When did “Vagina” Become a Dirty Word?
In June, Vagisil debuted a campaign centering around the idea that men—and many women—get really uncomfortable with the word “vagina,” but that it is important to encourage conversations about women’s health.
The campaign encourages people to video themselves saying “vagina” in public, share it using the hashtag #VaginaChallenge and ask three friends to do the same. Those who participate trigger a $5 donation to Planned Parenthood. While the brains behind the campaign clearly had good intentions, the level of often downright crude rhetoric that resulted was startling.
Mad World News called the idea to shout out vagina in public a “sick act” and the campaign’s creators behind The Vagina Challenge —SheKnows health editor Elizabeth Yuko among others— “disgusting feminists.” Twitter was on fire with comments like “How not to be taken serious ladies” (@lionelverney) and “Ladies, please find something constructive to do with your time” (@MrsAuxt). These were the tame responses. In fact, it was hard to find any positive comments at all on Twitter at #VaginaChallenge.
Yuko posted on a SheKnows blog: “We’ve been so conditioned to think of women’s bodies as shameful or inappropriate that we have trouble using the correct term for a part of our own anatomy. That’s messed up.”
Despite the negative commentary, Keech Combe Shetty, co-CEO at Vagisil, was not deterred.
“It really just empowers us even more so to support the women who are supporting this and who want to talk about women’s health,” she said. “It’s exactly what we’re trying to overcome,” she told Digiday.
Despite the uproar, if you’re marketing a brand called Vagisil, a product used to maintain vaginal health, it seems to make sense that it would be important to use the word vagina in marketing campaigns and to embrace brand advocates willing to help push your message.
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