Speaker 1: Welcome to Healthy Ish. Thanks for joining us today on
Speaker 1: the Body and Soul podcast. I am your host for listening, Haley,
Speaker 1: how do you feel about your LaBier or perhaps it's
Speaker 1: your partner's labia. Well, my guest today is here to
Speaker 1: reassure us all whatever you've got down there, it's absolutely normal.
Speaker 1: In fact, there is no normal, photographer, Ellie Saidwick joins
Speaker 1: us to discuss the pervasive issue of vulva anxiety and
Speaker 1: the societal pressures that lead well a lot of women
Speaker 1: to seek cosmetic procedures. Actually, have you heard of the
Speaker 1: new one? It is called labia puffing, and yes we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about that as well. If you do
Speaker 1: want more from Ellie actually, in fact listening to our
Speaker 1: chat on extra Healthy Ish, where she shares more on
Speaker 1: her own struggles with volver anxiety. You can catch that
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Ellie, thanks for joining us
Speaker 1: on health yesterday.
Speaker 2: My pleasure. Felicity, so happy to be here.
Speaker 1: Now, before we talk about your phenomenal project, I have
Speaker 1: to run this latest Evolver trend past you that we
Speaker 1: are actually we had on the site last week because
Speaker 1: it is well obviously calling it out as something horrifying
Speaker 1: laby are puffing? Have you come across this one? I mean,
Speaker 1: do people actually get this shit done?
Speaker 2: I mean, let's be honest, men don't get this done
Speaker 2: to their scrotums. But yes, why do we feel like
Speaker 2: we have to get this done to our bolvers? Mental?
Speaker 2: It's crazy?
Speaker 1: I know, what is it? Right? I mean, I just
Speaker 1: can't understand people wanting a treatment, a cosmetic filler or
Speaker 1: fat being injected into your labia to basically normalize the area.
Speaker 2: I know, and like with the lack of research on
Speaker 2: women's health and anatomy, we have no idea what this
Speaker 2: is doing to impact our sensation. Like there's just not
Speaker 2: enough knowledge around laby plus volver puffing or whatever it's called.
Speaker 2: We have no idea of what that does to our
Speaker 2: anatomy or our pleasure, Like whether it's later in life
Speaker 2: or now. There's so many nerve endings in that part
Speaker 2: of our body, So we're really messing with a part
Speaker 2: of our body that we that is really pleasurable if
Speaker 2: we learn how to touch ourselves properly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good point. Now, before we get
Speaker 1: to your amazing project, talk to us about vulva anxiety.
Speaker 1: You know, it's out there, you experienced. What is it exactly?
Speaker 1: Can you describe it to us?
Speaker 2: So for me personally, it was that I felt I
Speaker 2: wasn't worthy of pleasure because of the way that my
Speaker 2: vulver looked. I felt a lot of shame and I
Speaker 2: felt that I didn't have this I mean quotation design
Speaker 2: of vagina that I thought. I know I'm wrong now
Speaker 2: after photographing five hundred people's bolgers, but I thought we
Speaker 2: all had that like Bali design of vagina where you're
Speaker 2: all tupped up and there's nothing there that you see
Speaker 2: sort of you know, in bikinis they often edit out
Speaker 2: photoshop any sort of labor, so you just see like
Speaker 2: a flat and you know it is full of anxiety.
Speaker 2: Was definitely personal issue for me. But now I totally
Speaker 2: believe that it's becoming a health crisis.
Speaker 1: Well a health crisis talked about this. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: perhaps first tell us about your project, because that'll give
Speaker 1: shed some light on how you've got insight into it
Speaker 1: being a crisis. Tell us about your project.
Speaker 2: Okay, So in twenty and eighteen, I started photographingvolvers. So
Speaker 2: I put up a little Facebook post saying that I
Speaker 2: was going to photograph five hundred people and make a
Speaker 2: coffee table book. And I wanted that book to be
Speaker 2: used in gynecologist offices, schools, libraries all around the world.
Speaker 2: I just wanted it to be in the people's hands
Speaker 2: that are like me, where they felt their body wasn't
Speaker 2: right because they didn't see others. So I have been
Speaker 2: on a national tour all around Australia and New York
Speaker 2: and London photographing people. And yeah, my books just come
Speaker 2: out this very week. It's been printed and it's going
Speaker 2: out to all the homes all across the world. And yeah,
Speaker 2: it's not just I think when people think of it,
Speaker 2: they think it's just all photos. But there's five hundred photos, yes,
Speaker 2: but there's also about one hundred photos that cover topics
Speaker 2: such as thrush, vaginismus, back to your vaginosis, miscapurages, all
Speaker 2: those women's health topics that we all quietly suffer with,
Speaker 2: and that there's you know, there's still although there is
Speaker 2: a big change happening, they're still very taboo.
Speaker 1: Tell us about the crisis. I mean, what did you
Speaker 1: perhaps take away from photographing all these volvers going through
Speaker 1: different women's health issues? I mean, are women concerned about
Speaker 1: what's going on with their volvers.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that histics from the Women's Health Victoria.
Speaker 2: They just brought out some statistics that say almost one
Speaker 2: quarter of women aged eighteen to twenty four feel anxious, embarrassed,
Speaker 2: or unhappy about the appearance of their labor, which obviously
Speaker 2: then has damaging impacts on their physical, mental, and sexual
Speaker 2: health and well being. And then it was like one
Speaker 2: in ten, so that's the equivalent of more than half
Speaker 2: a million women say that they have or have had
Speaker 2: or considered lavier plasty. So that's showing now to be
Speaker 2: one of the fastest growing cosmetic procedures among young people
Speaker 2: and worldwide. And the same research paper found that gen
Speaker 2: z Labyer shame is significantly heightened, with almost one in
Speaker 2: four people aged eighteen to twenty four reporting that they
Speaker 2: feel anxious, unhappy, or embarrassed about their laber. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: so it's very concerning. And I mean I was recently
Speaker 2: quite trolled online, which I mean I always get backlash,
Speaker 2: but a couple of Moskin's always created conversations since very
Speaker 2: first started, but everyone was just sort of saying, you know,
Speaker 2: how can you worry about this stuff? When there's so
Speaker 2: much worse stuff going on in the world. But I
Speaker 2: do think, you know, like it is really important to
Speaker 2: have sex education and start this conversation and slowly help
Speaker 2: remove like the stigma, will to spread awareness of vulvar diversity,
Speaker 2: because going under the knife, you are cutting it off
Speaker 2: to fit society's idea of beauty, which is forever changing.
Speaker 2: And we, as I said before, we just don't know
Speaker 2: the damage that that's doing. And you know, I know
Speaker 2: that in the past enlargements breast fillers were so popular,
Speaker 2: Whereas I speak to a lot of cosmetic surgeons because
Speaker 2: of the research that I do and have done throughout
Speaker 2: the past six years, and they all say they're starting
Speaker 2: to do more lavier plasties. And then when you think
Speaker 2: of like b am I, which is a lot of
Speaker 2: symptoms of that for people getting breast in plants, there
Speaker 2: was so much like brain fog, you know, there was
Speaker 2: a lot of illnesses that we only found out later.
Speaker 2: And as I said before, this lavier plasty isn't researched enough,
Speaker 2: like women's health in general for our bodies isn't research stuff.
Speaker 2: So we don't know yet what what could happen after
Speaker 2: this procedure. I mean it's irreversible. We know that once
Speaker 2: you cut off your LaBier laby plasty, you can never
Speaker 2: get that lavia back, I mean lavier plus puffing. It's
Speaker 2: sane that you know you have to get it done
Speaker 2: every six months, So I don't I think it's just
Speaker 2: absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1: I mean sorry, I can't even like, I don't even
Speaker 1: want to think about having something like a needle into
Speaker 1: my my lay. Yeah, excruciating. It's just crazy.
Speaker 2: And it's just another thing. Every single day you're reading
Speaker 2: something new that women have to live up to to
Speaker 2: be beautiful, and it's all just absolute rubbish.
Speaker 1: What just before we go, what's one thing that you
Speaker 1: want women to know or learn or something that perhaps, yeah,
Speaker 1: that you've learned from photographing all these volvers.
Speaker 2: Gosh, you are also unique, and I know that a
Speaker 2: lot of people have asymmetrical labia, so some of them
Speaker 2: are longer and shorter and you know, wavy like mine's
Speaker 2: a little bit like a little oyster. And that used
Speaker 2: to really upset me, but now I have completely come
Speaker 2: through the realization that that is what makes me me.
Speaker 2: And I think if someone is negative about the way
Speaker 2: your body looks, then they don't deserve to be.
Speaker 1: Down there, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you just have to love. We have one life,
Speaker 2: one body. Just the sooner that you can love the
Speaker 2: skin you're in. You've got to live a happier, more
Speaker 2: out there, more out there, you know, joyous life. And
Speaker 2: we have so many things that create shame around us.
Speaker 2: And I always say, shame can't live behind a voice,
Speaker 2: So speak loud and live large, and just go out
Speaker 2: there and have fun and just do all the things
Speaker 2: that you can with your beautiful body, like walk, run, play, masturbate.
Speaker 2: You know. Just there's so many pleasures, especially in that area,
Speaker 2: so I say, go and live and enjoy it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well done, Ellie, Thank you for coming unhealthy ish pleasure.
Speaker 1: Ellie's book is called Flip through My Flaps and it
Speaker 1: is out now. By the way, I encourage you to
Speaker 1: jump on her website and take a look at all
Speaker 1: the volvers and the penises and everything else on there.
Speaker 1: It is, I don't know, perhaps really reassuring in many ways.
Speaker 1: I will also leave a link to the EP we
Speaker 1: did on the Labia Diversity Report, which is published by
Speaker 1: Women's Health Victoria. That was a goody anyway. I hope
Speaker 1: you did enjoy the chat, Head to body andsoul dot
Speaker 1: com dot or if you want any more info, you
Speaker 1: can follow us on socials. I am at Felicity Harley
Speaker 1: For any feedback, grab our print edition which is out
Speaker 1: in your local Sunday paper. Thanks again for listening and
Speaker 1: stay healthy.