Good article that prompts so many thoughts!
1. Makes me think that men actually know little about their own genitals and other pleasure organs, resulting in a lot of confusion and anxiety that gets externalized in weird or even violent ways.
2. As a gay man, I had no idea what those funnel shaped things were for until now. Menstrual cups! (Looked it up)
3. If we have more stigma-busting museums like this, maybe talking about genitals will someday be as common (and insignificant) as talking about thumbs. May this museum succeed and put itself out of business!
4. The museum seems to be doing a good balancing act between simplifying enough to be accessible to a wide audience and specific enough to not trivialize the subject. It takes skill to communicate simply.
5. The photo of the founder Florence Shechter is amazingly beautiful and reminds me of a Gaston Lachaise bronze. Maybe this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_Woman
1
This museum seems to have a greater educational value than the penis museum in Reykjavík, Iceland. Well done!
17
Gettysburg, Rorke's Drift, Verdun, all famous battlefields with museums, commemorating those who died and why they fought. Women have died fighting for control of this battlefield, so why not have a museum?
37
The San Jacinto monument near Houston, TX is pretty much a copy of the Washington Monument. However, to get permission to copy the Washington version the Texans had to promise that their monument would be shorter than the one in DC.
However, I am told the Texans went ahead and built their copy slightly taller so they could claim bragging rights. Either version, Washington’s or Houston’s, would seem to be a perfect home for a penile museum.
4
There was definitely a gap in the market.
13
is there a gift shop?
12
@one percenter yes. https://www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/collections/all
I had to read the article to understand this Museum's target audience is women.
But why? it seems the interest level (and visitor count) might be higher if the target audience was Men.
Maybe attracting visitor's isn't really the idea? Or worse , is this some kind of kitsch museum?
1
Must try to get there. A regular thought - how can the fount of life, an object of beauty and giver of pleasure EVER be used as a base for a vile swear word.
10
I am just glad they used the "correct" word. The generic use of the word is perfectly fine, even if there is a narrower meaning too. In fact, the word perfectly exemplifies a common phenomenon: the existence in English and all languages of words that come to have both narrow and wide meanings. Sometimes the wider meaning is closer to a technical meaning, and sometimes it is the opposite. There is no need to replace the generic meaning of this word with a new generic meaning for another word (vulva). If people want to use the traditional (technical) meaning of that word sometimes, that's fine too—if they feel there is something to be gained by being specific. But it is the specificity of that word that gave rise to a need for a general word. And that is the word the museum wisely chose.
1
@Paul Bullen Agreed. Vulva = female external genitalia. The vagina (which means “sheath”) is internal, and cannot be seen from the outside.
10
Looks like a positive, fun, and educational exhibit. My only question is how the writer used the term "grand opening" so perfectly straight.
30
Keeping things secret leads to misinformation and worse. I am amazed how many prudes there still are. The article could have more informative if it had told us about the myths in the exhibit. And the photo of the founder was particularly bad—perspective made her look like she had a pinhead on her body. The Times can do better, but perhaps the story was inspired by the obvious curiosity it would stimulate rather than journalistic quality.
15
Really odd photo, with no clues about perspective distortion.
2
@Gene
It appears that angle was used to include both the proprietor and sign, filling up the frame. If you took a picture with both, looking straight on, there would be a large space between her head and the sign. Just a clunky photo.
And... not for nothing, but the woman isn’t a willow reed whose picture was terribly distorted. She looks curvy and substantial because she is.
3
Oh, honestly. That's ridiculous. And it's in London, why is it worthy of space in the New York Times?
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@Binne
That's pretty insular. Does no one travel to London? And even more important--if one doesn't?
14
@Binne New Yorkers visit London and the Times has an international scope, that's why.
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@Binne
1.The NYT is a world newspaper with global reach.
2. New Yorkers sometimes actually leave New York and travel to exotic places, like England.
3. A completely new-topic museum is a valid use of the paper's real estate.
4. It's fun.
40
We can only hope that men will get a museum for their counterpart.
4
@Mon Ray Did you read the article?
"The museum is the first of its kind, an answer of sorts to Iceland’s Phallological Museum. With nearly 300 penises and penile parts from local animals, the specimen-rich institution ranks among Reykjavik’s top tourist attractions. "
7
@Mon Ray you haven't read the article have you?
8
@Maggie
Why do some (many?) comment on articles they haven't read?
1
This is wonderful! Finally, open discussion about an organ that is hated, feared , revered, culturally determined, etc. Why should vagina be a verboten word , when elbow or heel are not.
Celebrate the vagina and let both men and women understand it. It's just another organ folks and all women have them.
We don;t need a penis museum, we have phallic symbols all over the place, starting in DC, home of the Phallocrats.
46
All women? What about the "Gray Lady?"
1
@NJ Keith. The Gray Lady is mostly asexual, except for this digital version, which is, necessarily, binary.
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@Carla
I believe the correct term is Phallicans.
6
There is a penis museum in Reykjavik Iceland.
11
It seems as if this paper is looking to find every excuse it can to mention private parts, excretion, and generally any topic normally not discussed widely in polite company.
This makes me long for the old days when the only topics found here were the news that's fit to print.
26
@polymath Your comment makes me wonder why you opened the article--wasn't the heading enough to make you think you might not like it? Had you read absolutely everything else the Times has available and then turned to this thinking there just might be something of value in it? I may or may not visit this particular museum on my next trip over, but as a result of the article I have a new destination to see--the Camden Market.
28
@polymath Having grown up with censorship in all forms of art and communications, I much prefer the honesty of being able to talk about parts and functions that make you uncomfortable. Pretending that we are not animals made everyone a hypocrite.
1
@polymath
There are more than 3.5 billion vaginas in the world. It's a normal topic. It's also a normal dinner table topic in my polite family of physicians.
3
"The word “woman" is used sparingly in wall text, and “Muff Busters” eagerly states that a vagina does not a woman make" - sigh.
37
How debasing. I'm waiting for the Prostate and Penis museums, next.
3
Read the article: “The museum is the first of its kind, an answer of sorts to Iceland’s Phallological Museum. With nearly 300 penises and penile parts from local animals, the specimen-rich institution ranks among Reykjavik’s top tourist attractions.”
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@Pat
Not debasing—educational. Too many women (and men) as well as others who fit neither description suffer from myths and just general lack of knowledge. I remember well the man who wouldn’t “let” his wife wear pants because “women need air down there”!
17
@ActMathProf Do the mentioned “local animals” include human males?
If not, the comparison with Iceland’s Phallaological Museum is entirely inadequate (unless the Vagina Museum in London includes animal vaginas, which really creeps me out).
1
And then there is the Washington Monument.
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@NJ Keith
Don't forget Mammoth Cave.
15
And the Lincoln Tunnel.
11
Somewhat related, but there used to be the Museum of Menstruation just east of Washington DC. Interestingly started by a man!
12
@Vince, it seemed the point of that museum was to show that menstrual hygiene of the past was gross or nonexistent - which is not true.