Yoni Steaming: An Exposé
Gwyneth Paltrow is in the news again promoting scientifically dubious treatments for your vag. One practice that Goop has popularized is vaginal steaming. In this episode, we find out the history of V-steam and whether or not it’s actually good for you (Spoiler alert: It’s not! Don’t steam your vag!). OB/GYN Dr. Jen Gunter joins us to explain why your vulva doesn’t need a steam cleaning, and Lizzie Marx educates us on steaming’s weird Medieval ancestor, womb fumigation.
Image: A speculum with holes to allow the vapours of fumigation to enter the vagina. Peter Uffenbach, Ambroise Paré, and Conrad Gessner, Thesaurus chirurgiae, Frankfurt: Jacob Fischer for Nikolaus Hoffmann, 1610. K.7.31 (p. 531).
Sources and Further Reading:
Smelly Remedy Online Exhibition (Website)
“Smelly Remedy: Womb Fumigation Illustrated in Seventeenth Century Print” (Blog Post)
Magical and Medical Approaches to the Wandering Womb in the Ancient Greek World (Academic Article)
Medieval Bodies by Jack Hartnell (Book)
The Vagina Bible by Dr. Jen Gunter (Book)
“Gwyneth Paltrow says steam your vagina, an OB/GYN says don’t” (Blog Post)