Women deformed by the pornographic sexual templateperceive other women as masturbatory objects.

I refuse to have my vagina photographed because I have nointerest in being desired on the basis of its appearance. It hastaken me decades to appreciate its power and beauty, and notmerely because it birthed a child. Responsive to tenderness andthe source of a luminous ecstasy, my vagina has enabled me totranscend an otherwise limited sense of self. I feel no need tomake it conform to another’s aesthetic or have it applauded bystrangers.

This, the “Vagina Effect”, is one of the saddest byproducts of pornography: to attract the attention of jaded males, female performers now feel they have to flash their vaginas – not too obviously, lest more orthodox fans be alienated, but 'accidentally' so as to sidestep disquieting accusations of vulgarity.

Sex has, through being photographed, become a thing to beobserved, to be performed, rather than experienced so deeplythat it is unnecessary even to open one’s eyes.

In the twenty-first century, the vagina has come to eclipse the female face.