Today I am here to share with you an exciting interview with Jo from This is a Vulva. Jo's illustrations & crafts explores and celebrates vulvas in all of it's forms! In this interview Jo talks about how she runs This is a Vulva to campaign and help stem the rise in labiaplasty, how she actively works to educate people about their vulvas and accept their own vulvas. As well as telling us her thoughts on body acceptance and sharing with us her creative vulva projects! A great and important read. Read on to find out more...
Tell us about yourself and your practice?
My name is Jo (she/her) and I run This is a Vulva, a sex education and vulva acceptance campaign to help stem the rise in labiaplasty (plastic surgery for the vulva). I use artwork, both curated from others and made by myself, to show what vulvas actually look like i.e. not just like the white, hairless, small lipped vulvas you see in mainstream porn and medical diagrams. I have recently got into drawing vulvas myself which I just love to do! I also create little felt vulvas to go on bags keyrings and as decorations. The more we can see vulvas in all their different shapes, sizes, colours and textures, the more they’ll be accepted as the totally normal things that they are.
What inspires your art form?
Vulvas! But specifically the desire to educate what vulvas actually look like and to allow people to see a vulva that might look a bit like theirs, not just the one type of vulva that society has deemed ‘acceptable’. What encourages me is when I get people saying they now feel happier with their vulva having followed my Instagram feed. That’s the best feeling in the world and makes me want to keep producing more and more!
What are your thoughts on body acceptance / fat acceptance / body neutrality?
It feels like the perfect blend of all the good intersectional pieces. It encompasses disability, gender, sexuality, race and size. It’s about looking at what you are and what you have and not needing to feel LOVE or HATE for any of it. It’s about realising we’re so much more than the pieces that make us. It’s about the person that we are, not the body we inhabit. Not that that is easy, but it’s a much nicer goal than having to LOVE every inch of yourself all the time. Because no one is endlessly positive all day every day. And think how much spare time we’ll have if we all stop trying to have this ‘perfect’ body and just live in the way that makes us happiest.
What is your favourite piece you have created and why?
I drew a really beautiful wrinkly, textured vulva that I’m just in love with. I had a few shocked reactions to it and that made me love it even more. There’s so much going on in that vulva and I think it just looks beautiful!
Who is/are your favourite creative/s that explore body acceptance / fat acceptance / self-love within their work?
I got my vulva cast by Lydia Reeves (@lydiareeves_artist) and I think she is just amazing. She is doing a whole series of vulva casts to show the HUGE and endless differences between vulvas. She’s turning them into a book, an exhibition and also has a Facebook group for people to ask advice and help each other. She’s doing an incredible job in promoting and encouraging body acceptance and self-love.
I really hope you enjoyed this interview. See you next time for another creative artist interview.
Take Care x
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