Do you find lighter patches in your dark underwear? IT'S NORMAL! Your vagina is acidic and has a pH of 3.8-4.5. That's acidic enough to bleach fabric, and that's what's happening.
These knickers appear in our #Muffbusters exhibition, and we get a lot of feedback from people who didn't know that it happens, or why it happens or fel relieved to learn it wasn't just them. So let us tell you this: it's normal.
We've also been asked a few times how we "made" the bleached knickers for our exhibition - we didn't. They're real pairs of pants from real people.
The light patches in underwear isn't staining from period blood or discharge, it's bleaching - the same as if you've ever tried putting lemon juice in your hair to lighten it.
It's not a sign of dirtiness or bad hygiene to have paler patches in your pants, it's something which happens when the acidity of a perfectly healthy vagina spends time in contact with fabric, and it's particularly noticeable on darker fabrics.
So, it's not just you. Lighter patches in your knickers are normal, and there's nothing to be ashamed of!
woweee this blew up. we suppose we need to say the obligatory: yes we have a podcast vaginamuseum.co.uk/podcast
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On this day in 1878, Pamela Colman Smith was born. Although you may not have heard this artist's name, you will have almost definitely seen her work: among many other achievements, Smith illustrated the famous Waite-Smith tarot deck.
Smith's most famous illustrations in the tarot deck appear everywhere, and are synonymous with tarot. But there was much more to this artist, illustrator, writer and occultist than her tarot deck.
Early in her career, Smith illustrated works of WB Yeats, and travelled with the Lyceum theatre group. She also wrote and illustrated her own books, including books about Jamaican folklore.
In today's #LGBTHistoryMonth thread we're going to take a quick look at queer kings and queens of England. Is there any evidence of same-sex relationships in the English monarchy? 👀
Let's start with a recent *favourite*, Queen Anne, whose dramatic lesbian love triangle was fictionalised in Oscar-winner The Favourite. Was any of that true?
What we know is that Anne was close with Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, for many years. Before she became queen, Sarah was fighting Anne's corner and promoting Anne's interests in court (this probably was not entirely selflessly motivated from Sarah's end)
Today to celebrate #LGBTHistoryMonth we're going to introduce you to a medieval nun who you may not have heard of but you definitely should: meet Hildegard of Bingen, composer, writer, mystic, polymath, healer... and probably gay.
(we'll kick things off with a standard disclaimer: we don't have a time machine so can't go back and just ask her if she was a lesbian, and sexuality was defined differently in the past. But Hildegard really, really loved a woman. A lot.)
Hildegard was born in 1098, and became a nun early in her life. She wrote many works including volumes of visionary theology, scientific and medical writing, and musical plays. Also, the first written description of a female orgasm.
On this day in 1813, the so-called "father of modern gynecology", J. Marion Sims, was born.
Sims gained fame from developing a surgical repair of vesicovaginal fistula. And he developed these techniques from human experimentation on enslaved black women.
Sims's career started as a "plantation physician", performing operations on slaves. It was through this route that he was brought a woman with vesicovaginal fistula, and decided he could treat it.
Sims performed multiple operations on multiple enslaved women, with audiences of other physicians. These vaginal surgeries were performed without anaesthesia.
On this day in 2008, one of our favourite movies, TEETH, was released. This horror movie centres around a young woman who has "vagina dentata" - teeth in her vagina. Vagina dentata myths is common, appearing in South America, India, Japan and Māori mythologies. Here's one myth...
So, you all know and love the movie Moana, right? And you all know and love the demigod Māui? Well, Disney and Lin Manuel Miranda skipped a particular Māui story in the "You're Welcome" song. It involves vagina dentata.
According to Māori legend, Māui tried to secure immortality for humans (you're welcome!) by "reversing" birth via the goddess of death, Hine-nui-te-pō.
Since you're all about sea shanties these days, WHO WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE IN THE GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY?
Now, a lot of what we're about to tell you is the subject of debate, because history, when written down, tends to elide homosexuality. Therefore, there's nothing in history which outright says "these pirates were hella gay and marrying each other all across the high seas".
So, among pirate communities during the golden age of piracy, there was an arrangement called "matelotage". Crew members could form a bond together where one would inherit the other's wealth - rather like a marriage.