A man lays on the floor on his stomach in front of a partially dressed, smiling woman smoking a cigarette, who spreads her legs open in front of him.
This photograph looks like a scan from a magazine or other dead-tree media and seems to have a watermark pointing at this Russian-language blog (although I have no idea why). It caught my eye because of how wonderfully it captures the interactions that go along with consensual sex, and cunnilingus in particular. Rather than giving us “a gynecologist’s view” with a closeup of the woman’s vulva, it includes most of both partners’ bodies, connecting not only to the sex act itself but also to the people involved. Even better, the camera angle simultaneously focuses on the man’s body in this position, yet we can also see the woman’s satisfied, genuine smile very clearly.
The simple fact that these people are obviously enjoying themselves makes this picture infinitely sexier. Since I’ve always absolutely loved giving my girlfriends oral sex, I really appreciate that she doesn’t seem to have any issues with her partner’s head between her legs. Sadly, however, many women do, because everything from national television programs, to countless products in the supermarket’s feminine hygiene aisle, to their workplaces reminds women that their value is sex appeal, as defined by hegemonic feminine ideals.
Without genitals of the right smell, taste, or color (for which dangerous and ineffective labia dye can be purchased), many women fear that there may be something “wrong” with their genitals. Tragically, this idea so strongly infects some women that they are willing to risk forfeiting health and sexual pleasure with surgery like labiaplasty to buy desirability from the very system that made them feel undesirable. This vicious cycle is nothing short of sexual consumerism at its worst.
