Vaginas deserve their own museum to help women learn about consent and their health, says YouTuber

Founder Florence Schechter speaks exclusively to The Independent about why we we need to celebrate vaginas

The idea to launch a vagina museum came to Florence Schechter in a flash. Schechter, who posts science videos on YouTube, was chatting to a friend about a trip to the world famous penis museum in Iceland. She thought that she would look up the vagina museum - that she assumed must exist - to help her with a sequel to her video Top 10 Weird Animal Penises, which had attracted almost 900,000 views. She trawled through the internet, but she couldn’t find a museum dedicated to vaginas.

“There was a medical museum on obstetrics, and a menstruation museum, but there wasn’t one devoted to the vagina like there was for the penis,” she tells The Independent.

“I felt quite upset because I’m a big feminist and I believe in equality. I thought, 'how can there be a penis museum and not a vagina museum?'”

At the moment, the museum is in its very early days. All that Schechter has so far is some keen volunteers, social media pages and a Patreon fundraising page. They haven't yet found a building to house any collections. But the museum, hopes Schechter, will feature three main galleries that will explore the science, culture and history of vaginas.

“I’m really interested in exploring not just how an ovary works but also the more ambiguous parts of the subject. It will explore things like sexuality and gender identity and controversial subjects like contraception and abortion and masturabation and consent.

"In the culture section we are going to have paintings of vaginas and examples in literature and music. And of course you can’t not discuss FGM, domestic violence, sex slavery, and sex-selective abortions. There will also be a discussions of non-patriarchal societies that aren't sexist. We’d like to give a wide view of how women are treated over the world," she says.

To Schechter, the absence of the vagina museum is a symbol of a wider issue with shame surrounding what is essentially a long, muscular tract in the bodies of half the world’s population. The museum won’t just be a biological diorama. The vagina will be used as a starting point for exploring what it has been like to be a person with a vagina across history. As she explains her vision, Schechter reels off the story of 19th century figure Enrique Favez who was hanged for dressing as a man to become a doctor. Or the Guevedoces people of the Dominican Republic who are born with the appearance of girls but grow penises at puberty. And the Masuo community in China, where women rule and practice “free love.”

“We don't talk about vaginas enough" declares the 25-year-old who works as a the managing director of Collab Lab, which creates films about science. “We talk about penises all the time. Who hasn't seen a comedian doing a dick joke?"

She points towards a scene in Netflix prison sitcom Orange is the New Black where Laverne Cox’s trans character Sophia Burset explains to other women what their urethra, or pee hole, is. This is mirrored by a recent survey carried out by gynaecological charity the Eve Appeal which found that 44 per cent of women can’t identify their vagina on an anatomical diagram.

This is not helped by the fact that of the scientific papers published in the past 25 years, 49 per cent studied solely male animals while 8 per cent were solely female. Schechter argues this is because women were long regarded as passive creatures that therefore didn't warrant study.

“People don’t know about their own bodies. We don't know about how to stay safe and healthy. There are real implications if you don't know about your own body. How can you know if someone is abusive to you, or about consent?”

And as traditional gender roles and binaries melt away, Schechter is very clear about her position on trans women and claims from some that they are not “real women” because they have previously experienced the privileges afforded to men.

“I’m really angry about this debate," she says. "To say a trans woman haven’t had the experience of a woman is to say all women have the same experience. But the experience of a white woman is different to that of a person of colour, or a Christian woman to a Muslim woman, or a younger woman to an older woman, or a wealthier woman to one in poverty. That position is naive and reductionist and I don’t like the idea that you define a woman by her genitalia. A woman can be whoever she wants to be no matter what’s in her pants. Women deserve more respect than being defined by what’s in their pants."

Since setting up the Vagina Museum across social media, Schechter says everyone from web developers to sex researchers have been in touch to offer their support. But she still hoping to attract the help of organisations and charities like Refuge, corporate sponsors like Always sanitary towel brands, but also high-profile women.

Among the women she’s throwing the gauntlet down to are actress Emma Watson, and authors J.K. Rowling and Alice Walker. “If they got involved I would die with happiness.”

But she’s also well aware that there will be plenty of people who will find the idea of a vagina museum disgusting and an unnecessary, and view her as a moaning snowflake.

Schechter has little time for these people. “Just about everybody, except for those born via C-Section, has come out of a vagina. If you think that’s disgusting you need to re-evaluate your understanding of biology. Vaginas are amazing and wonderful. I think the people who say that the vagina is disgusting and say we shouldn’t have a museum about it just prove exactly why we should."