Jan 24 2010

Get married. Get fat.

I’ve been away from blogging for a while, so now I’ve got time I thought I’d better catch up with the goings on in the media reporting of science stories about gender. I looked first to the Daily Mail but I had to back away slowly as it has now become obvious that this paper is beyond satire: ‘Killers in your kitchen: Gender-bending packaging, exploding floor cleaners and toasters more deadly than sharks…

I don’t know where to even begin with this story as it is so chocka block with the most ridiculous statements I have ever read that it has rendered me speechless (for the time being). I will come back to the plastic packaging turning boys into girls soon as that little gem has been doing the rounds for a while and is, guess what, shite.

So I turned instead to our old friend, the Daily Telegraph who confidently tells us: ‘Married women ‘4lbs heavier than unmarried counterparts” and for good measure, includes the subheading: ‘Women really do let themselves go when they get married according to a new study which found that they are 4lbs heavier than their unmarried counterparts.’

Now, the Daily Telegraph have a rich history of ensuring that their headlines and subheadings have only a tangential bearing on the facts within the story, as demonstrated well in this previous article on rape. And they don’t let us down here.

This article is based on a paper; ‘Effects of Having a Baby on Weight Gain‘, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The purpose of the research was to see how much weight gain within a cohort of women was attributable to having a baby or to other factors.

Spot the difference between that and the headline?

The article goes on to explain some of the possible reasons why women who live with a partner and have a baby are heavier than those that don’t which include “eating unhealthier food because of their partner” and having less time for exercise.

So not ‘letting themselves go’ then? And actually one of the reasons points to both of the partners eating unhealthily. But no, of course it is much easier to tap into the stereotypical myth of people ‘going to seed’ after getting married. In this instance it’s women only bothering to keep thin till they get a man then stuffing their cake-holes with, er, cakes. They are therefore tricking men into marrying them then ballooning up to 4lbs heavier.

Why does the Daily Telegraph stop there, why don’t they just go the full Burt Bacharach?


Jan 3 2010

Cancer is Awesome!

I’ve been reading a lot recently about the new book from Barbara Ehrenreich, Smile Or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America And The World, and it looks fascinating. I first have to admit to not reading it yet – it’s published in the UK at the end of the week and on pre-order. But the extracts I’ve read have been interesting, disturbing and depressing in equal measure. I’ll do my first book review as soon as I’ve got through it. But here are a couple of my initial thoughts about some of the issues Ehrenreich raises.

Firstly, I’m genuinely very interested in her views on chemotherapy and the science and medicine behind the development of breast cancer treatment. Its not my area of expertise, but I’ll follow up on her sources from the book. If any readers know more please link to studies in the comments. But in summary, here is Ehrenreich talking about her book and why if she ‘had her time again’ she wouldn’t go through chemotherapy:

Plus, she believes (probably rightly) that it was the HRT that she was on that ‘caused’ or increased her risk of getting breast cancer. Certainly, there is increasing evidence for a link between HRT and breast cancer.

The two things that really struck me from the extract from her book in the Guardian was a) the devaluing of negativity and b) the particular reliance on a narrow definition of ‘ultrafemininity’ in breast cancer campaigning.

Ehrenreich’s whole book is about how alienating and divisive the positive-wash that cancer is given can be, how she was encouraged to view her cancer as an ‘opportunity’ or even ‘gift’ and how her anger and frustration were often scorned by others. This kind of approach is something that pisses me off on a far less extreme or important level than Ehrenreich – but I think is part of an approach within Western cultures to gloss over the shite in life.

I agree we shouldn’t wallow in negativity and if we focus on all the bad things in life we become insular, boring Emos, or worse, Goths. But sometimes we need to call a spade a fucking useless piece of shit shovel. Sometimes negativity is a good thing, a real emotion, actually brings perspective to what is positive and denying the steaming piles of turd in life can be hugely damaging.

Ehrenreich points to a few studies in the Guardian column*:

* See some writers can link to primary sources!!

These studies show that at best “positive thinking” does not affect cancer survival but at worse that it can lead to the “tyranny of positive thinking” which can conceal distress and leave patients feeling worse. So if you’ve got cancer – its alright to feel shit, angry and frustrated. That doesn’t mean you’re allowed to be a full-time arsehole but you can let rip once and while.

The second point that I found striking was the specific type of femininity attached to breast cancer and breast cancer awareness/campaigning and again I don’t think this is a wholly positive thing. Breast cancer campaigning has been incredibly successful, has turned around society’s perception of what was once a hidden and shameful disease and with that has raised phenomenal amounts of money for breast cancer research. But, as Ehrenreich points out, this has been inextricably linked to stereotype of ultrafemininity which is pink, fluffy, appearance-focussed and somewhat reductive of womanhood to boobies.

Possibly the worst example of this, which I have linked to before, is this breast cancer awareness advert for a ‘BoobiBall’ fundraiser:

Breast cancer awareness tends to promote the notion that women are and indeed should be obsessed with their appearance and that the loss of a or both breasts is the worst possible thing that could happen to a woman. Not to mention the hair loss, weight gain or loss, effect on skin etc.

Now there is no doubt that hair loss and mammectomy hugely affect a number of women with cancer and alter their sense of identity or femininity. My concern would be that this emphasis on the femininity of those going through cancer treatment may exacerbate this impact. Ehrenreich talks about the breast cancer marketplace with the prominence of cosmetics and jewellery and websites that talk about chemotherapy helping you to lose weight and smooth out the skin.

What is significant here is that this same femininity is not associated with lung cancer or heart disease – both huge killers of women as well as men. It is associated with uniquely female breasts** and therefore with women’s bodies being the be-all and end-all of their identity.

** I’d be fascinated to know how men with breast cancer relate to breast cancer campaigning.

Breast cancer is seen not only as a disease attacking part of the body but attacking a woman’s identity because women’s identity is so dominated by their physical appearance and attractiveness (with a special focus on breasts). Unfortunately, as with many things, this focus on ultrafemininity is couched in feminist empowerment language and indeed, in America at least, feminism seems to have been replaced by a breast cancer cult.

Maybe less of a focus on how a woman looks during treatment for a life threatening disease is the least we can offer them?


Jan 3 2010

And she’s back….

OK, I’ve been away from blogging a bit recently as work has been kicking my ass, then Christmas happened (who knew?) and then I was struck down with a dreaded lurgy (which you would have known if you’re following me live tweeting my snot).

However, I’m back and it’s the future! Personally, 2009 was a bit of a shitter but 2010 is already looking better for the following reasons.

Firstly, I recommend you listen to the fabulous podcast The Pod Delusion, not only because it is a fellow guest blogger/Podder on the Lay Scientist, but because it named me No.2 Best blogs of 2009 thanks to the infatigable Crispian Jago.

Secondly, watch out for me guest blogging elsewhere this year and giving some talks around UK-shire…more on this when all is confirmed.

And lastly a quick plug for Skeptics in the Pub London and Westminster. Do come along if you’re in London I’m often found propping up the bar PLUS the next gigs feature the wonderful Kat Akingbade (London – remember to book here) and Dr Petra Boynton (Westminster). Look women are taking over – hurrah!


Dec 14 2009

Toxic Waste. Trafigura. Death.

Rather than the usual feminist rant, I bring to you important news of a story about the Guardian and the BBC being sued by oil-traders, Trafigura. The BBC’s story has mysteriously disappeared from their website. But here it is here (pdf).

Here’s all the background on the story you need at Don’t Get Fooled Again, here’s some Wikileaks stuff on this case. And here’s the BBC report about the travesty:

Please take part in this mass blog posting to ensure that human rights abuses continue to be reported and we get some reform of our shitty libel laws in the UK. So while you’re at it, take a look at the Libel Reform Campaign.

And you North Americans – don’t you think you’re immune from our libel laws (although you are doing pretty well at ensure our libel judgments cannot be enforced in the US, hat-tip)

And for any lawyers out there; the title of this blog is three separate fragments.


Dec 6 2009

We are all pretty WEIRD

I have written before about my disdain for a lot of the pop psychology reported in the press *cough Oliver James*. I am sure that this does not represent a lot of the real research that goes on within the discipline but there does seem to be some fundamental problems within psychology that a few academics are finally shining a light on.

These fundamental problems include the lack of empiricism within the discipline (OK, fancy way of saying you’re making it up) which then feeds into implicit universal assumptions about human behaviour.

The problem with the lack of empiricism in psychology has been approached by Boon and Gozna in an article in The Psychologist which is a broad take on the subject and compares the disciple to other sciences.

observation1But I was also struck by how much psychological research is based on WEIRD subjects.

And by weird, I mean Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD). A fairly recent paper in Behavioural and Brain Sciences (pdf) looked at how behavioural scientists routinely publish broad claims about human behaviour and psychology based entirely on people called Dave and Sarah who live in places like Tufnell Park and Happy Harbor (OK, that one’s where the Justice League hang out) and then assume that they are “standard subjects”*.

*These assumptions are not always made explicit but are often implicitly implied in the article headings and are certainly routinely translated into universal truths by the mainstream media.

The paper compares datasets from different populations and finds that not only is there variation but that WEIRD subjects are also particularly unusual compared to the rest of the species and are frequent outliers.

This has huge implications for the bad science reporting on gender and race.

To be fair I do think the public have a responsibility to think for themselves once in a while and ask themselves one simple question when confronted with a headline such as “Shopping styles of men and women all down to evolution, claim scientists” (don’t worry I’m coming back to this little corker later) and that question should be:

“Is it likely that this is true for all or half of the world’s population?”

It’s a simple question, not that taxing. But if it seems abstract then lets break it down into manageable bite-size chunks:

a) Is this likely to be true for all** females/males that I know?

b) Is it likely to be true for all** females/males in this country regardless of age, ethnicity, education, intelligence, disability status, social class or background?

c) Is it likely to be true for all** females/males in all nations, cultures, environments, and geo-political regions regardless of age, ethnicity, education, intelligence, disability status, social class or background?

**I’ll even allow for a statistically significant majority here.

If your answer to these questions is ‘Yes, [X] is likely to be true for half the world’s population’ then I’m afraid you lack of the facility of rational thought. I suggest you become a homeopath.

Some interesting points from the Henrich, Heine & Norenzayan paper:

  • A recent analysis of the top journals in six sub-disciplines of Psychology from 2003-2007 revealed that 68% of subjects came from the US, and 96% of subjects were from Western industrialised countries, specifically North America, Europe, Australia, and Israel (Arnett, 2008) reflecting the academics country of residence.
  • This means that 96% of psychological samples come from countries with only 12% of the world’s population.
  • And a randomly selected American undergraduate is more than 4000 times more likely to be a research participant than is a randomly selected person from outside of the West.

I was particularly interested in the section on spatial cognition because I mostly use my catchphrase ‘Oh, fuck off’, when reading about women not being able to read maps. The authors point to the variation in linguistic tools between societies:

Human societies vary in their linguistic tools for, and cultural practices associated with, representing and communicating (1) directions in physical space, (2) the color spectrum, and (3) integer amounts. There is some evidence that each of these differences in cultural content may influence some aspects of nonlinguistic cognitive processes (D’Andrade, 1995; Gordon, 2005; Kay, 2005; Levinson, 2003; Roberson, Davies, & Davidoff, 2000). Here we focus on spatial cognition, for which the evidence is most provocative. As above, it appears that industrialized societies are at the extreme end of the continuum in spatial cognition. Human populations show differences in how they think about spatial orientation and deal with directions, and these differences may be influenced by linguistically-based spatial reference systems.

So spatial cognition may be influenced by linguistic tools, or indeed may be influenced by other factors, but the fact that our research is using such a narrow and biased sample, the conclusions can at best be highly contextualised and at worst hugely flawed.

So if you come across an article saying women can’t read maps because of humans’ hunter-gatherer past (because of course it is always, always because of our hunter-gatherer past), it might be worth considering that other human populations don’t actually use A-Zs or EVEN Googlemaps and indeed wouldn’t describe directions in the same way as those in industrialised societies. So its unlikely that women, half the world’s population, are teh stupids and get themselves all in a tizzy when they have to get themselves somewhere.

I won’t go into the whole article, but it is fascinating so do check it out unfortunately some of their key references are behind a paywall. Grrrr.


Nov 29 2009

Women getting it up

cold wifeOK, I’m quite late on this one as work has been hellish recently. But here’s the news we’ve all be waiting for – female Viagra has been invented. According to The Sun, it makes ‘girls’ sex drive soar’ (or airbrushed to oblivion it seems). This claim and Flibanserin have been well torn apart by Dr Petra and Neuroskeptic.

In sum, this was a preapproved drug being aggressively marketed for a likely manufactured ‘disorder’, and may be no better than a couple of glasses of wine.

There is of course a problem with the over-medicalisation of social problems, mental health or indeed just life, but female sexual dysfunction taps in to our historical beliefs about female sexuality. Whether nymphomaniacs or laced up prudes, women’s sexuality has been portrayed as a mysterious morass of hormones, guilt and secrecy.

What I also find disturbing is the appropriation of feminist language to sell these products; women deserve to have orgasms and this pill with help reap the rewards of the sexual revolution. This is of course a tried and tested method employed to sell anything from electro-shock Taser weapons to breast augmentation. To criticise these products, these grisly chunks in the vomit of capitalism, is to be anti-women or anti-choice.

Of course what these products do is actually limit choice by their very nature. By framing some women’s lack of sexual desire as ‘something that’s wrong with her head’ means that all the other potential factors – something wrong in the relationship, unsatisfactory sexual partner, stress and anxiety, unfulfilled sexual desires, it being temporary and just one of those things – are not being considered or addressed.

The flip side of ‘women not wanting sex’ is men wanting it all the time. This includes the myth that men think about sex every 7 seconds (tackled here with a number of other bogus stats), but can translate into the far more sinister ‘some women asked to be raped because men just can’t help themselves’.

A simplistic and historically-rooted view of male and female sexuality can at best be misleading and unhelpful and at worst can legitimise sexual violence or abusive behaviours.

So if you’re lacking sexual desire, chill out, have a glass of wine and think about it for a bit, considering what factors might be feeding the problem. Or maybe talk to someone; ideally someone who won’t financially benefit from selling you a pill.


Nov 22 2009

Christmas is coming! Vajayjay present suggestions

The Earth has a filthy mind

The Earth has a filthy mind

One of the best things about blogging is obviously the people you get to meet but also the ‘interesting’ things that people start emailing/tweeting you about. And with a blog with the word ‘vagina’ in the title, my electronic gifts seem to be more interesting than most.

Now, I don’t usually allow ads on my blog (other than for other blogs obviously) but I do want to draw people’s attention to the wide variety of vajayjay-themed products you can get.

I don’t mean the hideousness that is ‘feminine hygiene’ products. I mean those gifts and crafts that celebrate, jubilate and honour the minge.

Call them gash goodies, poonanie presents, labia largesse, growler gratuity, beaver bounty, ok…I’ll stop.

The International Vulva Knitting Circle

Vulva knitting is big. I think this is because knitting has come back in a big way recently and as a way to redefine this for a new generation we have done it subversively. The International Vulva Knitting Circle was started as a way to bring grassroots activism to challenge female genital cosmetic surgery and the commercialisation of women’s bodies and sexuality more broadly. This is about using knitting to politicise young women about their sexuality – “the radicalism of making female genitalia visible”. Hurrah.

There is also a Facebook group.

Vulva Portrait Pendants

Thank you the commenter who first linked to this. These are custom-made vulva necklaces. You send in a picture of your (or your loved one’s) front bottom and the artist makes a pendant that resembles it. My favourite bit of the ad says that if you are too shy to send in a picture, you can describe it. I’d love to meet the person too shy to send in a picture of their fanny-foo-far but not so shy that they would wear it as a pendant round their neck.

All things Yoni

As the title suggests, everything you’d ever want (and some things you wouldn’t) gash-themed is here. Yoni is Sanskrit for ‘sacred temple’ and also translates as vagina. I also like the word because it rhymes with my nickname. Coincidence or cosmic connection? Er, coincidence.

The Velvet Vulva

These are beef-curtain shaped bags and purses which are very much associated with the witch-goddess-earth-power type schtick (“radiating feminine energy” yadda yadda). However, anyone who describes their fanny purses are “portals to the feminine temple” deserves my support. I’d recommend the Big Capacity Bags and the vulva hat which I presume gives you that ‘being born’ look.

Best quote: “Indeed, the labia can be reshaped when damp, but not blown dry.”   This is a lesson for life people.

The Cunt Coloring Book

I actually really want this for Christmas. OK, if you’re old enough to colour this in, you’re probably too old to be colouring-in. But sometimes its good to have something to doodle with when on the phone or in work meetings.

I Heart Guts – Uterus

Great shop for all your gut-themed needs. You can also get plush diseases at Giant Microbes so that you can combine a plushy minge with the clap, frinstance.

The uterus is also the third bestseller behind the heart and kidney.

A couple of things that I notice from these: there definitely is a trend for the celebration of the vagina in defiance of the accusations of being religiously unclean. But also that this is mostly emanating from the US/North America. Are we slow to pick up on this in Europe or is it just not that much of a statement here?


Nov 4 2009

Time to talk periods

This was originally posted at The Lay Scientist.

A while ago I wrote a post at Vagina Dentata about periods. I was sick of menstruation being a hidden and taboo issue and one that we as a Western society fail to talk about. That post got the biggest response I have had both in terms of comments on the blog and in person from women and men alike.

This response included a great post from Arikia (The Millikan Daily) about tampon scarcity in Brooklyn – yep land of the free, with not a red mouse between them.

My main point was that ‘having the painters and decorators in’ was a feature of pretty much every woman’s life for most of her life. We’re all blobbing, so why is it so rarely talked about? Because it’s dirty that’s why – Biblically unclean.

Girls and boys are rarely told about the ‘stuff’ that happens to the opposite sex during puberty and beyond. It leads to fear, misunderstanding, shame and repulsion. The natural functions of women have for millennia resulted in the notion of women as fundamentally filthy (and not in a good smutty way). If you touch a woman during her monthly period you will be unclean till evening (Leviticus, which is all about the periods, and sleeping with animals). It has spawned a fascination and abhorrence with female functions and feminine ‘dirt’.

But this means that an important and recurring aspect of women’s lives doesn’t get discussed. There are gruesome facts about perioding that rarely get mentioned: that you shit differently, sometimes it hurts so much you vomit, it can make you uncoordinated and bump into things/knock things over, your breasts can swell and hurt, you get incredibly hot at night and can’t sleep, you get water-retention and go up a dress-size (BTW these things don’t happen every time or all at once, that would be really inconvenient).

All women have had to make make-shift sanitary towels out of bog-roll at one time or other. We’ve all had to get blood stains out of our favourite pants and jeans. We all have stories about when we found out about what periods were, when we started, the chats with our mothers, sisters or teachers. But those chats were always hushed and never involved men.

But since that blog post I’ve come across some more interesting posts and issues. I was writing from my own experience and so very much contextualised what I was saying as being a ‘Western’ issue. But of course it isn’t. While the period taboo is a pain in the vadge in the UK, it is a serious developmental problem in poorer countries around the world.

This is a brilliant campaigning film by the Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) program which helps local women in developing countries “jump-start their own businesses to manufacture and distribute affordable, quality, and eco-friendly sanitary pads.”

So it seems ‘menstrual silence’ can lead to girls missing out on school and women missing out on an income.

This reminded me of the equally excellent Dignity! Period campaign in Zimbabwe where one of the added consequences of the economic crisis is that women cannot afford sanitary products. This in turn affects their health, education and threatens their dignity. For many ordinary women sanitary products are a ‘luxury’ that they can no longer afford or access, as many manufacturers have fled Zimbabwe causing shortages of the products.

The common factor in the UK, US, Zimbabwe and Uganda is the ‘menstrual silence’. How many times do sanitary products get talked about in terms of human necessity? We have broken the taboo on talking about condoms (Vatican notwithstanding) in order to address HIV/AIDs, we need to break the taboo on periods to talk about the very real affect that they have on women’s lives and health and the very real need that women have for sanitary towels and tampons.

These aren’t luxuries. I don’t feel like I’m indulging myself when I buy them (even though I’m likely to be buying 5kgs of chocolate at the same time). And the thought of having to fashion a towel out of leaves and rags while having limited or no access to toilets and/or cleaning facilities is too grim to contemplate.

And if you think I’m being prim by suggesting that tampons/towels are a human necessity – you think about bleeding (including blood clots and womb lining) for a week into what is already a warm, moist, bacteria-loving area covered in hair and consider not being able to keep that clean. Then think about that taking place in a hot climate where you have to walk a lot. Is this seeming like an issue now? If so, go and donate to:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research blog is a thing of wonder and introduced me to SHE.


Oct 30 2009

Pill does not cure gender inequality

There’s a very illuminating leader in The Lancet last week about maternal mortality and the fact that despite sustained global campaigning efforts there has been little progress on the Millennium Development Goal to reduce maternal deaths by 75% by 2015.

The article makes some good suggestions for why this has been; vertical disease programmes have seemingly been based on straightforward interventions while maternal health programmes do not rely on ‘a pill'; maternal health progs have been limited and not taken into account the interactions with other health issues (e.g. HIV/AIDs and maternal deaths); there has been a paradigm shift within maternal health from vertical interventions to health systems strengthening which has not been matched with a funding shift; etc.

But one thing that was not mentioned, and only alluded to by reference to a ‘continuum of care’, is the impact of the status of women, views on female sexuality and reproductive autonomy which arguably are greater indicators of maternal death than skilled birth attendants (although in fact these things are inextricably linked).

For example, Sierra Leone has one of the worst maternal mortality ratios in the worst (either 1st or 2nd together with Afghanistan). Over 90% of women are also subjected to female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone (UNICEF).

Similarly in South Africa where there is particular interaction between maternal deaths and HIV/AIDs there is also endemic sexual violence where it is estimated that women born in South Africa have a greater chance of being raped than learning to read.

Now we cannot wait for female emancipation around the world to bring down maternal mortality, but we have to take an approach to tackling women’s health problems which recognises societal influences, culture and the centrality of sexual and reproductive rights to saving women’s lives.

A WHO study found that about 40 per cent of the healthcare infrastructure across sub-Saharan Africa is operated by faith-based groups. I have heard much higher estimates than that. This would inevitably have an affect on women’s (as well as men’s) sexual and reproductive rights, access to information and access to services.

This picture was taken in a Catholic run health centre in Kenya. It is a HIV/AIDs prevention poster in which a sticker has been put over the phrase ‘Use a Condom’.

This picture was taken in a Catholic run health centre in Kenya. It is a HIV/AIDs prevention poster in which a sticker has been put over the phrase ‘Use a Condom’.

To reduce maternal deaths, women need to get married and have kids later, have less children therefore use family planning, be well nourished and free from disease, have access to primary healthcare as well as emergency obstetric care (which is culturally appropriate and in their language), have access to safe and legal abortion, and be educated in their rights, their right to healthcare, their right to information and – very simply – have the right and ability to say no or yes to sex and insist on condom/contraceptive use.

Drug treatment of post-partum haemorrhage or sepsis may fit nicely into our drug delivery programmes, work well with our partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, and definitely help save lives. But it is a drop in the ocean without women themselves having bodily integrity.


Oct 24 2009

Freshen Breath the Unconventional Way

Pongwiffy: A Witch of Dirty Habits was one of my favourite children's books. Says a lot.

Pongwiffy: A Witch of Dirty Habits was one of my favourite children's books. Says a lot.

I guess it is something that they are still inventing things that surprise you. You think you have everything you ever wanted, every consumer good imaginable and then something pops up and you are left open-mouthed.

This is how I felt recently when I came across (no pun intended) vagina fresheners. Yes, I’m afraid you read that right. Mints that feed into the Va-jay-jay to give it a tangy flavour.

I’ve linked before to this study which shows that having a low opinion of one’s fanny-fu-far is bad for women’s sexual health (for Americans: fannies are ladies front-bottoms and we snigger whenever you use the word, heh). And yet we have to put up with jokes about fishy smells and frankly creepy, unnecessary products designed to feed off women’s insecurities.

As well as poonanie mints people have invented deordorising tampons, vaginal deodorant (is it just me or do fragrances called ‘tropical rain’ and ‘island splash’ seem inappropriate?), wipes (links to blog asking if vag wipes are a sign of politeness) and douching (this is a link to the Science Museum, ftmfw). All of these things are invented and marketed to make you feel like you need something other than soap and water to be clean and healthy. You don’t.

This impacts on women’s health because if they always think that the pink clink stinks then they are less likely to notice changes which may signify infection or seek help and advice (similarly vibrator use actually increases sexual health). Plus being self-conscious of your wookie effects your enjoyment of oral sex which instead should be savoured.

There is nothing peculiarly smelly about women’s bits. Any enclosed area that gets sweaty gets wiffy – male as well as female.

So back off with the fish jokes, everyone knows the hairy clam tastes of milk and honey.