Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-fnpn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-27T12:36:14.146Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Vaginal Aesthetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Abstract

Based on the premise that ugliness looms large in both cultural and women's consciousness of vaginas, I create a representation of the vagina's beauty as rich and sweet. Smell, taste, and touch play predominant roles as I use scholarly analysis and my own autobiographical narratives and poems and poetic language in order to redress the vagina's culturally inherited ugliness.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ammer, Christine. 1995. The new A to Z of womenapos;s health, third edition: A concise encyclopedia. New York: Facts on File.Google Scholar
Battersby, Christine. 1990. Gender and genius: Towards a feminist aesthetics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Bellmer, Hans. 1957. Petite anatomie de lapos;inconscient physique ou lapos;anatomie de lapos;image. Paris: Terrain Vague.Google Scholar
Boston Womenapos;s Health Collective. 1998. Our bodies, ourselves for the new century: A book by and for women. New York: Touchstone.Google Scholar
Chia, Mantak, and Chia, Maneewan. 1986. Healing love through the Tao: Cultivating female sexual energy. Huntington, New York: Healing Tao Books.Google Scholar
Classen, Constance, Howes, David, and Synnott, Anthony. 1994. Aroma: The cultural history of smell. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Columbus, Renaldus. 1559. De re anatomica. Venice.Google Scholar
Ensler, Eve. 1998. The Vagina Monologues. New York: Villard.Google Scholar
Feuerstein, Georg. 1998. Tantra: The path to ecstasy. Boston: Shambala.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1973. The birth of the clinic: An archaeology of medical perception. Trans. Sheridan Smith, A. M.New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. 1953. The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. Trans. Strachey, James. Volume VII (1901–1905). A case of hysteria, three essays on sexuality and other works. London: The Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Greer, Germaine. 1971. The female eunuch. New York: McGraw‐Hill.Google Scholar
Grosz, Elizabeth. 1995. Animal sex. In Sexy Bodies: The strange carnalities of feminism, ed. Grosz, Elizabeth and Probyn, Elspeth. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203302552CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harries, Karsten. 1997. The ethical function of architecture. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Henslin, James M., and Biggs, Mae A. 1971. Dramaturgical desexualization: The sociology of vaginal examination. In Studies in the sociology of sex, ed. Henslin, James M.New York: Appleton‐Century‐Crofts.Google Scholar
Irigaray, 1981. This sex which is not one. Trans. Claudia Reeder. In New french feminisms: An anthology, ed. Marks, Elaine and de Courtivron, Isabelle. New York: Schocken.Google Scholar
Irigaray, 1985. Speculum of the other woman. Trans. Gill, Gillian C.Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kapsalis, Terri. 1994. Vaginal architecture. Lusitania 6: 105–12.Google Scholar
Kapsalis, Terri. 1997. Public private: Performing gynecology from both ends of the speculum. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Keuls, Eva. 1985. The reign of the phallus: Sexual politics in ancient Athens. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Laqueur, Thomas. 1990. Making sex: Body and gender from the Greeks to Freud. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lin, PE. Ph.D., Newman, K. 2002a. The principles of the penile enlargement and vaginal narrowing are the same thing! Retrieved 29 December 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.actionlove.com/cases/case9819.htm.Google Scholar
Lin, PE. Ph.D., Newman, K. 2002b. The g‐spot for more sexual orgasm. Retrieved 27 December 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.actionlove.com/love/g‐spot.htmGoogle Scholar
Marcuse, Herbert. 1966. Eros and civilization: A philosophical inquiry into Freud. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Matlock, Dr. David L. 2002a. Brief overview. Retrieved 27 December 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.drmatlock.com/briefoverview.htm.Google Scholar
Matlock, Dr. David L. 2002b. Media overview. Retrieved 27 December 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.drmatlock.com/M‐bazar.htm.Google Scholar
Northrup, Christiane. 1995. Womenapos;s bodies, womenapos;s wisdom: Creating physical and emotional health and healing. New York: Bantam Books.Google Scholar
Rombauer, Irma S., and Becker, Marion Rombauer. 1975. Joy of Cooking. New York, Bobbs‐Merrill Company.Google Scholar
Sims, M. D., Marion, J. 1886. The story of my life, ed. Marion Sims, H. M. D. New York: D. Appleton and Company.Google Scholar
Steinem, Gloria. 1998. Foreword. In Eve Ensler, The Vagina Monologues. New York: Villard.Google Scholar
Wilding, Faith. Forthcoming. Vulvas with a difference. In Domain errors! cyberfeminist practices: A subRosa project, ed. Fernandez, Maria, Wilding, Faith, and Wright, Michelle.Google Scholar
Wilding, Faith, and Hung, Christina Nguyen. Vulva De/Reconstructa. Produced by Faith Wilding and Christina Nguyen Hung. Directed by Faith Wilding. Videography by Christina Nguyen Hung. 9: 29 min. 2001. Videocassette.Google Scholar