind of underwear women should be wearing (spoiler: whichever kind you want) and vaginoplasty. “I want to be the internet’s medical librarian and tell them ‘Hey, it’s great that you’re searching for information, but you should know that people selling products are not good librarians, neither is someone who makes radical claims.”
Instead, Gunter urges anyone seeking medical information to look to professional organisations such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the NHS in the UK. “If you start your search in a place that’s accurate, you’re going to be armed against any misinformation,” she explains.
But Gunter has another ambition for her book beyond education: addressing the stigma that surrounds female sexuality and anatomy.
Last month, her US publisher, Kensington Books, accused Twitter of censoring promotion of her book on the platform because it had the word “vagina” in it. In a tweet addressed to Twitter’s founder, Jack Dorsey, Gunter wrote: “Dear @Jack, vagina is an anatomical term and not a ‘dirty’ word.” Kensington Books later told The Independent that the tweet was initially rejected for “inappropriate language” but “now [Twitter] are saying they’ll let us pay to promote it”.
“So many women I know can’t even describe their own anatomy,” Gunter says. “I see women in the office and they can only say ‘down there’. I hope that in a few years everyone can say the word vagina and it will carry the same weight as the word elbow. I really feel that if we could dispel the myth that women’s bodies are so toxic and dirty that you can’t even say the word ‘vagina’, so many of the issues I touch on in the book would fall away.”
The Vagina Bible: The vulva and the vagina – separating the myth from the medicine by Dr Jen Gunter is out now.
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