Vagina Museum

Vagina Museum events — Vagina Museum What's on at the Vagina Museum: our programme includes comedy nights, bingo, pub quiz, curator talks, director talks, feminism, art history, science.

See our full events calendar here:

www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/events/event...

Reclaiming Vulvas in Art: Seminar and Embossing Workshop invites you to experiment with a variety of embossing techniques and tools on aluminium foil, design a unique image, and finally emboss a vulva.

www.outsavvy.com/event/33046/...

📅 29th March
🕰️ 3pm - 5pm

Menopause Yoga with Tahmina: From Anxiety and Overwhelm to Inner Calm Tickets - London - OutSavvy This workshop is part of a series. Each can be done in isolation or as part of a whole.🌊🌊🌊Menopause Yoga is both a therapeutic style of yoga designed to help people manage menopause symptoms and a…

Menopause Yoga with Tahmina: From Anxiety and Overwhelm to Inner Calm is both a therapeutic style of yoga designed to help people manage menopause symptoms and a positive empowering approach to this stage of life.

www.outsavvy.com/event/33590/...

📅 28th March
🕰️ 1pm - 4pm

Cunty Crafts is a fully guided jewellery making workshop lead by Rozi. Come along to learn a new skill, make a new friend, get yourself a cute handmade choker, or just plain good vibes.

All materials and help will be provided.

www.outsavvy.com/event/24123/...

📅 22nd March
🕰️ 2pm - 4pm

Wandering Womb with Poppy Sheward-Skelton is a talk on the history of menstruation in culture and medicine, exploring how these two worlds intersect and shape one another. The session features guided writing exercises.

www.outsavvy.com/event/33571/...

📅 21st March
🕰️ 3pm - 5pm

This month's Cliterature pick is Please Read This Leaflet Carefully. Join us for a natter about Karen Havelin's debut novel, led by former trustee, Niharika Jain.

www.outsavvy.com/event/31777/...

📅 18th March
🕰️ 7pm - 8.30pm
📍 ONLINE

St Margarets House Opening - Before the Blood: Community & Belonging from Menarche to Migration Tickets - London - OutSavvy Grand re-opening of…🩸Before the Blood: community and belonging from menarch to migration🩸>>> <<<Our community project developed and delivered in collaboration with Nisaba will be enjoying a brief…

Before the Blood: Community & Belonging from Menarche to Migration will be enjoying a brief run at St Margarets House. Come celebrate the re-opening, reflecting on the four months gone and the months to come.

www.outsavvy.com/event/33990/...

📅 13th March
🕰️ 6.30pm - 8.30pm
📍 St Margarets House

NEURODIVERGENT SAPPHIC MIX AND MINGLE! Tickets - London - OutSavvy ✨Where are our neurodivergent sapphics??✨We are so excited to bring you a mix and mingles for neurodivergent Sapphics of any gender. It'll be the usual Mix and Mingle format (see below) but for…

Neurodivergent Sapphic Mix & Mingle is the usual Mix and Mingle format (see link) but for neurodivergent folks only - come along to find friends, dates and community!

www.outsavvy.com/event/32630/...

📅 12th March
🕰️ 7pm - 10.30pm

Writer's Gym is a casual space to explore the written word. Each meeting will feature a new variety of prompts to encourage experimentation. All writers of any genre and experience level are welcome to join.

www.outsavvy.com/event/24013/...

📅 8th March
🕰️ 2pm - 4pm

International Women's Day Market Tickets - London - OutSavvy Celebrate International Women's Day browsing the stalls at the Vagina Museum Pearly Makers Market. @pearlymakersmarket is a safe space and platform for queer creatives to show off their work,…

Celebrate International Women's Day browsing the stalls at the Vagina Museum Pearly Makers Market! At every event Pealry Makers aims to have at least one trader who is totally new to the scene, as well as well established market veterans.

www.outsavvy.com/event/33929/...

📅 7th March
⏰ 12pm - 5pm

What's on at the Vagina Museum in March?

It's Women's History Month. Now, of course, we celebrate and explore women's history every month, but that doesn't mean we can't throw an extra party or two in March.

Get your tickets before they go!
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So thank you, Madison Vedder, for inventing a product which nobody asked for and sounds uncomfortable af. We cannot be certain of your gender. But we can say we're glad that your doohickey never went into mass production.

We will also note that there does not appear to be a ready way of emptying the pee-pouch without disassembling the entire gadget, so you're probably walking around with a bag of piss smacking the back of your leg until you're home.

You may now be wondering where the pouch of wee is supposed to go. Vedder informs us it "sit[s] against the back part of the leg in walking, or to be suspended over the edge of a seat in sitting down". Just what you need on a long train journey or a brisk walk in the park.

Madison Vedder specifically describes the purpose of the wee pouch as "for the reception of urine in traveling or under other circumstances in which it is diflicult to find a suitable place or opportunity to urinate". i.e. exactly the purpose of the bourdaloue, but in the era of public loos.

This is an alarmingly piss-focused thread for a summary of an old-timey menstrual product, but it's time to talk about piss yet again. See the little bag in the diagram, attached to the gravy boat? That's for pee. And according to the patent documentation, not as a medical aid.

And this brings us on to reason the second that we suspect Madison Vedder was probably a man: this object doesn't really seem to be designed with comfort or an understanding of how women live in mind.

In short, the form of the bourdaloue was not just not innovative by 1935, it was downright old-fashioned. It also wasn't especially novel to use this shape for a menstrual product - many patents before Madison Vedder's use that shape because it's kind of ergonomic around the vulva.

Bourdaloues were widely used in the Georgian and Victorian eras because there weren't really many other places for women to pee. It was a useful portable object to take to the theatre or whip out when the ladies all retired to the drawing room after dinner to relieve yourself.

Painting of a woman in a very frilly Georgian era dress lifting her skirts, pressing a small object shaped like a gravy boat against her vulva.

See the little gravy boat shape between the thighs? This shape is almost identical to an object called a bordaloue, which was used in the 18th and 19th centuries to pee in. Here's a 1760s painting by François Boucher of a woman using one.

Reason the first that we suspect Madison Vedder was probably a man: this is a classic example of presenting an object with which women had interacted for centuries as something new, novel, and had not existed until this patent was filed. With an air of supreme confidence in this assertion.

We will also admit that Madison is a sufficiently gender neutral name for us to be unable to definitively say that Madison Vedder was a man, but on balance of probability, which we will present below, we suspect that Madison Vedder was probably a man.

"Catamenial sack" was a term used for early menstrual products at the time. There are hundreds of patents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for various innovations in this field, of wildly varying degrees in quality. This one falls straight onto the "yikes" side in design.

Schematic of a belt-like device, fastening between the thighs. At the meeting of the thighs is a boat-shaped object labelled A. It attaches to a pouch-shaped object labelled B. The diagram is named "Catamenial sack".

Good morning, eager beavers. We regret to inform you we're going to show you another awful old-timey patent. Today, let's take a look at the "Improvement in catamenial and urinal bandages and receptacles" or "Catamenial sack" patented by Madison Vedder in 1935.

As well as viewing Rape Crisis South London's survivor art showcase, your visit to the Vagina Museum includes three exhibitions displayed in our regular galleries. Learn more and plan your visit www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/exhibitions

Rape Crisis South London's exhibition blends photography, poetry, paintings and drawings all created by survivors, telling their stories, reclaiming their voices and refusing to be silenced.

Visit — Vagina Museum The Vagina Museum is open! Visit the Vagina Museum at Arches 275-276 Poyser Street, London. Wed - Sun 10am - 6pm.

This week at the Vagina Museum, we are honoured to hand the mic over to Rape Crisis South London, as they showcase a pop-up exhibition of art created by survivors. The installation is free to visit, and closes on 1st March. www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/visit

Our Story | Learn, Celebrate, Get Involved — Vagina Museum The world's first museum dedicated to vaginas, vulvas and the gynaecological anatomy started in 2017.

A little museum can have truly life-changing effects. Read our 2025 quim-pact report to see how we've made a huge difference, and your support has changed the world www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/about/our-im...

Please also note that WD40 is a great lube for lifts, but should never be applied to a vagina.

And vice versa, we suppose. A nice body safe water-based lube probably wouldn't do the lift much good.

Please note that vaginas do not typically make a scary noise when they need lube.