Yep, you read that right. As of Saturday 16th November, London’s (and the World’s) first ever Vagina Museum has opened and is already aiming to open a permanent premises in a few years. I was fortunate enough to be one of the first visitors on the open day, where they saw over 2,000 attendees! It’s a truly informational and entertaining exhibit, for everyone – whether you have a vagina or not!
Photo by Bella Kennedy
Located in the Stables Market in the heart of Camden, the first ever ‘bricks and mortar’ museum (which is free entry for all you bargain hunters) dedicated to educating the public about the gynaecological anatomy is thriving, with its current exhibition ‘Muff Busters: Vagina Myths & How to Fight Them’. As they themselves have stated, it is fascinating how this topic of discussion is still seen as taboo and they are determined to reduce the spread of inaccurate beliefs when it comes to how vaginas function, how to look after them and whether having a vagina automatically makes you a woman (spoiler alert: it doesn’t!).
“We have a vision of a world where no one is ashamed of their bodies, everyone has bodily autonomy and all of humanity works together to build a society that is free and equal”
– public statement from the Vagina Museum
Photo by Bella Kennedy
Through the use of accurate models and diagrams, without failing to mention a massive sparkly tampon, it was so lovely to see conversations that are typically shunned and never spoken about explicitly being celebrated and hopefully, to other attendees such as myself, it was a very comforting sight. Aside from the current exhibition that is showing they also have a bountiful gift shop filled with beautiful merchandise and artwork, with a special independent artist feature that is subject to change every so often. I was pleasantly surprised by their incredible range of books, making it a great place to find all your new favourite feminist-reads and female (or trans) authors.
Photo by Bella Kennedy
Created for the Vagina Museum by artist and prop maker Sam Dawood
With many upcoming events, you and your friends can get involved and continue to support this establishment by attending one of their Pub(e) quizzes, Bajingo Bingo, Clitmas Crafting and monthly Cliterature: Book Club. All information can be found on their website.
To have this vital information able to take up space physically and within our culture and available to the public is truly great to see, and I can’t wait for what the creators do next.
Muff Busters: Vagina Myths and How to Fight Them will be on display until 28th February 2020.