I told you about how CBSNews.com asked me to write "15 Crazy Things About Vaginas" to celebrate the launch of What’s Up Down There? on their website. But within one hour of posting it, some suit in corporate made them take it down. “Too saucy.” Sheesh. But "15 Crazy Things About Sperm" could stay up.

I was so incensed that I wrote this post, "Sperm Trumps Vagina, WTF?"

I was over it, but...

That was months ago, and I don’t tend to hold grudges, so I was over it until I just found out that they posted "15 Strangest Sexual Fetishes" complete with photos. The article portrays those who like to get it on in the mud (salirophilia), those who like to dress up like babies (paraphilic infantilism), those obsessed with vampire sex (hematolognia), those who love sex in tight places (claustrophilia), those who get off on biting (odaxelagnia), those who like to be masked when having sex, those who dress up like animals (ursusalgamatophilia), those who prefer having sex with amputees (acrotomophilia), those who prefer to have sex with sleeping people (somnophilia), those who get turned on by mannequins (agalmatophilia), and more.

Now I consider myself pretty open minded. After all, I wrote a whole book about vaginas. But I was shocked that they would publish "15 Strangest Sexual Fetishes" when they considered my inspiring, empowering, and educational "15 Crazy Things About Vaginas" too saucy. What am I missing here? I was horrified that sperm got to stay when vaginas got to go, but I rationalized that maybe sperm are just a wee bit tamer than vaginas. After all, it wasn't "15 Crazy Things About Penises" that got to stay. Maybe healthy, natural, biological organs are just more dangerous than cute, microscopic, swimmy little sperm.

But now this? What the f-ck?

Is this just blatant misogyny? Clearly, if they can write an article about people who get off on mannequins, they’re not worried about publishing saucy stuff. I have no problem with talking about fetishes. In fact, more power to ‘em for shining a light on something most consider pretty taboo. But I’m blown away by the hypocrisy of it all. Having sex with sleeping people is tamer than vaginas? Bullshit.

It’s clearly not that people aren’t interested in vaginas. After all, people are still buying my book. And we got so much traffic on OwningPink.com when "15 Crazy Things About Vaginas" went viral that it crashed our site (2.5 million hits in a day will do that to you). We’ve had so much interest in that post that I just wrote "15 More Crazy Things About Vaginas".

So clearly, people know vaginas make the world go round. People want to engage in Vagina Dialogues. They want to ask questions, learn, share, touch, and look at vaginas. And yet, we can’t say the word on most television shows. CBSNews.com takes a post about them off their site, and many people cringe if you utter the word in public.

Are we just so scared of the power of the feminine that we must censor it? Is our society so screwed up that we think sexual fetishes are more mainstream than vaginas? Why are we, at once, obsessed with vaginas and repelled by them? What’s at the root of this?

This just makes me more determined than ever to empower you all to own your femininity -- and all the parts of what makes you whole, powerful, kick ass women -- so you can heal, connect, and thrive. If this is the message the world is giving us, no wonder so many of us feel disconnected, diseased, depressed, and disheartened.

Are you on board to help me change all that? Are you ready to turn the tides so that every woman on earth Owns Pink and claims her place in this world that tries to silence her almighty power? Will you hold my hand and help me encircle our globe with a tribe of women who will not be censored?

I pray you will.  

What do you think? Am I overreacting here? Are you as outraged as I am? I’d love to hear what you think!

Vagina vagina vagina,
Lissa

Lissa Rankin, MD: Founder of OwningPink.com, Pink Medicine Woman coach, motivational speaker, and author of What’s Up Down There? Questions You’d Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend and Encaustic Art: The Complete Guide To Creating Fine Art With Wax.