Pacer Pillowtalk: Not all vaginas look alike

Roast beef, cameltoe, even beaver are all words that are used instead of simply saying vagina when refering to a female sex organ. Movies, TV shows and social media all portray the term as if it were “hush-hush,” and “only doctors say vagina.” Why are our sex organs being compared to food, animals, etc?

Because people use these terms, there can be a preconceived image that people think of instead of what a vagina really looks like. Speaking of, there is no “right” or “wrong” way for one to look, it just is what it is.

So if it isn’t supposed to look one certain way, why do we believe this? A study done by the National Library of Medicine found that 42% of youth Internet users had been exposed to online pornography. The average age for a child to be exposed to pornography is now 11.

This means that children are growing up with the idea and expectation that vaginas should be comparable to those of pornstars, which there is nothing wrong with how they look, it is just unrealistic for most people.

In reality, when people think of the vagina, they are thinking of the outer labia majora (lips), inner labia minora (lips), clitoris (clit), clitoral hood, opening to the urethra, and opening to the vagina. The differences between women mostly are when comparing the labia (lips).

Obstetrician and gynecologist Sheryl Ross, M.D., OB-GYN, describes the differences between vaginas as completely normal “In fact, even the separate parts of the same vagina are not exactly the same. Just as our two eyes are not identical, nor our ears or breasts, our two lips are not identical, nor are they symmetrical to each other. This is considered to be completely normal. Different is normal.”

As long as our vaginas are healthy and functioning, that is our “normal.”