Until recently, provocative images of women had been used to sell everything from men’s fashion to hamburgers. And because – again until recently – creative departments in ad agencies were almost entirely male, these ads were probably created by men. While it was OK to use hints of boobs and bums and women’s mouth simulating…well, you know what…to sell products, women’s boobs are still not allowed to be shown bare in social media and women’s vaginas have always been taboo. While women have to “hide themselves” ignorance and shame will continue to hinder their progress and their health.

• According to the public health institute in 2018, RIVM, only 60% of women in the Netherlands turn up to vital cervical cancer screenings
• Refinery29 UK found that 48% of women have concerns about the appearance of their vulva.
• A 2019 YouGov survey revealed that half of Britons could not identify or describe the function of the urethra (58%), the labia (47%) or vagina (52%).

One highly awarded ad campaign in 2018 made a very bold – and very successful – attempt to demystify what is simply part of a woman’s anatomy, the vagina, but five years ago, two women, Sandrine Le Goff and Jessica Kersten, creative partners and co-owners of Dutch creative agency, Cloudfactory, began a project to remove its taboo entirely.

The project, and ultimately a limited-edition book, Vaginas Untold, brings to life the stories of thirty-three women through poetry and art, with each woman’s vagina as the artwork’s canvas. Each work retells one woman’s story – a friendly monster that represents one woman’s battle with anorexia, a jarring image of a vagina covered in red roses paying tribute to her experience with endometriosis, a feminist Rapunzel reclaiming body hair, and a woman rowing through blood.

“If you dare to have your vagina photographed in a beautiful way you can do anything,” Jessica Kersten stated.

The aim is to subvert the notion of the male gaze and give a contemporary spin to the female gaze with uncompromising photos of the most “sacred” (Frightening? Threatening? Obscene? Tempting?) region of a woman’s body.

When women can present themselves to women freely and without shame or embarrassment, perhaps all people will? The concept for each work was prefaced by an in-depth and intimate interview and the process of being naked, both literally and physically, allows Vaginas Untold to unlock difficult conversations about ageing, menopause, abuse, birth, female pleasure, and self-acceptance.

The book’s subjects are not models, but rather friends, associates, and even strangers, all who volunteered to bare their stories and bodies.

Sandrine Le Goff commented, “The vagina is so often stuck in a place between porn and shame, but there is so much more to show and tell. Through this project, we unlocked many secrets and stories, and we have so much more work to do; to continue creating safe spaces for women to bare all – literally and metaphorically. We want to show women everywhere that the source of their strength often comes from a place of vulnerability.”

Jessica Kersten added, “Why don’t we talk about sex, birth, pleasure, menopause or abuse more? As women, we keep our most difficult experiences to ourselves when, so often, they are ones all of us face. Vaginas Untold empowered women who bravely shared their bodies and experiences with us – but through the book, we hope that empowerment spreads, provoking further open conversations about stories too often untold.”

On International Women’s Day 2020, the artists announced a global call to women all over the world to uncover and discuss contemporary taboos. The aim is to open a dialogue by unlocking difficult conversations – and also to prompt women to simply talk more with each other. The Vaginas Untold project has, therefore, become a global call to make women’s experiences heard whilst challenging modern day taboos. The artists and wider team ask women to share their experiences anonymously on the website and join the project which will include roundtable discussions, a report, a podcast and more artwork to open up even more difficult, yet pertinent, conversations to challenge modern day taboos and drive greater connection, understanding and acceptance across all cultures.

Cloudfactory is a female-led creative agency in Amsterdam; with female-led creativity at its heart.