Vulva or Vagina? Let’s Understand The Difference

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All of us fondly remember the time when we freshly learned about human anatomy at school or at home. Rightly recognizing the hands, legs, forehead, ears, mouth, tongue, feet, etc. made us nothing short of smart kids. But seldom we were taught about our sexual parts like the Vagina and Vulva. Shame Shame, down there, pee place became a byword for our genitals.

It’s about time to shed the shame and hold an absolute conversation about female genitalia, learn the difference, and correct usage. Starting with the basics – Do you know the difference between Vulva and Vagina? You might be using the latter word more often to address your genitalia as a whole. Guess What – Vulva and Vagina are two different parts of your genitalia’s anatomy.

To what part exactly should I call vulva?

Hey! That is an easy one to learn about. The vulva is actually the outer part of your genitalia. It includes the pubic mound, the labia majora and minora, the pleasure factory, Clitoris, The urethral opening, and the vaginal opening.

Let’s get to the details

Pubic Mound

Pubic Mound or mons pubis is an upside-down triangle-shaped mound. It is made up of fatty tissues that extend from the top of the pubic hairline to the clitoris. An area that starts growing hair patches right from puberty.

Labia Majora

Labia Majora is the two folds that extend from the pubic mound and merges with the perineum skin. Commonly known as the outer lips of the vagina these can be pink, brown or red in color.

Labia Minora

Labia minora is the inside part of the vagina that begins from the clitoris and ends at the vaginal opening. It has varying lengths and colors.

Clitoris

The pea-shaped erogenous organ capable of sexual stimulation. It is situated at the top of the vagina above the urethra. A bundle of nerves that expands the farthest and can vary in size.

Urethral opening

Commonly called the pee hole. It is situated beneath the clitoris from where the urine comes out.

Vaginal opening

Situated between labia majora and minora and below the clitoris and urethra.

Is there some perfect shape of the vulva?

If you believe there is a perfect shape for the vulva then thanks to porn and pop culture for distorting the reality. Indeed there is no perfect shape of the vulva. Every vulva is of different shape, color, and size. Your vulva of whatever shape, size, and the color is perfectly normal.

What is the Vagina then?

The Vagina is an elastic muscular canal that extends from the vulva to the cervix. It is a passage where the lining of the uterus is shed during menstruation and the baby descends during birth.

What does my Vagina do?

Your vagina is an amazing multi-tasker. It does not create a passage for period blood to flow out of the body and helps in childbirth but also enables sexual pleasure.

Pleasure: The Vaginal walls are extremely sensitive and enable sexual pleasure with the help of a penis, finger or a sex toy.

Menstruation: The period blood along with other menstrual waste flushes out of the body through the vaginal canal. During the periods we insert tampons and menstrual cups inside the vagina to prevent leakage.

Pregnancy: During sex if your partner ejaculates the sperms swim through the vaginal canal and uterus to reach the fallopian tubes and fertilize the eggs.

Childbirth: The baby descends into the Vagina from the uterus to finally make it out of the body through the vaginal opening.

How do I use these terms correctly?

While talking about inserting something inside of the vagina like a penis, sex toy, tampon or menstrual cup make sure to use the term vagina while the outer parts of your genitalia visible through naked eyes will be called the vulva.

How do I keep my vulva and vagina clean?

Your Vagina is a self-cleaning organ that do not need any perfumed soap or feminine hygiene product to clean themselves. Your vagina is as self-reliant as you are. It maintains a good pH balance that keeps the bacteria at bay. The vagina is lined with a mucous membrane. The mucus that it produces during the menstrual cycle protects it against any harmful bacteria and infection.

Whereas the vulva has another cleaning mechanism. The hair patch on the pubic mound prevents dirt and pathogens from entering the genitals Thus, need not bother shaving your vulva every now and then. However, you can clean it with warm water and mild soap at times.

Remember, taking care of your genitals and talking about it by using explicit terms such as vagina, vulva, etc helps you build a healthy relationship with your body and smash the taboo around sexual health.

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“Is flashing an offence in India?”, asks Nupur Saraswat, a Bengaluru based writer who came out for help on Instagram yesterday.

“I’ve lived in this house for over one month now. And I’ve never seen this man before. His distance/ view of my terrace is in the forth slide. He waited there for hours looking at me, which made me uneasy but not to the extent that I needed to ask him to fuck off. Then at a point when he knew I was looking, he pulled his pants down and held his penis at me. Smiling that FUCKING smile.

He is two, TWO buildings away from me. I live alone in the terrace house. I have informed my landlords. The next step is to figure out a way to get legal help. Is flashing an offence in India? Is there a helpline I can call? And how do I make sure that something happens and I am not left in a position where this person a) knows I have reported him, and b) is scot-free.

The last picture is of me, before this. Before I realized that I was about to feel very very threatened in a house, I have come to love. Before I would be shaking in anger and embarrassment (????) and second-guessing if it is my solitude that provoked him or my outfit, I could SCREAM right now, but I want to channel my anger in a tactical way. So if YOU can help me, please DM me,” posted the woman on Instagram.

So what happened next? Tons of people shared their gyaan on whether flashing is really an offence. What should a woman do if some bottlehead cannot keep his organs inside his pants?

Nupur said that people very kind enough to help her via different mediums — different NGOs, helplines including NCW & 1091, and social media accounts were suggested to her — but also a lot of them told her that it is OKAY and such cases often happens with women and that she must forget about this and move on.

But Nupur believes that this is what gives those men courage to do it more often, as they think that women are mostly afraid; and some of them even take their chuppi as a form of consent and keeps on doing more traumatic nuisance than this.

Nupur knew that this needed to be stopped. She knew that this needs some repercussions if not a legal action. She reached out to every possible helpline number of Karnataka & India, but she found that most of these numbers weren’t really helpful. “They were either out of service or not reachable. I wonder how can they still exist on Google and what would someone do if she really needs help! This is so terrifying,” she told Infano.

Nevertheless, she was determined to teach that man a lesson, and she wanted that to be quick as she wasn’t sure if he lived in that area or was just a visitor. Moreover, that one incident didn’t let her sleep whole night, and the trauma and possibility of something similar happening again was scaring her more.

After consulting with her friends, she dialled 100 which redirected her to the Koramangala Police Station and further to the Viveknagar Police Station as for the former one it was out of the jurisdiction area.

The very next day of this incident, the 4th block of Koramangala witnessed eight cops and four police vans in the area. The officers took no time in guarding out the man, and they took him to the police station to do the needful.

When asked about this, Nupur said that there was no female officer with the team, but the male officers did ask her if she wanted to take another cab/ auto. She was introduced to the lady officer on reaching the station, and she was asked whether she wanted to do press charges against the man or not. She highly recommends other women to call a lady officer while calling the police no matter what.

“I will say this, as a 5’2 woman surrounded by 4 cop cars and 8 male officers and the entirety of the neighbourhood looking at me for “what’s going on”— I don’t wish it on anyone. But i am glad I went thru it because only after it all I found out the predator had been flashing and harassing a 15-year-old in the neighbourhood too. I felt so must safer and reassured by the professional badassery of Inspector Jahida of Viveknagar station, who arrested the wee man and promised me corrective recourse and took my complaint with kindness. When this stranger tried to turn the narrative by saying I am his ex, she believed in me instead. Thanks, @blrcitypolice for getting this done before breakfast ✊🏽,” she concluded in her latest Instagram post.

Soon after this, her Instagram DM was filled with queries/ advice for similar cases, several women shared their personal experience with her, and a lot of people applauded her for this bold step.

Nupur says a part of her was unable to accept if it really happened with her — we hear so many about so many cases, but it does scare us every time we hear it from someone we know!

Though a lot of people told her that this was a normal incident, she knew it wasn’t — and no matter how hard you try not to think about, it won’t go away she says. It will scare you every time you step out, every time a man gives you a creepy look and every time you think of travelling alone.

Infano reached out to Nupur to listen to her horrific experience and we really appreciate her decision. #InfanoWomen