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Two days ago, I moved into a previously uninhabited apartment in Charlotte, North Carolina. Yesterday, when I took my first shower in the apartment, I stepped into the shower to find a millipede trying, and failing, to climb up the shower wall. While I’ve come far with my long-time bug phobias, millipedes are one of the few critters that can still make me scream, cry, and rethink my living situation. So I cried through my first shower (after the millipede had been removed) and insisted that my partner Eric stay in the bathroom until I was done, just in case. Today, I bravely ventured into the shower on my own (with the help of a newly installed shower drain with little holes that a millipede should never be able to fit through) while Eric went to a nearby cafe. But there was one thing giving me courage today (other than the new drain): I was going to be washing with a beautiful, detailed, life size vulva soap.  The vulva soap with the vintage wrapping paper it came in. My friend Callie makes these soaps in her studio in Boston from casts of real people’s vaginas (you can read about her concept and process here). Anyone who looks through my Etsy favorites will know that I have been aching for realistic vagina paraphernalia for a long time. So of course I was thrilled when Callie offered to let me try out one of her soaps. Since I could use all the bathing encouragement I could get today, I decided it would be a good time to open up my new vulva soap and take it for a spin. I tore off the biodegradable (did I mention Callie’s big on caring for the environment?) cellophane and held the soap in my hands, running my fingers over its life-like bumps and wrinkles before nervously stepping one foot – and then the other – into the running shower. I put the soap on a little ledge in the shower while anxiously watching for any millipedes that might heroically fight their way through the too-small drain holes to join me. After a moment of resting on the narrow ledge, the soap fell to the shower floor with a thud. I heard Eric’s knowing laugh in the other room as he gathered his things to head to the cafe. I laughed at the fact that he knew exactly what had just happened. My tenseness started to subside.  The vulva soap next to a local honey oatmeal soap. Both lovely. I began washing my furry armpits, which I lathered up using the flat back of the vulva soap, in order to preserve maximum lifelike texture for when I got to my own vulva. The soap made a pleasantly thick bubbly lather that I enjoyed massaging into my skin. I washed the usual areas in this fashion until it was the moment I had been waiting for – vulva time. I stood upright and rubbed the soap – vulva side up – along my vulva, front to back. The vulva-on-vulva action was erotic. The curves of its labia and the slipperiness of the soap felt good on my clitoris and labia. I got a little carried away, rubbing past the point of just bathing. Thanks to the vulva soap’s sex appeal, my vagina has never been so clean.  The vulva soap in context. (That’s the soap, not a real vagina!) My 4 Favorite Things About the Vulva Soap: 1. It sends the message that vaginas (and genitals in general) aren’t gross. It says it’s okay to look at genitals, touch them, and even enjoy them. Demystifying genitals can help to make us all a little (or a lot) more comfortable with our bodies (and our partners’ bodies). Vulva soap sparks a conversation about genitals, which is an opportunity for people to ask questions, bring up concerns, and reflect on things they’re uncomfortable with relating to their genitals, or genitals in general. If we see things that look like our own genitals being presented as normal and okay, it sends the message that our genitals are normal and okay. I would love to see someone make soaps from penises, testicles, trans people’s genitals, and intersex genitals. I would love to see all different sizes, shapes, colors, and variations so we can all find something that we can relate to and recognize as ours. (Note: Callie’s vulva soaps come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors.) 2. It’s a good way to see what other people’s vaginas might look like – in 3D! I don’t see many people’s vaginas up close (I can’t even see most of mine without using a mirror), and I would like to have a better idea of what vaginas actually look like. Through my work as a sexual health educator, I routinely describe vaginas and how they work to teenagers and adults. I also make illustrations of vaginas. I could do both of these things better if I had a better understanding of what exactly vaginas look like, and how they vary. 3. It’s sexy. It can double as a sex toy – just don’t put it inside the vagina or use it for a long time at once (getting soap inside the vagina can mess up its pH level and cause infection). But you can still enjoy it as a sexy, wet thing to use as a prop for fantasizing and to briefly stroke the outer vulva with. 4. It’s good soap even after it stops looking like a vulva. It’s made with shea butter and lavender oil, and is free of animal products, detergent, SLS, and paraben. It also feels and smells great.  11 Fun Ideas for Using the Vulva Soap:
1. Put it in your bathroom as a hand soap when you have guests over. 2. Masturbate with it for a couple of minutes while you’re in the shower. Then rinse off and continue the sexy time elsewhere (or continue with your fingers in the shower). 3. Invite a partner to shower with you and surprise them by rubbing the vulva soap all over them, spending a little extra time on their genitals. 4. Give it as a birthday gift to a feminist or nudist friend or partner. 5. Give it as a birthday gift to a conservative friend or relative. 6. Make a body positive gift basket with this zine, this cross stitch, and this T-shirt, and give it in a gift swap or to a loved one. 8. Attach it to a wreath and display it on your front door. 9. Mail it to an anti-choice or anti-feminist politician or religious leader in your community. 10. For artists: Use it as a prop in a video, photo shoot, or play. 11. For educators: Use it in a sex ed or health class to supplement any less life-like vagina models you use. The vulva soap was everything I wanted it to be and more. I had so much fun with it that I forgot about the millipede threat altogether and immensely enjoyed the shower that I had been dreading. Vulva Soap Giveaway Do you want to try the vulva soap out for yourself? You’re in luck because Callie gave me an extra one to give away for free! Click here to enter the giveaway! [A note on word choice: I use the word “vagina” to refer to the whole genital area of anyone with a vagina. Technically “vagina” only means the vaginal opening/cavity. “Vulva” means the whole genital area. However, most people I know commonly use the word “vagina” when talking about the vulva, and many might not know what “vulva” means. I prefer to use the word “vagina” or use them both interchangeably because I’d rather have people know what I’m talking about than use the “right” word.] Comments are closed.
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