Womanhood: The Bare Reality

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My recovery was horrific. I knew there was going to be swelling but it looked like a huge hamburger and I couldn’t even put my legs together. It was very painful.

Later, a BBC report about girls as young as nine seeking labiaplasty – surgery that involves the lips of the vagina being shortened or reshaped – because they were distressed by its appearance, had Laura reaching for her camera again. “The idea that girls and young women think their vagina is ugly and want to change how it looks is just wrong, and sad.” Just as Bare Reality: 100 women, their breasts, their storiespresented the un-airbrushed truth about breasts for women, Manhood: The Bare Realityshows us the spectrum of ‘normal’, revealing men’s penises and bodies in all their diversity and glory, dispelling body image anxiety and myths. And when 100 women share intimate photos and deeply personal experiences relating to their vaginas, the result is a tender yet taboo-exploding message of women reclaiming their womanhood. At least, that’s what Laura set out to achieve.

I first met Laura, a photographer from Surrey, in 2015 following her exploration of 100 women’s relationships with their breasts. The idea that women are turning away from pleasure because they’re worried about what they look, smell and taste like has unearthed a fundamental message for Laura. Even though she refers to it as the hardest part of the project, Laura believes including so many of these harrowing experiences adds to the impact of her message – because there is no singular female experience. I’ve never looked at a photograph of my vulva. I’ve never even looked with a mirror. I’m nervous that I might be grossed out by it. I don’t beat myself up, but it’s interesting that I still have that split-second thought that it’s not a porn-perfect fanny. Not that I even want one. Artist Laura Dodsworth has photographed 100 women for her next Bare Reality book, which is all about womanhood.

Where would you normally see another vulva?” photographer Laura Dodsworth asks me. “Mainly only in porn,” she answers. “Especially if you’re looking online. But there’s a world of difference between how you see vulvas in porn – and how you see them in real life. It’s so important for women to know what vulvas look like. It can help with body image anxiety. We really need to talk about them because many women haven’t looked at their own. They don’t know what’s down there.” I went to the doctor and, although I was too young [24] for a smear test, she did one anyway. I was sent to the hospital for a colposcopy, which involves a camera going into the vagina. A consultant said, ‘I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’d be surprised if it wasn’t cancer’. Two weeks later it was confirmed. I felt hot, sweaty, shaky. ‘Cancer’ means dying, that’s what we all think it means. I was just 24, I couldn’t understand how this could be happening. My vulva is happy and majestic. It’s heart-shaped and it isn’t one colour, there are different shades of brown. It’s kind of tidy, but it’s also an organised mess. I think there’s something really powerful about having the opportunity to look at yourself in more detail. It gives you a different appreciation for your body. Hearing these men’s stories was an absolute privilege and honour and I am very grateful for the experience. I’m excited this book share with you. I don’t think people will have heard men talk so honestly about so many fascinating subjects. Masculinity is associated with being ‘strong and silent’, yet here is a book of 100 men talking frankly and intimately about their manhood in both senses.

Customer reviews

The vulva stories Dodsworth has collected made me laugh and cry, moved by the openness with which each person talks about sexual liberation, grief, loss, abuse and everything in between. The very fact that vulvas feel so controversial to look at underlines the power of the project. --The Guardian Vagina, vulva, lady garden, pussy, beaver, cunt, fanny... whatever you call it most women have no idea what's 'down there'. Culturally and personally, no body part inspires love and hate, fear and lust, worship and desecration in the same way. The labia minora are usually first, and sometimes more prominent during the early stages. But it can be hard to find accurate information about this.”