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.

Referred to euphemistically to children as 'privates', the vagina is no longer permitted to be private. Instead, it is photographed independently of the face, stripped of identity, of emotional and historical and economic context, and in the service of men: public.