Guest Post: Introducing The Orchid Project

Today's guest blogger, Mayuka Kowaguchi, recently created the Orchid Project, a wonderfully empowering and somewhat controversial experiment. Here, the Dartmouth College senior on her experience with the project and her peers' reaction to it. Mayuka is hoping to spread the Orchid Project to other schools, so contact her if you are interested!

The Orchid Project launched on October 18th, when hand-held mirrors were sent to the mailboxes of the 1,796 female students on campus at Dartmouth College, with a note encouraging them to use the mirror to look at their vulva. The distribution of mirrors was meant to provide an opportunity for each student to think about their relationship with their bodies and in particular, their genitalia.

I was inspired to begin this project through my own personal experience of having difficulty developing a healthy relationship with my body, particularly those characteristics that make me uniquely female, due to my conservative, Japanese upbringing. I designed this as my end-of-term project proposal for Sexperts (Dartmouth peer-advising group for sexual health and pleasure) training in the Fall of 2009, after I learned about the health benefits of regularly monitoring your vulva: knowing what your vulva normally looks like enables you to notice when there is an irregular discoloration or bump that may need treatment. With encouragement from those around me, the project became a reality. Now, to my amazement, over 20 campus organizations support The Orchid Project and the project has even received attention from outside the Dartmouth campus.

The Orchid Project has been criticized by some who have, in my opinion, misunderstood the intention of the project and I wish to address their concerns. Firstly, although the delivered notes focused heavily on sexual pleasure, my first and foremost concern is sexual health. The project aims to provide as much knowledge of the genitalia as possible, which includes the dimension of pleasure. But I do not think the project is a promotion of promiscuity, as some have claimed. Secondly, I respect everyone’s personal values and beliefs. Although I advocate women getting to know their bodies better, I completely understand that some people are uncomfortable talking about, looking at, or touching their genitalia. I would much rather women to feel safe than for them to forcefully develop a relationship with their body and/or genitalia. It’s usually a long, slow process so no one should feel pressured to immediately deal with something they would rather not right now. Moreover, some may even choose never to talk about, look at, or touch their genitals. I respect that choice, as long as they recognize what influences are causing them to think and feel in that way.

The majority of the feedback I have received has been positive. Even those who are religious or those who were uncomfortable when they found the mirror in their mailbox have talked to me about how the mirrors gave them a chance to reflect on their values and beliefs and a chance to engage in discussion with those who have opposing views. The Orchid Project is not just about the mirrors and their usage; it is as much about the issues raised by the topic of genitalia and I am thrilled that the project has sparked conversation.

Looking ahead, I am planning for events at Dartmouth College such as informational presentations by OB-GYNs and panels of female faculty and students sharing what their relationship with their genitalia is like. I would also like to set up further discussions to expose the influence of our environment on our perception of the genitalia. Outside of Dartmouth, I hope to spread this idea to leaders on other college campuses so that they may replicate the mirror distribution and further increase dialogue on this topic.

If you would like more information or help with setting this up at your school, please contact me at Orchid.Project@Dartmouth.edu and visit The Orchid Project blog.

The Intersection of Abortion and LGBTQ Rights

Cross-posted at Ode to Patriarchy

I talk a lot about LGBTQ rights, and I talk a lot about abortion rights. So do a lot of people. But very rarely do they ever seem to be mentioned together. And I know the obvious rebuttal... "it's not like someone's going to get pregnant"...

But in reality, it's two different sides of the same issue. Politicians trying to control other people's bodies (especially white, upper-class, straight, cis men controlling the bodies of anyone different from them, especially women).

Think about it. All the fuss about the "sanctity" of marriage and how same-sex marriage would destroy such an institution is a way to prevent physical interactions between LGBTQ individuals. The actual success of such an argument can be debated, but really the message is the same. While many laws prohibiting sodomy and other types of sexual interaction have been removed or buried so deep in the history books that they have no purpose, some still exist on the record across the nation. In addition, we still live in a culture that looks down on premarital sex (to the point that you can lose your job in some areas), teaches abstinence until marriage in public schools, and is horrified by the scandal that is teenage pregnancy. In a last ditch effort to control what LGBTQ individuals do in the bedroom, anti-gay politicians push for the ban of same-sex marriage, dismissal of LGBTQ people from the military, and prevention of gay adoption. All under the guise of religious doctrine and "pro-family" politics.

Meanwhile, in the abortion debate, the justifications for controlling LGBTQ bodies are the same as the justifications for banning abortion. Mandatory waiting periods, lack of insurance coverage, and restrictions on who can have an abortion take control of a woman's body away from her and gives it to typically male politicians. The question of how does a male politician with no medical training in abortion or experience as a woman know what is best for a woman, of course, is never said. Access to birth control and abortion are restricted little by little with the full intention of placing control of women's bodies in the hand of male politicians. Like with anti-gay politics, religious reasons and "pro-life" mantras are used on the streets and in the courtrooms to dictate what a woman can and cannot do with her own body.

To those who would say that no one chooses to be gay, trans, or anything in between, while women choose to have sex with the risk of getting pregnant, I disagree. No one chooses to be gay, true. But women don't choose the circumstances that affect getting an abortion. Abortion may be a choice, but the financial, emotional, and physical situations that a woman is in aren't choices. When a woman gives a partner consent, she's consenting to sex, not a pregnancy. If pregnancy were a choice then we wouldn't have to pay for birth control, we could just choose not to have the sperm fertilize the egg. Simple. Saying that a woman who is pregnant and considering abortion should have thought about that before having sex is like saying a person injured in a car accident should have thought about that before buying a car. Or that a person throwing up from food poisoning should have thought about that before eating at a restaurant.

In response to the inevitable "why would a lesbian need an abortion anyway?" I would like to point out that it's not just straight or bi women who get abortions. Lesbians, like all women, can be raped or assaulted incestuously. To dismiss lesbian and queer women from the abortion debate is to dismiss the experiences of those who have been the survivors of sexual violence.

Both LGBTQ and abortion rights come down to asserting that WE are the ones who control our bodies. WE must fight to make sure that WE have control over who we sleep with and what can be inside us. These aren't separate struggles. If we give in on one, we give in on them all.

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Photo credit: kevindooley on flickr.com

Ode to Patriarchy is Kari's personal blog. Don't worry, the name is ironic.