Followup to "Censorship Down Under"

Wow! You guys love you some vagina, don't you?

When I hit publish on last night's post, I felt significant trepidation. It was the first time I'd posted actual photos of actual vulvas and labias. I thought it would be too much for some of you. Boy howdy was I wrong! That post struck a few nerves, but they weren't the ones I feared.

The discussions on Facebook -- both the Reticulated Writer page and my personal Facebook wall -- kept me busy today. I wish I could share them all here, but that's not possible. I also wanted to give thoughtful answers to the comments on the actual post tonight as well. Go check them out if you haven't already and join in the conversation.

I was going to post something about Ken, one of the assholes on this season's Project Runway. I'm still going to take a run at him with my sewing scissors, but not tonight.

Tonight I just want to go to bed (it's almost 3:00 am) and think about how different I feel compared to last night at this time. Last night I had trouble falling asleep because I was worried I'd gone too far, and readers would be offended by the photos. I was worried my feminist friends would hate me for my reaction to the photos and for my conflicted feelings about them. I was just worried.

None of that happened. What happened were the most inspiring, woman-nurturing, grounded, vagina-loving conversations .... I couldn't have imagined better.

Turns out the natural-vagina haters haven't won after all.

Thank you. I should have trusted you. You've given me a gift today: a reminder of the power and beauty of women's bodies. A reminder of how many men love us just the way we are. A reminder that we are beautiful and fuck you Vogue and Cosmopolitan and Playboy and porn in general and every other magazine and movie and advertisement that tells women and girls how we should look instead of celebrating how we do look from the follicles on our heads to our vaginas to our toenails.

Thank you. I feel so uplifted tonight. I feel infused with the positive woman-loving energy I engaged with today.

So Ken, you're going to have to wait, you out-of-control, bullying asshole.

"Tonight Reticula wrote into her story that she feels beautiful and powerful and vulvaful simply because she is a woman and she is. And .... vaginas are pretty and awesome." (See this post if that sentence makes no sense.)

Here's one thing I want to share with you. A reader posted a link to Vulva Love Lovely today on a thread on my personal FBW. Here's an example. (Get me this for Christmas! Please!)

Mermaid vulva

I'm definitely getting my daughter Elvira this one below. She starts decorating for Halloween in August. And who doesn't love some Halloween vulva?

Halloween vulva

For those of you who aren't really fans of the vagina, don't worry. I really am going to move on tomorrow to other topics. At least for a day or two.