Thread by @vagina_museum

Barbie is a polymath, but in the circles we move in, she is perhaps better known for her hairless, featureless vulva than her myriad achievements.

Here's a very brief history of "Barbie Crotch" - labia-less, hairless, featureless vulvas in art.

So we all begin on the same page, here's some of human vulvas. While everyone looks a little different, from the front you will see pubic hair (unless it's been removed), a "pudendal cleft" where the labia majora meet, and in 50% of people some labia minora and/or clitoral hood.

(Images courtesy of The Labia Library)

We'll also add this caveat: Barbie is a toy. Doll toys historically have been anatomically correct.

2nd century Roman doll, displayed at the Centrale Montemartini

Also, no gendered double standard exists in Barbieland: Ken is as featureless downstairs as his girlfriend. Barbie crotch in dolls is gender-neutral.

What we're talking about today when we discuss Barbie crotch in art is a trend among European artists to depict the vulva as featurelessly and hairlessly as a Barbie doll.

After the Bath by Pierre Carrier-Belleuse, 1896, Zoullas collection

We can actually tell you the name of the person responsible for starting the Barbie crotch style in western art: Praxiteles.

You can't complain to his manager, because Praxiteles lived and died in the 4th century BCE. Also his manager might have been Alexander the Great, who's probably too busy to listen.

At the time Praxiteles was working, Greek sculpture had certain conventions. Men were depicted heroically nude, dicks out. Meanwhile, sculptures of women were always clothed.

Praxiteles decided to mix things up. Working on a sculpture for the Temple of Aphrodite at Knidos, Praxiteles made the decision to depict Aphrodite as nude, emerging from a bath.

Roman copy of the Aphrodite of Knidos. Museo Nazionale Romano, Ludovisi collection

The Aphrodite of Knidos sculpture was an immediate sensation. It became a tourist attraction - people would flock to see the naked Aphrodite. Over time, numerous copies were made of Praxiteles's famous sculpture as everyone wanted a nude Aphrodite in their temple, too.

Although Aphrodite's hand obscures the pubic area, we can see behind the hand, and see that this hugely influential, game-changing sculpture had Barbie crotch.

1. Aphrodite at the Museo Nazionale, from a different angle
2. Roman copy of Aphrodite of Knidos at Glyptothek, Munich

The original Aphrodite of Knidos has been lost, so we can't say for sure if it was Praxiteles's intention to give Aphrodite a Barbie crotch as a stylistic choice. It may be that he didn't bother because it was under a hand anyway.

Or because the sculpture was displayed painted, it's entirely possible that the pudendal cleft was painted on.

There wouldn't have been pubic hair on the sculpture, because the ancient Greeks absolutely hated body hair in art, on all genders.

The Aphrodite of Knidos established the canonical to depict the female form in art. And many European cultures have a major fixation on the ancient Greeks being the pinnacle of art, civilisation and culture, so the influence of Praxiteles has persisted for millennia.

The hand barely obscuring the hairless, featureless Barbie crotch has been highly popular in artistic depictions of women.

Sleeping Venus by Giorgione, circa 1510, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden.

Likewise, the double standard, established in ancient Greek sculpture, of depicting penises on the male figures but Barbie crotch on women also persisted.

Christ, Adam and Eve, detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, circa 1480-1505, Museo del Prado

While artists, both now and in the past, have subverted the Barbie crotch and depicted labia majora, pudendal clefts and pubic hair in their work, Barbie crotch remains highly prevalent.

Take, for example, the Pioneer plaque, the first depiction of a vulva in space. Carl Sagan said that the Barbie crotch design was influenced by the way ancient Greeks depicted vulvas.

https://twitter.com/vagina_museum/status/1364550197615992835

In the era of airbrushing and photoshopping, the Barbie crotch aesthetic has extended to photos of actual humans, such as this 2021 photo from Kendall Jenner's Instagram.

The ancient Greek influence of the Barbie crotch has ultimately influenced us for millennia as to the "correct" way to depict a vulva. And it's highly incorrect. It would take a polymath genius such as Barbie herself to undo the damage.