German museum invites women to make plaster casts of their vulvas
A German museum is seeking to de-stigmatize the female body with a workshops for making plaster casts of vulvas on International Women's Day.
In contrast to male genitalia, the image of the vulva has long been a taboo in Germany, as in many other countries, and depictions of it are often seen as obscene, the municipal museum in the southern Bavarian city of Memmingen says.
Misrepresentations of the clitoris are also indicative of the ignorance about the female body, say the curators of the museum, located about an hour from Munich.
In the two-hour workshop on March 8, participants will have the opportunity to first mould their vulvas with a mass called alginate, the same material dentists use to make dental moulds.
During the workshops, women of course have to undress, so a corner of the museum has been set up to offer a certain amount of privacy, the museum's acting director Axel Städter said. The negative mould is then cast in plaster to create a individual sculpture.
Initially, these sculptures are intended for private personal use. They can be set up or further worked on and painted. "We do not intend for the vulvas to be part of an exhibition," Städter said.
It's about "making things visible that previously weren't," said Städter. For this reason, there was no penis plaster workshop. Plaster casts of male genitalia already exist in many galleries, notably a cast of Jimi Hendrix's penis in the Icelandic Phallological Museum.
The image of the vulva as an expression of femininity and self-acceptance also challenges traditional boundaries and opens up new perspectives in art and pop culture, the museum said.
