Vaginal steaming, sometimes shortened to V-steaming, and also known as yoni steaming, is an old health practice whereby a woman squats or sits over steaming water containing herbs such as mugwort, rosemary, wormwood and basil. It has been practiced in Africa (Mozambique, South Africa), Asia (Indonesia, Thailand), and Central America (among the Q'eqchi' people).
It has become an alternative health practice for women in the Western world. It is described in spas as an ancient Korean treatment for reproductive organ ailments and is claimed to have other benefits. There is no empirical evidence supporting any of these claims. In a paper for Culture, Health & Sexuality, Vandenburg and Braun argue that the rhetoric of vaginal steaming mirrors sexist Western discourse about the supposed inherent dirtiness of the female body, and that its claims of improved fertility and sexual pleasure continue the view that the female body exists for male sexual pleasure and childbearing.
Video Vaginal steaming
Prevalence
According to a study on vaginal practices by the World Health Organization published in 2011, one of the ways in which women practice vaginal care is by "Vaginal steaming or smoking: the 'steaming' or 'smoking' of the vagina, by sitting above a source of heat (fire, coals, hot rocks) on which water, herbs, or oils are placed to create steam or smoke". For that study, over 4,000 women in Tete (Mozambique), KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), Yogyakarta (Indonesia), and Chonburi (Thailand) were asked about their vaginal care. When it came to vaginal steaming/smoking, very different results were obtained, and very different reasons were given: in Chonburi, 67% of women reported having performed vaginal steaming or smoking, "which they associated with maintaining wellness and feminine identity", especially after having given birth (85.5%). In Tete, only 10% of women practiced steaming or smoking, "mostly intended to enhance male sexual pleasure by causing vaginal tightening (64.1% of users) and drying (22.9%)". In the two African locations, 37-38% of women said they practiced it to enhance "male sexual pleasure"; in the two Asian ones, 0% gave that answer. Conversely, of the Asian women 26% reported their "feminine identity" was a reason, compared to 0% of the African women.
Maps Vaginal steaming
Claims and side effects
Advocates of vaginal steaming claim that the practice balances female hormones and cleanses and revitalizes the uterus. It is claimed to: reduce the discomfort, bloating and tiredness associated with menstruation, regulate irregular menstrual cycles, treat yeast infections, decrease the menstrual blood flow, increase fertility, relieve symptoms of menopause, treat endometriosis, speed up the after-birth healing process, help with toning, and the herb mugwort is said to help menstrual cramps. One perceived benefit of this practice is that it may be sexually arousing as heat increases the blood flow to the vagina.
According to Draion Burch, an obstetrics and gynaecology specialist in Pittsburgh, there is no scientific evidence to show that this practice is effective or how it works. There is no empirical evidence supporting any of the practice's claimed benefits. Side effects and potential dangers include: allergic reactions, second degree burns if the steam is too close, and vaginal infections.
Endorsements and perceptions
In an article for Goop, actress Gwyneth Paltrow in reviewing a Santa Monica, California spa, described several of their treatments and said of one, "[y]ou sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus, et al." A report in The Guardian responded by debunking the claim of the heat, steam, and mugwort having any benefit, and noted it could be harmful.
A 2017 survey by Vandenburg and Braun (taking as its title one observer's characterization - "Basically, it's sorcery for your vagina") analyzed "90 online items related to vaginal steaming", including from newspapers and magazines, blogs, and providers of the practice. They identified a general theme, that of the "self-improving woman", which they argue fits in perfectly with modern constructions of what scholarship has called the "neoliberal" woman, a woman who, free of outside influences, seeks to optimize herself and her health (see Healthism). Within that theme, they found four attitudes that promote healthist practices such as vaginal steaming:
- the female body is inherently defective and dirty, and deteriorates with age: "the female body [is] situated within this biologically-determinist narrative of inevitable decline" which can be resisted.:475
- Western medicine and bodily care (including tampon use, for instance) make the female genitalia unnaturally full of toxins, a process that can be reversed by the natural practice of vaginal steaming (the authors note that such accounts are themselves littered with language derived from Western medicine--"symptoms", "decline", "ailments").:476
- health enhancement, and the optimization of the body, specifically fertility and sexual pleasure, with much of the language used by advertisers of spas focusing on "maintenance" and "restoration", reinforcing both healthism and the fetishization of youth; vaginal steaming, it is claimed, improves marriages and the male libido. According to the authors, "the sexual and reproductive enhancement focus mirrors the two modes through which Western societies have traditionally valued women: sexual availability for men (within marriage) and childbearing".:478
- the pampering of the self-assured woman, a luxury as well as a right that they have earned, with advertising playing on the "reawakening" of the "inner goddess": "To awaken your inner goddess, please call us at..." The idea is that the practice allows a woman to reach her true potential, her true self.:479
The authors conclude that vaginal steaming is one of many practices that fit "neoliberal, postfeminist and healthist ideologies, colliding with pervasive sociocultural understandings of the female reproductive body both as core of womanhood and as 'embodied pathology'".:480
See also
- Vaginal weightlifting
References
External links
- Vagina steaming, RationalWiki
- What is vaginal steaming?, Harvard Health
Source of article : Wikipedia
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