Womanhood: The Bare Reality

Product Information

Consultant gynecologist Dr Pandelis Athanasias says “there’s no such thing as a normal vagina – they naturally vary in size, shape or colour.” Die Nutzung dieser Seite ist durch Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen geregelt, welche Sie hiereinsehen können. Dr Naomi Crouch, chair of the British Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology, has also noticed a “marked increase in girls and young women seeking labiaplasty” over the last few years.” Just as Bare Reality: 100 women, their breasts, their storiespresented the un-airbrushed truth about breasts for women, Manhood: The Bare Realityshows us the spectrum of ‘normal’, revealing men’s penises and bodies in all their diversity and glory, dispelling body image anxiety and myths. I was born into a Muslim Pakistani family. I am no longer a Muslim and I kind of don’t tell people that I am Pakistani, but I am. I can take part because this is anonymous. There are two things that my family don’t know about me that would push them over the edge. One, that I’ve had sex and two, that I eat pork. Of course, they’re completely deluded if they think that I haven’t had sex.

Vagina, vulva, lady garden, pussy, beaver, c**t, fanny... whatever you call it most women have no idea what's 'down there'. Culturally and personally, no body part inspires love and hate, fear and lust, worship and desecration in the same way. My recovery was horrific. I knew there was going to be swelling but it looked like a huge hamburger and I couldn’t even put my legs together. It was very painful. Photographing this intimate area led to some unique and deeply personal stories. “Each one has stayed with me,” she says. “The 46-year-old virgin. The woman who endured FGM. The woman who had her vagina removed because of cancer.” I went to the doctor and, although I was too young [24] for a smear test, she did one anyway. I was sent to the hospital for a colposcopy, which involves a camera going into the vagina. A consultant said, ‘I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’d be surprised if it wasn’t cancer’. Two weeks later it was confirmed. I felt hot, sweaty, shaky. ‘Cancer’ means dying, that’s what we all think it means. I was just 24, I couldn’t understand how this could be happening.

Saatchi Art Digest

For more information about her work visit www.barereality.net, @BareReality and www.facebook.com/BareReality Vagina, vulva, lady garden, pussy, beaver, cunt, fanny... whatever you call it most women have no idea what's 'down there'. Culturally and personally, no body part inspires love and hate, fear and lust, worship and desecration in the same way.

Shame is a really big problem for human beings,” she sighs. “Where I’ve found that, generally, men are under pressure to be ‘enough’ – big enough, getting laid enough, rich enough, man enough – women feel like they’re ‘too much’ – too fat, too hairy, too saggy, too female. Frankly, we just need to be as we are. Yes, you can look at the photos and go ‘Wow, we all look really different’, but it’s also about connecting with the honesty of these stories. Because if you find yourself feeling admiration, pride and inspiration for another person, it becomes easier to apply that to yourself, too.” Hearing these men’s stories was an absolute privilege and honour and I am very grateful for the experience. I’m excited this book share with you. I don’t think people will have heard men talk so honestly about so many fascinating subjects. Masculinity is associated with being ‘strong and silent’, yet here is a book of 100 men talking frankly and intimately about their manhood in both senses. From smooth Barbie dolls to internet porn, girls and women grow up with a very narrow view of what they should look like, even though in reality there is an enormous range. Womanhood departs from the 'ideal vagina' and presents the gentle un-airbrushed truth, allowing us to understand and celebrate our diversity. Even though she refers to it as the hardest part of the project, Laura believes including so many of these harrowing experiences adds to the impact of her message – because there is no singular female experience. Most women have no idea what’s ‘down there'. Yet no body part inspires love and hate, fear and lust in the same way. It’s time for women to see how they really look, and long past time that we bared the truth about female experience. The process of creating these embodied stories of pleasure, pain, sex and birth has changed me - I feel freer, more in my prime, sexier and more powerful than ever. I’d love Womanhood to do that for other women.”

Now, her latest work puts vulvas and vaginas in the spotlight thanks to her new book Womanhood: The Bare Reality and forthcoming Channel 4 documentary: 100 Vaginas. These days we are all less bound by gender and traditional roles, but is there more confusion about what being a man means? From veteran to vicar, from porn addict to prostate cancer survivor, men from all walks of life share honest reflections about their bodies, sexuality, relationships, fatherhood, work and health. The vulva stories Dodsworth has collected made me laugh and cry, moved by the openness with which each person talks about sexual liberation, grief, loss, abuse and everything in between. The very fact that vulvas feel so controversial to look at underlines the power of the project. --The Guardian I feel like I’ve been a creative warrior for women, helping them reclaim their bodies and their stories – and I’m fiercely protective of them. I hope it’s a game changer, especially for young women. If I’d seen and read this when I was 18, I think my entire life would have been different. Although Laura admits to being nervous at the beginning. “I hadn’t knelt before a woman with her legs spread before.”