‘Basically, it’s sorcery for your vagina’: unpacking Western representations of vaginal steaming

Abstract

Vaginal steaming made global headlines in 2015 after its promotion by celebrity Gwyneth Paltrow. One of many female genital modification practices currently on offer in Anglo-Western nations - practices both heavily promoted and critiqued - vaginal steaming is claimed to offer benefits for fertility and overall reproductive, sexual or even general health and wellbeing. We analysed a selection of online accounts of vaginal steaming to determine the sociocultural assumptions and logics within such discourse, including ideas about women, women's bodies and women's engagement with such 'modificatory' practices. Ninety items were carefully selected from the main types of website discussing vaginal steaming: news/magazines; health/lifestyle; spa/service providers; and personal blogs. Data were analysed using thematic analysis, within a constructionist framework that saw us focus on the constructions and rationalities that underpin the explicit content of the texts. Within an overarching theme of 'the self-improving woman' we identified four themes: (1) the naturally deteriorating, dirty female body; (2) contemporary life as harmful; (3) physical optimisation and the enhancement of health; and (4) vaginal steaming for life optimisation. Online accounts of vaginal steaming appear both to fit within historico-contemporary constructions of women's bodies as deficient and disgusting, and contemporary neoliberal and healthist discourse around the constantly improving subject.

Enough of the ‘Snake Oil’: Applying a Business and Human Rights Lens to the Sexual and Reproductive Wellness Industry

“…21 Self-improvement becomes both a moral responsibility for the individual, and a never-ending task. 22 Various aspects of the wellness economy have also faced criticism for the promotion of 'diet culture', 23 ableism, 24 racism, 25 the co-option and distortion of traditional practices for profit, 26 wellness as a form of social control, 27 and the encouragement of an unattainable and often unaffordable lifestyle, reserved for a largely white and elite consumer base. 28 Perhaps the most fundamental and underlying criticism is the wellness industry's lack of evidence-based approaches to health, which include the frequent blending of scientific language with pseudoscientific practices that aim to tackle nebulous symptoms such as 'inflammation', 'toxins' or 'free radicals'.…”

“…42 Patriarchal structures, which simultaneously stigmatize and objectify the female body and its sexual and reproductive functionsas 33 exemplified by the concealment of menstruation, 43 taboos surrounding female sexual pleasure or the idea that female genitalia are unclean 44 remain prevalent. 45 The Sexual and Reproductive Wellness Industry With this context in mind, we turn to the female sexual and reproductive wellness industry. 46 Critical feminist health scholarship extends the discussion on how the neoliberal 'enterprising self' is enacted and regulated through the eternal pursuit of wellness (as discussed above), to look specifically at the impact of this on the female sexual and reproductive body.…”

“…In her work, Jane Ussher builds on earlier feminist theorizing to argue that the reproductive body is seen as both central to the performance of normative femininity and as an embodied pathology. 47 Folded in with and concealed by the surveillance and regulation of the sexual and reproductive self, 48 is the development of the postfeminist rhetoric of choice and empowerment and the popularization of 'commodity feminism'. 49 Here, the ability of women to make choices and to be empowered is demonstrated through their participation in the market economy.…”

“…51 Rosalind Gill maintains that the discourse of empowerment is highly marketable, inviting women to 'purchase everything from bras to coffee as a sign of their power and independence'. 52 Indeed, this has become central to how wellness is marketed to women, 53 with products like rejuvenation injections claiming to 'empower the vagina'. 54 In this way, the industry has co-opted both the fears around women's sexual health and fertility, and the emancipatory principles that sought to liberate women from their sexual and reproductive roles.…”

“…109 In 2016, in response to its observed violations of SRHR, the CESCR Committee issued its interpretive General Comment (No. 22), clarifying that SRHR are an 'integral' part of the right to health. 110 Women and girls are highlighted particularly because of their reproductive capacities 111 and, as demonstrated in Part II, it is especially because of these capacities that an industry has developed to tap into the associated special needs of women.…”