There’s this “gotcha!” about radical feminists being “obsessed” with female genitals, and there’s an automatic pushback against that, but it isn’t a negative in the first place. I think too many women miss that the sneer itself is misogynistic in the first place.
Our genitals are the reason that we’re oppressed. Ancient men didn’t understand the inner workings of the female body. Ancient Greek philosophers were convinced that women could suffer from a “wandering womb,” where the best treatment was marriage, sex and pregnancy - lucky for men, who were invested in owning, using and breeding us like cattle.
Today, many women still can’t point to their vulva. Too many grow up and are horrified when their black underwear turns a rusty red, unaware of their own body chemistry. Unsure how to safely clean themselves. Ashamed when on their periods, silent when in excessive pain during menstruation because they’re sure that they’re just complaining and too afraid to take up a doctor’s valuable time.
How is it not a strive towards liberation, when the mysterious, feared and disgusting vagina is brought into the light? How is it not a positive to share images of them and normalise them the way that we’re normalised to see cartoon penises etched across buildings, scrawled in notebooks, paraded in open sight, no age restriction needed?
Why should we answer the accusation of an obsession over genitals with anything other than a proud yes?
The language of the oppressor is constantly reclaimed, a way to normalise it, take the power away from it - or so it’s said. Words constructed by abusers to cut down who they see as their lessers, only for the oppressed to take it for themselves.
Our genitals have always been a part of us. There’s nothing to reclaim. We could never escape them. We could never change them. There was never any filth in us but the lies told about our nature.
Why shouldn’t we be pleased to celebrate what was once - and still is - shrouded in darkness and shame? Why should we shy away from reclaiming ourselves, when so many others rejoice in reclaiming a word?
Women stand together because of our oppression. We are still treated as lesser because of biology. Social misogyny is only an evolution from the abuse of our genitals, built from the ground up on the backs of men disgusted by periods, but who wanted to use our bodies and own every inch of us. Who saw those things in our biology and then wrapped themselves in “logic” to make us the weaker, fairer sex.
When we’re accused of being obsessed with our genitals, too many women rush to explain themselves. It’s internalised misogyny that has us rushing to distance ourselves from those accusations.
They might type “You reduce women to their genitals!” but what they mean is “Hide your genitals away, they’re not natural, they’re wrong, they make us uncomfortable, nobody should see them, women shouldn’t know their bodies, women shouldn’t speak about what binds them, they’re a humiliation!”
Think about why it’s easier to pretend that what we’re doing isn’t based on our genitals. Think about why it feels right to deny it.
Take a little time and wonder exactly why.
