Girls. Your vaginas are too brown.
If there is anything we can learn from this 25-second advertisement from India, it’s this.
It’s not enough that your vagina are , too saggy and so ugly they have to be photoshopped to appear in any kind of magazine. Now you can add ‘colour’ to the list of things that are wrong with women’s vaginas.
Have a look at the ad.
It’s only 25 seconds long but the message is clear. No man will ever pay you any attention unless your vagina is ‘fair and fresh’ and, well, lighter than its natural colour.
If you can’t see the video, this is what you’re missing out on.
It’s the story of a man and a woman sitting on a couch. Things are tense. He’s reading a newspaper. She has a what-have-I-done-and-how-can-I-get-him-to-talk-to-me expression on her face. She’s obviously sad – but not stupid. She runs off to the shower and lathers herself with skin lightening product, Clean and Intimate Wash (which promises Indian women “freshness and fairness” down there).
And guess what? He likes her again. So much so he spins her around the couch like a giddy teenager.
Go figure.
The Daily Mail reports: “The advertising strapline for the product is: ‘Life for women will now be fresher, cleaner and more importantly fairer and more intimate.’ Described as ‘unique’, the product is apparently designed to keep the skin ‘fresh and protected from infection all day’ with the added bonus that it will ‘brighten darkened skin in that area…making it many shades fairer.”
There’s been a fair amount of backlash about the advertisement in India. This from Jezebel:
Needless to say, certain citizens are troubled by this product—which, in addition to just being fucking insane, brings up painful issues about the hierarchy of skin tone within the Indian community. As if it isn’t bad enough that darker-skinned people are encouraged to stay out of the sun and invest in skin-bleaching products like Fair & Lovely, and that white actresses are being imported to play Indian people in Bollywood movies, now everyone has to be insecure about the fact that their vaginas happen to be the color that vaginas are???
It’s not the first time we’ve seen skin lightening products targeted to women’s genitals. Recently we reported on the product that purports to make your pink bits pinker.
This product “restores the pink” back to women’s genitals. It comes in four colours (for colour matching?), but last time we checked the company – My New Pink Button – was sold out of all but one.
$29.95 for your labia to be the “right” colour.
Which is…….?
*DISCLAIMER: Yes, we know we should be using the word vulva. However – the term vulva is not used in everyday language to describe the external female genitalia of humans, so for the sake of making the point clear we’ve opted to use the word vagina in this article as it is commonly (though not entirely accurately) used.
What do you think?
Top Comments
The saddest part is that the ad portrays natural vulva colour as unattractive to MEN!! The (hetereosexual) female viewers are supposed to feel undesirable as they are. Classic advertising technique which all the insecure suckers fall for. A man will only 'spin you around the living room' if you use chemicals to lighten your genitalia?!?!??? Please! The whole thing is bizarre.
By patriarchal standards, I must be a terrible girlfriend. I don't bleach it or perfume it or wax it....blimey, unless it's summer, I don't even shave my LEGS. CAN YOU IMAGINE? Those poor guys I've dated, having to deal with the blinding unbleached-ness and hair on top of that.
Funny thing is, I've never had any complaints. Personally, if I ever did get a complaint from a boy re: vulva colour, I'd laugh so hard I'd fall off the bed. Then get out of there. Fast.
Word to the advertising industry: Not all women want to conform to your misogynist mindset. And not all men are deeply, emotionally affected by the colour of their partners' vulvas.
Yes, that is my experience as well - guys don't actually care. And in my view any guy who does care ain't worth my attention. Like you I don't shave my legs either. I've had boyfriends absent-mindedly stroking my legs because the hair feels nice. Now I've grown my bush and my man prefers it. Next I'm experimenting with growing my armpit hair, just to see how I like that, and so far I'm feeling good about it. It's me.
You don't need to do any of this. You don't have to spend your money, or waste your time, or worry about it. It's all bullshit, created so that someone can make money out of you. Be free of it. Be you. And don't hate your body.
Couldn't agree more!
Abso-frickin-lutely!