Sending mirrors to women at Dartmouth has got….has got…. to be in the top 10 of all stupid things ever done at the college. Why not send mirrors to all males at the college so they can look at “themselves” too? Where have the minds of the students gone? How about inventing something. No, too busy genital gazing this term.

I don’t need a mirror to look at myself. I’m double-jointed.

I know more than one girl (myself included) who were less than thrilled to receive these mirrors. What happened to class? This movement is tacky and offensive.

It is incredibly presumptuous to tell me that I would be leading a happier life if I “took control of my body.” I couldn’t care less if mirrors were provided to women who requested them, but sending them to every woman on campus is excessive and, frankly, unwanted.

Our campus is entirely too obsessed with sex.

I disagree with the first critic. I can relate to Mayuka and really didn’t know what I looked like down there until very recently. Admittedly, I was a little disgusted. Perhaps this experience only affects a small percentage of the Dartmouth population.

the difference, anonymous 12:48, is that men already grow up completely comfortable and familiar with their penises. almost all men are deeply in tune with not only the physical genitals but also their sexuality. i doubt there are many, if any, men who have never seen their own penis.

by HUGE contrast, many women feel completely uncomfortable with and disconnected from their vaginas. the discomfort with female genitals stems from everything from societal constructions about female sexuality to negative attitudes about the vagina itself (it’s ugly, smells bad, isn’t “normal,” etc.—see the ridiculous new vaginal and labial surgeries that are becoming increasingly popular). whereas boys are (generally) encouraged to explore and become familiar with their sexuality, girls are taught from birth that their sexual parts are disgusting and not to be acknowledged. as mayuka writes, MANY women have never even seen their own vaginas. as a result, many women don’t take accountability for their sexuality or their health because they are so unaware, indifferent, or averse to their own vaginas.

this isn’t just about “genital gazing,” it’s about female health, positive sexuality, and empowerment. go see the vagina monologues, maybe that would bring you out from under that rock.

If you plan on touring campus with your new hand-held mirrors, please consider availing yourselves of Apple’s optional heads-up display, not only for your safety, but the safety of the entire Dartmouth community. The iPoon is in stores and online now.

Is it necessary to be an owner of female genitalia in order to be a woman?

Yes.

this is the most embarrassing thing to ever happen at dartmouth…since the last time women organized a massive undertaking (signs, rape song, general presence)

I agree with 10 on Oct 19 | 6:43 pm, are not in tuned with their sexual genitalia, and looking or exploring every now and then can be extremely beneficial. Think about it this way, women -and men- are supposed to feel their breasts to look for any abnormal lumps, which can be a sign of breast cancer. Even if women attend annual exams/paps, things can get overlooked, so why not at least check yourself once a month? If some women did not want the mirrors/want to use them to check their vulva, then use it as a compact or give it to somebody else.

The assertion that men naturally and through education think their genitals are just great and they wish they had more of them is nothing more than a convenient excuse for this exercise in womens special need to look at themselves. Men just figure, hey that’s what I got and I’m going to have to make the best of it. Want to look for disgusting and smelly stuff? Get some fiber optics and a tube and take a look and smell of your intestines and colon. That’s how stupid this mirror thing is. Send everyone a microscope and then we can see the millions and billions of parasites that each of us have all over our bodies, inside and out. After that experience I’m sure that everyone would want to attack themselves to get rid of them.

Anonymous 9:00 AM just proves Mayuka’s point. That people are frightened of their bodies and what’s inside, and refuse to look at themselves.

I laud efforts such as this, the Real Beauty Initiative and even the Lingerie party, that encourage us to be more comfortable with our physical selves. And the first step to being comfortable with our bodies is by knowing more about them!

And for those who the campus is sex-obsessed, consider that if the only only thing vaginas did were provide a means to sex, a number of people would be happier: no more menstruation, no infections, no worries about giving birth normally…

In the end, it’s just another organ, albeit one that needs some spring-cleaning and now and then. The stigma attached to it is purely societal.

this is what happens when classes aren’t hard enough at Dartmouth…

The worst part of this entire project is the chauvinist responses on this comment page! “this is the most embarrassing thing to ever happen at Dartmouth… since the last time women organized a massive undertaking”— could you be more misogynistic or disrespectful? Not to mention belittling women’s anti-rape efforts, which I find in no way “embarrassing.” Thank you poster at 3:54 am for demonstrating what heartless jerks really do go to this school.

But that’s besides the point. Women and men alike should be encouraged to explore and understand their bodies. It is not “tacky” or “offensive,” it is good health. And just because you got a mirror doesn’t mean someone is attacking you. It’s a mirror. Use it a s a tool to educate yourself, or just throw it away. The Orchid Project is completely voluntary as well as delightfully unconventional in it’s celebration for women’s genitalia!

You need not be ashamed of your body. What a wonderful message. Thank Mayuka for adding to the movement of de-stigmatizing a woman’s natural form.

Agreed, Mr. Biswas. How come it’s not stigmatized to blitz out to campus with a subject line like, “Touch Yourself, Save Your Life” (for breast cancer), or distribute t-shirts that say “Save Second Base” (also for breast cancer), but when someone mentions vaginas in an honest, open, non-innuendo-laden way, it’s “stupid”, “embarassing”, or “genital-gazing”? If women are encouraged to feel their breasts for health, why not look at your vagina too?

I think Ms. Kowaguchi did an excellent job of following up this project with a series of discussions to clear up misunderstandings like the ones in this comment thread. There was a discussion last night, and there will be at least 2 more at the Center for Women and Gender today and tomorrow. So before you dismiss this as “a convenient excuse for this exercise in womens [sic] special need to look at themselves” or “tacky and offensive”, I strongly encourage you to attend one of these discussions and see what the debate is really about (that is, if you’re actually interested in meaningful conversation and aren’t just some anonymous troll who still hasn’t come to grips with the fact that the College is, in fact, co-ed). The one tonight is 5 PM at the CWG, next to the Choates. Alternatively, keep an eye out on femnew.wordpress.com.

And of course, once again any debate about gender and sexuality is completely shrouded by anonymity. Got something to say? Put your name on it, at the very least.

Hey people, go do whatever you want to with yourselves. If you think that looking at your vulvas or whatever anyone else thinks that you need to do is the thing, no one cares. If you have to be told what to do, what to think about it and have a mirror sent to you to do it, it is offensive to the intelligence of the people you are sending it to. It is also like taking a problem that you have and assuming that everyone else has the same problem, this is a psychosis. It makes just exactly as much sense as mirrors for men to look at their nuts. And they won’t be the only nuts on campus.

Who paid for the 1,796 hand held mirrors? Who wrote the letter? Where did the idea come from? Who signed off on it in the administration? Dartmouth College has a budget problem and this is a priority? How much did this cost?

I’m really surprised by some of the comments on this column. I think people should remember that the Orchid Project doesn’t force people to use the mirrors for their stated purpose. In fact, the paper disseminated with the mirrors says, “Whether you peak now, later, or never, a thing of beauty is a joy forever.” Mayuka’s project has been hugely successful not because it encourages “genital gazing,” but because it stimulates talk on the issue of female sexuality and health—just look at the discussions that are taking place every day throughout the week. Mayuka put a lot of hard work into this project, not because classes aren’t hard enough as one anonymous poster commented, but because many women on this campus do not have a personal connection with their bodies and as a result do not take care of themselves. Thank you, Mayuka, for bringing up this important issue.

If I were a woman I would feel incredibly offended if I opened up my mailbox and found a mirror directing me to look at my vulva. The women on this campus are presumably smart enough to know exactly where it is an how to look at it if they want to. Actually doing so is a private decision and one that I think women can make without the harassment of a letter-writing campaign from the sexperts. It is also extremely pretentious of Ms. Kowaguchi to assume that A) the women on this campus have the same psychological barriers that she has and B) that her antidote to her sexual demons is so superior to other solutions that it deserves a resource-intensive, invasive, campus-wide campaign. Her sex life does not need to be rubbed in the face of every woman on campus. I certainly hope my tuition dollars didn’t pay for any part of this. Personally, I think that most organizations and individuals on this campus that purport to encourage sexual education and liberation are actually just proselytizing a shallow, cheap, and demeaning view of sex.

And just to clarify, women have vaginas and men have penises.

Why didn’t I get one?

The money spent on the 1,796 mirrors could have gone to funding global AIDS relief.