So disappointed about Vagina Museum.

[EmpressOfJurisfiction]

There are plans for one. But they are explicitly NOT celebrating "the female reproductive system". Guess why.

I went to an event promoting it tonight, and it was generally great - especially the talk on the history of the word cunt, & the charity providing sanpro for asylum seekers & refugees.

There was a lot about the importance of being able to talk about our bodies, the odd reference to "Vagina-havers" or "people with periods" but it was rare enough that I could largely ignore it.

Then at the end of the evening I realised that the museum's strapline was about "celebrating vaginas & the people who have them". The organiser then announced a future event featuring Sophie LaBelle of Assigned Male. FFS.

What finished it off for me was a look at their website, where they explain that they don't talk about female reproductive systems because that would be trans-exclusionary.

This could have been a brilliant opportunity to celebrate women as a sex & our bodies. But it's not.

A vagina museum that can't talk about the function of the vagina because it might offend the trans identified males who prefer we listen to them talk about their lady dick and give us notes from their boner.
Brilliant. Reminds me of George W Bush policies like clear skies initiatives that increase pollution.

I wonder if some TRAs are girding their male loins ready to attack the use of the phrase FGM. It would be the most outrageous and offensive demand yet. I suspect they have paused there, realising they might peak trans the entire nation if they go for it, and yet they've been such entitled wankers so far that I really, really wouldn't put it past them.

Oh, they've already gone after FGM. It's transphobic, apparently as it implies that vulvas are female and some women have penises and so on.

"..first step is by acknowledging that vaginas exist.."

Wasn't this covered around 6 million years ago?!

Yeah, keep up blindyeo - FGM has been transphobic for years. Discussing the rape of an 8 month old baby is transphobic too, according to Twitter

I assume the museum is trying to head off accusations of transphobia with its "inclusive" terminology. They will fail: making concessions to TRAs just encourages them to push harder. It's all about violating women's boundaries.

Yall just gonna pretend that FTM who don't/can't have bottom surgery for medical or financial reasons don't still have vaginas then? You can be a man with a vagina you can be a man with no tits and a fully functioning biological vagina that you can have periods with and give birth with fs you can be anything you want within reason (I'm sorry but you can't be a cat as nice as it would be not to pay taxes) it's 2018 live your lives and stop picking on transgender people it's a vagina museum celebrate your own vagina celebrate your friend's and family's vaginas stop worrying about what other people have between their legs Freud said psychosexually healthy people move past the phallic obsession stage at the age of 6 yet Mumsnet seems to fascinated with everybodies genitals maybe you're all 5 years old with too much keyboard access

A FTM is...wait for it...a woman, thus making it entirely unsurprising that she would have a vagina. Having a mastectomy doesn't turn a woman into a man, and I think you'll find that suggesting that it does on a forum where there are lots of women who're in the age range where breast cancer tends to hit is not the smartest approach to take.

Also, full stops are not being rationed, you can use more than one per comment. Just a suggestion!

totally forgot the part I said having a mastectomy makes people a man? thought within context I was clearly referring to people who already identify as trans and whose purpose of having the mastectomy wasn't to prevent or fight breast cancer but for gender identifying purposes (not everybody who has a mastectomy has it for breast cancer related reasons as MOST people our age are aware) a FTM is a 100% biological female but they are a man just take a chill pill you posted on a feminist forum but you ain't a feminist if you only protecting the interests of biological females, just ignorance with a loudspeaker

Here are some full stops, didn't realise what I post on the internet was getting graded ->>> .....................

A person who is biologically female cannot be a man, because words mean things.

People can identify as any gender or none but only the female sex are born with vaginas.

And a museum to celebrate body parts that are exclusively female is rejecting "female" as a description. But they wonder why women don't talk enough about our bodies?

One of the speakers said last night that "cunt" was officially listed somewhere as the most offensive word it was possible to use, more offensive than some really nasty racial slurs.

I suspect "cunt" is nothing nowadays in some circles compared to "Women have vaginas".

This beggars belief!! When will the madness end? It’s like we are living in some warped sci-fi novel. I will not be bloody well visiting a Catina museum if they can’t grasp the simple concept that women have them!

Vagina not Catina! Apparently my own phone is erasing me!

That’s very sad. I have to say I had a horrible feeling it would turn out to be another version of the WEP like that. I guess it’s just not safe for women to centre women these days; look at that pathetic protest outside the Woman’s Place meeting in Edinburgh last night.

I always wonder when they come out with this “we can’t be trans exclusionary because that would be so, so wrong, so much worse than MISOGYNY which doesn’t really matter at all (so why are we trying to do anything about it? Errrrr...)” bullshit, do they really believe it or are they just trying to prevent TRA protests/withdrawal of funding etc?

How is talking about a baby being raped transphobic?

I mean I have a few ideas but is there any chance of a link? I don't want to decide before I've seen it.

TMI anecdote (skip to next paragraph if you prefer!): as a teenager I was really afraid and embarrassed that I might have some sort of intersex condition. Why? I have a clitoris and big flaps. Didn't look like any 'vagina' diagram I'd ever seen in a textbook. Pre-internet, and I also had the sort of upbringing where using tampons wasn't allowed because virginity, so it wasn't as if I could ask my mother.

Talking about female anatomy is important and has nothing to do with trans issues. A neovagina is not a vagina. A penis is not female.

Astraria - same here - including the tampons and virginity It was a huge relief when I got my period so I knew everything was ok.

Talking about female anatomy is important for females.

Actually - it was not tampons and 'virginity' - my mother told me I was wront to try tampons as they were only for married women and women who had had babies

There is a Science gallery and a Culture gallery... They have placed gender identity under science. Ffs

I see the museum has found premises and is crowdfunding.

The advisors board are an interesting mix. Explains why there is such a focus on talking about inclusion, though there is an FGM expert on there too.

I think I want a vagina museum. I'm not sure what they are actually going to do, so I'm not feeling the need to donate to the crowdfunder - am a bit worried it'll be a woke-fest and I'd leave feeling disappointed hat my vagina is just a plain and ordinary one which excludes trans issues.

link to crowdfunder, I'm surprised at how little has been raised. Perhaps there are more people with vaginas who feel like me and would rather donate their money to schemes which help address the issues being born with a vagina has on your life. [https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/vaginamuseum]

"Aren't you defining women by their vaginas?

No. Firstly, that would be trans-exclusionary. We are very committed to being gender-inclusive and if you think we've slipped up please contact us so we can correct it as best we can. But perhaps the reason you are asking this is because feminism has fought very hard to have women viewed as something other than objects, as people and not just sex objects or baby vessels. We are very against the objectification of women. But for many people, their vagina is a part of their identity and directly affects their lives. It is one part of a greater whole that makes the person. By shutting down discussions about vaginas, it makes it difficult to address issues that are directly related to them like FGM and sexual violence. That must end and the first step is by acknowledging that vaginas exist and they deserve respect."

note: "first of all"

Hmm, it's just not going to happen, is it?

Pussy riot talk about putting vaginas in a museum. Hilarious song. See Straight outta vagina.

They took all the twats. Put them in a twat museum.