Being a sexy lady in Ladyland

by Charlie Levine

As I wake up and look down at my ‘a day after it’s been left out to dry up olive green’ pill packet. It takes me back to that night in the pub with my friends and how we dreamed of how lovely it could be if that packet had a beautiful Lakwena design upon it. So when taking the pill I could at least feel a sense of joy or my natural endorphins could be sparked into action because of the bright colours and perhaps joyous affirmation that Lakwena had chosen for me that month. This could be a reality in Ladyland. I can be celebrated for having sex with my pleasure being celebrated throughout the whole experience, from the actual sex through to my birth control after the fact.

Then Victoria (one of Ladyland’s founders) took this a step further, what if it wasn’t the woman’s responsibility to take and manage birth control? Rather it was the men that had to take hormones to neutralise their semen instead, now that was the dream of Ladyland.

Image courtesy of aesthetics of crisis, Lift you higher, 2017, New York, Soho, USA, Artist: Lakwena

I am aware of other ways men [1], and women, take responsibility for not getting pregnant. Men get a vasectomy, women can have a female sterilisation operation which does the same job. There are condoms for men to wear but can be provided for / bought by either party, and then there’s…well, the long list of female contraception. The female condom or the diaphragm, and both of these too can be bought by either party, but used by the woman. Then there’s the pill, the implant, injection, or patch. There’s the coil (of which you have two options) or the vaginal ring, and all of these options need you (the woman) to go and see the doctor and often have a very uncomfortable experience.[2]

There is an evident disparity of responsibility here. Why is it mostly upon the woman to be responsible for birth control? And why is it also the woman who has to go for an abortion (which is not as easy as it sounds) when an unwanted pregnancy occurs? Why does she have to deal and live with the emotions and societal stigma that accompany that procedure — the shame because society has painted you with a tarnished brush, or grief at the loss of something or part of you, the blame put upon you of becoming pregnant or for having sex, the expense of the abortion or the illegal nature depending on where you are in the world, or many many other emotions and factors that come with that uncomfortable experience. It is harrowing enough whether you are making the decision from a place of empowerment or not.

Which is emphasised further by the places where abortions take place. The buildings and signage often tries to be discreet, assuming that the people going there don’t want to be seen or acknowledged for making a very healthy choice. There may be a picket line of anti-abortion protestors for you to battle your way past, too. In Ladyland this will not be the case. A woman’s right to choose will be celebrated, and those who go to the clinics, which will be places where shame does not exist, will feel empowered and treated with respect, love and optimism for their own personal future.

“In Ladyland there are free abortions, free birth control, free period pants and moon-cups for everyone — and having your period is not shameful or secret or hidden, its discussed, celebrated, and normalised.” Victoria Patrick, co-founder of Ladyland

Recently I went for my smear test. The sterile room with no personality, being asked to strip waist down feels oddly perverse, you then lie on a ‘bed’, knees up as though giving birth in a movie and then the very often lovely nurse inserts something ice cold into you. This ‘clamp’ (real name speculum) is always cold, is always uncomfortable and always looks mediaeval. Again I come back to question, as we also did that night in the pub, what if the speculum was a silicon material, not hard plastic or metal, and not cold? What if it had a lovely pattern by Morag Myerscough on it? Wouldn’t that part of the smear test feel just a little more pleasant?

Once the speculum is in your vagina and it opens enough for the nurse to see your cervix, we just have to breathe through the ‘test’, and perhaps make polite small talk (why? Why do we do this? To feel less like we have our legs wide open and the feeling of shame about having not groomed our pubic hair that morning ‘just so’ for the nurses….acceptance? The shame that perhaps I haven’t been able to come straight from home and I might….smell down there? The chances are I will smell down there — as that is natural. The chances are the nurse doesn’t care about my pubic hair style, rather also feels just as uncomfortable and a sense of empathy [as my smear test nurses have always been women] as she too probably hates this experience. And she too probably makes awkward small talk.) The internal sample, or ‘scrape’ as it feels like, is taken (if they can easily find your cervix — this one time….I can’t, it’s still too much to talk about) then everything gets pulled out of your now either dry or wet vagina (both are right depending on your response to this invasive procedure and how cold it is in the room) then it’s clothes back on, thanks very much, look forward to the results being text to me soon.

It’s not just the sterile procedure that makes this whole thing uncomfortable, but it is the tools, the expectation that a woman should grin and small talk through it, that when on our backs there’s nothing to distract ourselves or give us any sense of ease or calm when we’re there. And yes, this is also true for you men when you get an anal pap smear, for example, but right now I’m not talking about your experience, I’m talking about mine and millions of other women around the world.

Why is hospital and care facility visioning behind on this thinking? [3] I absolutely understand the need for easy and thorough cleaning of these spaces, that ‘neutral’ colours and textures feel inclusive (though we know that neutral in society means for men), and that there is a really practical and important job to do in these spaces. But ‘care’ and recovery and end of life and prevention doesn’t look beige or baby blue to me, so therefore also not in (my vision of) Ladyland. Imagine a place where the Hospital Rooms programme was the norm. And you could have a beautiful Charley Peters wall painting to gaze at, or some beautiful Adam Nathaniel Furman tiles to dream of also having in your home. Or you could have a group like Imperial Heath Charity be there to creatively support not only those in hospitals but those visiting and the staff themselves. Where you can have permanent art installations embedded into the buildings that inspire hope as well as imagination, such as the wonderful Lullaby Factory piece at Great Ormond Street Hospital by architects Studio Weave. [4]

rbay/\vbs (2019) wall painting in the tribunal room, bluebird house, a medium secure forensic referral mental health unit, southampton, by Charley Peters, photography damian griffiths, courtesy of hospital rooms and Charley Peters

I know, in reality, for those working in hospitals it can’t be all lullabies and finger painting, and that hospitals produce a huge amount of waste. But rightly so, I want to lie on clean things and have doctors use new tools on me and then also a new tool on the next person. But we have to consider this waste and, along with design, how it can be more ethical for example if coloured dyes are used that they don’t leave negative lasting effects on the environment, as well as single use equipment is a must.

All that aside, I also want to touch upon mammograms, quickly. I admit, I have never had one but I have seen in the media and heard stories from my Mom and my friends as to the extremely uncomfortable nature of the process — where your boob is flattened like a pancake between two metal plates which then has it’s photo taken. Surely there has to be a better way? When will science and technology treat the female body with more care? And when will medical advancement prioritise the female experience more than the general ‘mankind’ experience? which we know to be men (thank you Caroline Criado Perez for really cementing this in my head for me). But there are advancements being made, such as digital mammography which takes an x-ray on computer rather than film, there’s the potential ultrasound technology could be used, or an MRI. In an article by Dulce Zamora [5] for webmd.com she also lists other new ways of testing, however, so there is hope in sight. But for now, in the short term, and most certainly as a reality in Ladyland, can Camille Walala do a nice paint job on a mammogram machine to bring us all just a little joy?

1- https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/male-pill/

2- https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/

3- Though architects and designers are starting to transform the norm of hospital spaces, such as Hawkins|Brown: https://www.hawkinsbrown.com/sectors/healthcare and articles such as Rethinking healthcare building design quality: an evidence-based strategy by Grant R. W. Mills, Michael Phiri, Jonathan Erskine &Andrew D. F. Price from the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management, University College London: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09613218.2015.1033880

4- Also see this great article in Cultured about How Designers Are Rethinking Spaces for Healing by Karen Wong: https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2021/05/07/healing-spaces-hospitals

5- https://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/features/improve-breast-cancer-screening