NSFW: Artists, vaginas, and tampons, oh my
December 28, 2020 3:24 AM   Subscribe

It's a holiday art mashup, including a brief history of hairless vulvas in art. (CW for nudes both hairy and hairless.) The dream of the fisherman’s wife (1814) by Hokusai is a famous example of this, showing a carefully detailed portrayal of the main subject’s pubic hair. This is far from the only example, though, and looking at works from this era is extremely refreshing after the insidious hairlessness of almost all of art history. Not only did these images have pubic hair, but they were enjoyed by people from all classes and by no means relegated to the margins.

Considering that European painters in the second half of the nineteenth century were heavily influenced by Japanese art, this frequent portrayal of pubic hair might have had something to do with the shift in Western art from hairlessness to hairy.

Let us hope so. Now, to tampons: A Noiva, which translates as ‘The Bride’, is the name of a five metres high chandelier made by Joana Vasconcelos. Looking at it from a distance, you wouldn’t even notice it’s made of tampons. The Bride is one of the most striking creations in the oeuvre of the Portuguese artist, who was born in Paris in 1971. (You might not notice the tampons but "the conservative organisation Coordination de la Défense de Versailles had a problem with her work and censored the gigantic chandelier.")

Also from Period.media: 40-year-old filmmaker Rachel Judkins from New Zealand has menstruated more than 300 times, but she’s still a bit weird about it. To finally ditch her own period cringe, Judkins – ‘It’s about bloody time I got over it!’ – explores the silence about periods in a very personal way. The result: About Bloody Time! A short documentary that’s funny, a bit quirky, and above all, very honest.

The radical history of vaginas in art and popular culture (Huck, 2018) suggests that "it’s possible to celebrate the power of pussy without creeping into ‘white feminist’ territory. Out and out celebrations of all things femme are still few and far between."

From Artnet News: In 2008, British artist Jamie McCartney cast over 400 women’s genitalia in plaster of Paris for his artwork The Great Wall of Vagina. Due to popular demand, he kept going.

The artist was prompted to create his work in response to, you know, Western life for women with vaginas. “The vagina became this whole new place to shame women around, because there’s money to be made in shaming people,” he says. “There’s a whole industry base set up to persuade women they’re defective.”

The artist is looking for new models; keep in mind, the only payment is whatever glory may be in your future. “It was really important that nobody got paid to model for me, ” he said. “That might be really unfair but a man who pays 400 women to get their vagina out is not nearly as interesting as 400 women endorsing the project and believing in it enough to do it.”
posted by Bella Donna (16 comments total) 21 users marked this as a favorite


 
Banned-from-Versailles five metres high tampon chandelier previously (←FPP YT link to an interview with Joana Vasconcelos—in English—about A Noiva and her other artwork still functions)

That would be a work of art banned from Versailles in 2012 when Vasconcelos was the first woman artist in history to exhibit at Versailles. Liberté, égalité, fraternité indeed, emphasis on the fraternité.

Charlie Hebdo, certainement, Nous Sommes Charlie, but women's health stuff—dear God no!
posted by XMLicious at 5:26 AM on December 28, 2020 [14 favorites]


Oh wow, I did not know that. Thanks for the context, XMLicious!
posted by Bella Donna at 5:29 AM on December 28, 2020


Yeah. I just cannot get over the fact that Versailles has been the People's Palace since 1789—due specifically to the Women's March on Versailles—and has been the nexus of French culture and art even longer, but a woman didn't have a comprehensive art exhibit there until 2012.
posted by XMLicious at 5:41 AM on December 28, 2020 [11 favorites]


This post has been edited to include the word “vulva” as well as “vagina”, to acknowledge the limitations of “vagina” as a colloquial term referring to all parts of the genital region. - from the first link

Thank you, editors.
posted by neuron at 7:06 AM on December 28, 2020 [14 favorites]


The phrase "genital region" makes my mind wander.

"What wine are we tasting tonight?" "It's a fine Cabernet from the Genital region of Catalonia."
posted by delfin at 7:39 AM on December 28, 2020 [5 favorites]


As far as I can tell, the Palace of Versailles has only been putting on art exhibits since 2008 and Vasconcelos was the fifth artist exhibited. Of course, that's still nothing like equality, and worse, she seems to be the only woman exhibited from 2008 to 2018, but at least the relevant time scale is a decade and a half, not over two centuries.

I was there for the Vasconcelos show, and it was a terrific addition to my experience of the palace and gardens.
posted by Jasper Fnorde at 7:49 AM on December 28, 2020 [11 favorites]


Well thanks for the context-on-top-of-context, Jasper Fnorde. I'm surprised France 24 didn't mention it with the interview but perhaps I missed it.
posted by XMLicious at 10:30 AM on December 28, 2020


Omg ok so I have been obsessively trying to figure out the state of female body hair from 1790 to 1830 because I have been reading period romance novels and every time someone starts stroking a woman's bare leg in the story I'm like, "Does... Does she have hair there?" And then the same goes for oral and pubic hair because Western statues and paintings present women as hairless beings and there seems to be very little written documentation on this aspect of grooming during this time period so I spend my time reading going, "??????" So essentially what I am saying is thank you for this post. Yeah.
posted by Kitchen Witch at 11:50 AM on December 28, 2020 [7 favorites]


Given the methods of hair removal available during that time....I sure hope that women were not trimming the kitty on the reg. You'd definitely need some help with that one. The tampon chandelier is amazing! I think it's weird to associate tampons with sex, though.
posted by amanda at 2:09 PM on December 28, 2020


I missed that connection. Who made it, the artist?
posted by Bella Donna at 2:25 PM on December 28, 2020


It was cited as the reason for the chandelier being banned from exhibition, "sexual works are not appropriate."
posted by desuetude at 3:26 PM on December 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


Omg ok so I have been obsessively trying to figure out the state of female body hair from 1790 to 1830 because I have been reading period romance novels and every time someone starts stroking a woman's bare leg in the story I'm like, "Does... Does she have hair there?"

I always get frustrated with books that leave out all the bodily functions, like in a detective novel when they are on an all night stakeout and no one needs to pee, or in a historical setting where the author completely elides questions of bathing, shaving, and sometimes even eating.

I agree that the tampon chandelier is great and banning it from exhibition was a cheesy move. I misread the link and thought this happened in 1971, which is disappointing but not surprising. But rereading, it happened in 2012.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:58 PM on December 28, 2020 [4 favorites]


Shoot, I can't find it now but I read an article about historical pubic hair grooming, lice, and how keeping one's pubes trimmed used to be basic hygiene. And how pubes used to be trimmed with hot irons.
posted by indexy at 7:46 PM on December 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


That Dancing Girl sculpture is so lively and full of personality! I can't believe I've never even heard of it before.
posted by Sterros at 11:31 PM on December 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


“It was really important that nobody got paid to model for me, ” he said. “That might be really unfair but a man who pays 400 women to get their vagina out is not nearly as interesting as 400 women endorsing the project and believing in it enough to do it.”

ah yes, nothing is more fresh, interesting, or historically unprecedented than [checks notes] getting women to provide you with a service for free
posted by taquito sunrise at 7:01 PM on December 29, 2020 [3 favorites]


Yeah, I was disappointed with the way he put that as well, taquito sunrise. I suspect he's being naive rather than mercenary, but you'd think that a man who was capable of conceptualizing this exhibit might have also thought to run his take on it past some women. Some women who would present him with some unvarnished opinions about his PR copy.
posted by desuetude at 9:02 PM on December 29, 2020 [3 favorites]


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