The Vulva Positivity Movement is Here to Save Your Sex Life

Fishy, hairy, saggy, ugly... We have internalised a whole lot of vulva shame over the years, from a whole lot of sources. But can it be undone?

- Chloe Bowen

I open my laptop and click on the Zoom link. My heart is pounding in my chest, and I look up to check that my bedroom door is locked. Next to me, on the floor, sits a hand mirror and a tube of lube. I join the call and the faces of seven strangers pop up on my screen. ‘Now, we are going to explore our vulvas,’ announces the host.

I begin to spiral, self-doubt clouding my anxious mind with questions like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ ‘What am I expecting to gain from it?’ ‘Shall I just slam my laptop down right now and forget that I ever even considered it?’ This is UK-based vaginologist Naomi Gale’s virtual Vagina Workshop—a class she has been running monthly for a year. Naomi is a healing coach who specialises in somatic therapy, an alternative practice that aims to align the mind and body. Through these classes, she works with participants to change their relationship with sex and their body. “I see spaces like mine as silent protests, in which those who enter the room claim back what is rightfully theirs,” Naomi explains. Over the next three hours, through a combination of yoga, breath work and journalling I will be getting to know my intimate parts more, well, intimately, with the aim of rewriting my relationship with my vulva.