Campaign aims to stop society’s skew vagina monologues
Vagina. Vagina. Vagina. Do not cringe, it’s totally appropriate to write the word “vagina”. And if you’re feeling uncomfortable with this, perhaps you need to register at Libresse’s Vagina Varsity.
Libresse has finally liberated us from bad pad ads. For years, women have had to endure their periods being depicted on television in ridiculous ways. Vaginas have been recast as biology-lab beakers and people wearing white coats have poured blue liquid into sanitary pads to demonstrate absorbency.
On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve seen girls bouncing around in a state of euphoria, rising from their beds like glowing goddesses thrilled that no leakage has occurred. Schoolgirls have burst into song and dance — like menstrually liberated Sarafinas — celebrating the freedom from having to “check check” their dresses.
Libresse, together with agency Net#work BBDO, decided it was time to ditch the shame and awkwardness around a woman’s vagina. They have launched a series of online YouTube videos called “Vagina Varsity” where subscribers can receive videos in their inboxes that outline everything you need to know about a vagina – from periods to intercourse and pregnancy.
The contents are designed like a typical course curriculum and take place over four weeks. The videos are presented by two women who cut through all the clutter for some real talk.
Avri Spilka, a psychosexual consultant, was interviewed on Morning Live about the campaign. She spoke about how the vagina doesn’t have the same status as other body parts because we reduce its worth with euphemisms such as “cookie” and “flower”.
“We are a country with a very high sexual violence rate and part of breaking that is empowering and educating women and girls to speak about their bodies. We lack language. We lack public language,” said Spilka.
The Vagina Varsity is doing groundbreaking work in the (badly named) feminine hygiene category and recently received global acclaim by being awarded two finalist accolades at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Work like this should be lauded because it upends the way gender dynamics are tackled in advertising and forces us to update our ways of thinking and communicating.
Net#work BBDO also recently launched the “unembarrassed campaign” for Libresse, a series of television adverts and online content that highlights the absurdity of not saying what we really mean when it comes to periods. For example, one of the adverts talks about a woman being “on her disco ball every month” and “bling and stuff come out of her speakers”. While the content is fun and humorous, it also provides a powerful message aimed at changing behaviour around women’s bodies.
In her book, You’ll Grow Out of It, author Jessi Klein laments the ugliness of the word “vagina”. She says it “sounds like a First World War term that was invented to describe a trench that has been mostly blown apart but is still in use”.
This is why the Vagina Varsity is so invaluable. Women’s bodies have been politicised, objectified and colonised in so many ways it is vital we change our language and behaviours.
In one of the latter episodes of Vagina Varsity, Thembe, one of the “lecturers”, celebrates the fact that Nwabisa, her “co-lecturer” can now say the word “vagina” more than three times without any embarrassment. It’s a triumph that should signal an awakening to all of us – one that liberates us from “blown apart trenches” to beautiful body parts.
FOR YEARS, WOMEN HAVE HAD TO ENDURE THEIR PERIODS BEING DEPICTED ON TELEVISION IN RIDICULOUS WAYS