Interview about sexual health with Jessica Ann Pin

A woman’s sexual health has always been something we, as a society, learned to hide. The taboo around topics like sex and sexuality are the root causes of countless issues women face daily, ranging from unhealthy intercourses, contraction of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), being victims of unnecessary medical operations, and more. During our interview with Jessica Ann Pin, an advocate for better clitoral anatomy in medical literature, she stressed the seriousness of negligence towards issues related to women’s sexual health in the contemporary world. While agreeing with the WHO’s definition of sexual health, “A state of physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being in relation to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity”, Jessica further emphasized on the description by the WHO which states that “sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination, and violence.”

In today’s world, although we have witnessed great progress in several aspects of medicine, there still is a huge gap between how sexual health is approached for men versus women. Women are considered child-bearers and their roles primarily reproductive. As someone who is actively fighting for the recognition of women’s sexual rights, Jessica talked about how female sexual health is sidelined compared to that for men. “Even in medical literature, men are framed as sexual and women are framed as reproductive. There is tons and tons of focus on how penises work and on erectile dysfunction and male orgasm, but there is not much on how female genitals work. The focus is on reproductive anatomy. Anatomy involved in female sexual response is seen as separate from reproductive anatomy, and so it gets trivialized, while anatomy involved in male sexual response and orgasm is seen as essential to reproduction, and so it is validated as a medical need.”

Conversations on women’s sexual health have always been silenced and heavily opposed by many, and this reluctance has more than one reason. Fundamentally, the taboo surrounding women’s sexual health (and in general as well) is embedded in our past practices and attitudes, baseless norms, and unreasonable restrictions that have been passed on generations, thus hindering the talk amongst the current living generations. Speaking of her experience, Jessica said that all the problems she combats are caused by taboo, “They’re caused by these rules about what we can and cannot talk about, about what we can and cannot show.” The development of an ignorant attitude towards female sexual health at times enables medical professionals and organizations to simultaneously remain indifferent; steeped in the same taboo that affects our daily lives. Jessica underlined that this collective negligence has eventually led to the censorship of female anatomy “even from medical textbooks and journals”.

Additionally, Jessica shed light on few other reasons which involve patriarchal societies and also women themselves. In terms of the former, she refers to theories which claim that the suppression of female sexuality is “due to the male need for paternity uncertainty”, indicating the dominance of men in certain societies. However, at times women also tend to suppress their own sexuality “to raise the price of sex” which is relatively evident under circumstances where people suffer from poverty and live under severe conditions that demand severe measures as such. In this aspect, Jessica concluded that “both men and women suppress female sexuality, which creates this taboo around it and causes this imbalance which impacts even the way female sexual health is approached in medicine.”

Neglect towards female sexual health leads to problems ranging from a lack of proper understanding of women’s bodies to preventable suffering from terrifying sexual health-related diseases due to insufficient knowledge. As someone affected by the ignorance and indifference towards female sexual health, Jessica shared that she was never taught the basic terms for female anatomy, “I wish I could tell my younger self that there is nothing wrong with having large labia minora.” At times, ignorance from health professionals’ side can also influence the way sexual health-related matters are dealt with. Jessica who has had a personal experience said, “I was mutilated because of physician ignorance. Other women are mutilated because of physician ignorance. In this case, sexual dysfunction is being caused by physician ignorance of anatomy.” The inadequate information available to the public along with the lack of discoveries and discussions within the medical field which lead to medical assumptions, cause millions of girls to undergo unrequired surgeries.

To combat a certain obstacle, collective action is the solution. Achieving women’s rights is a milestone, actively being fought for around the world, however, advocation for better awareness about women’s sexual health has seen relatively weaker participation. Jessica shared information about her struggle to reach out to people and get support from feminist organizations, “Even women who call themselves feminists seem uncomfortable talking about their genitals. It’s been really difficult for me to get feminist accounts to help spread awareness about how female genital anatomy isn’t adequately covered. It seems that many feminists are not really as empowered sexually as they claim to be, some will say getting clitoral anatomy taught is not that important, but that’s bizarre.”

Now more than ever, as women are gradually but noteworthily gaining status in multiple domains of society, it is important to spread awareness and educate women about their sexuality and essential sexual well-being to empower them as individuals. In relation to this, Jessica shared that we still have a long way to go, adding that “We have reached near equality in many spheres, but in sexual health, there is this wide gap. The orgasm gap is huge, and the difference between how men’s and women’s genitals are treated in medicine is appalling. And this is true even in the most developed countries in the world.”

India continues to be an extensively patriarchal society, and the issues regarding women’s sexual health are considered too explicit to be openly discussed. In recent years, India has had some significant progress in terms of open talks on sexual health primarily conducted by activities and the youth of the country through a series of social interactions and even long-lasting programs like Love Matters India. However, the backlash faced by the initiators outweighs their progress, as some Indian activists receive regular threats and are targets of attacks. This all comes down to society’s conservative attitude towards female sexual health in India.

As we hope to progress towards a more accepting society, it is most pivotal for women all around the world to stand together for collective action. It is crucial that doctors, activists, and women from all backgrounds and ethnicities, demand the right recognition their bodies deserve. With the promotion of open discussions on sexual health amongst all, a comfortable environment can be built for every individual who has the right information about their body and feels proud of who they are. As rightly reiterated by Jessica Pin, “For sexual health to be attained and maintained, the sexual rights of all persons must be respected, protected, and fulfilled.”