The world’s first vagina museum dedicated to gynecological anatomy opens this weekend in Camden, north-west London. The 700-square-foot Vagina Museum is inside a former stables at the tourist hot spot Camden market.
Biochemistry graduate Florence Schechter, the director and brainchild of the museum explains her motivation behind setting up the space.
“I discovered there was a penis museum in Iceland but no vagina equivalent anywhere else so I decided to make one.” She adds with a smile: “I just love the vag. I am a bisexual woman.”
The museum was paid for by a public fundraising drive with more than 1.000 people collectively donating almost £50,000.
The first exhibition is called Muff Busters: Vagina Myths and How To Fight Them. “It looks at misconceptions that surround gynecological anatomy, including cleanliness, appearance, periods, sex and contraception.”
Events and performances will take place in the space, including comedy and a book club discussing feminist literature. The space also includes vagina related leaflets and information and it has a gift shop selling vagina postcards to Vagina Museum cups and guitar plectrums.
Sarah Creed the curator, with her worn underwear in a glass box making an appearance at the exhibition says, in the future they want to focus on the history of menstruation and also current social and political issues.
Creed said: “We are an LGBTQ+ ally and an intersex ally … Intersex and trans individuals are not represented at all in this narrative. We are looking at how we can engage all people. I want cis heterosexual men to come here and feel it is a space for them to come and learn.”
“In this post-Weinstein era, there’s more fear than there is inquiry because people do not want to be seen as inappropriate, but they are part of the conversation. People have wives or daughters and friends – people with gynaecological anatomy – and in order to interact with loved ones in an effective way, they should know more about them.”