Charley and I stumbled upon The Vagina Museum when we visited Camden Market last Sunday afternoon. We had just eaten churros and needed to escape the 29° rays. What started off as a whimsical excursion, quickly transformed into an educational and informative visit.
The current exhibition Periods: A Brief History opened on the 21st May and explores the shameful stigma that is associated with menstruating. Historically, periods were considered an indication of serious illnesses; it is only in the past sixty years that previous assumptions and archaic research have been debunked.
A particularly alarming fact presented was that up until the end of the 1970s, several scientists and medics still believed in Dr. Béla Schick's 'menotoxin' theory. In 1920 Schick published a study stating that when menstruating, women emitted an invisible toxic poison. His research methods included handing bunches of flowers to women on their periods and telling them to return the flowers after 24hrs. Schick was surprised to find that the cut flowers withered up and died by the following morning - it did not occur to him that this is due to lack of water!?
We also learnt about the iconic philosopher Hypatia: she flung her menstrual rag at an enthusiastic bachelor, who had proposed to her one too many times.
In amongst these amusing facts, there were also sombre realities. Due to the exorbitant price of sanitary products and tampons, period poverty is rife in our society.
Although the Tampon Tax was abolished on the 1st January this year, it did not eliminate period poverty. Consumers save around 7p on a box of 20 tampons and 5p on a pack of 12 pads. This is a step in the right direction but still supermarkets must reduce the prices of these products. According to Plan International, in the UK, 1 in 10 cannot afford period products and 1 in 7 struggled to afford them.
Bloody Good Period, a charity that helps combat period poverty stated: 'Period poverty is negatively impacting women’s physical and mental health, causing infections and stress. Women are resorting to using tissue and/or strips of clothing or bath towels in the place of appropriate period products.' Charities and institutes, such as the Vagina Museum, do vital work in raising awareness for period poverty, something that should not exist.
Therefore, it is quite obvious why we need a Vagina Museum: to raise awareness for those who have periods, those who will have periods, those who used to have periods and those who never will have periods.
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