The Genital Collections — A Trip To The Museums

If you look hard enough, you can find anything. I just discovered a vagina museum in England and a penis museum in Iceland. As far as I know, there is just one of each. The museums are as different as, well, men are to women. The vagina museum is dedicated to art and politics. Even the art is sort of political. For example, they call out and celebrate hairy vulvas. There is an obvious, unstated message that strong women have lots of pubic hair. If you go to their website, you’ll see that they have lots of stuff for sale. I like the tote bag. They have discussion groups and exhibits of pussy art.

The Icelandic Phallological Museum is dedicated to the wonderful world of penises. Unlike the vulva museum, this one celebrates the diversity of penises sported by all the creatures that have them. Well, not all, just the ones belonging to creatures from Iceland. Their website is filled with information about, um, male members. They have over 200 species represented.  They also have a large collection of penis art and related stuff. My favorite is the penis lamp (image right). Most of the penises are erect. That makes sense. They aren’t useful if they are soft. Unlike the girls, the boys don’t have a shop. Too bad. That lamp would make a great gift.

The Phallological Museum is an academic view of our favorite body parts. They have over fifty whale penises. Amazing. The vagina museum is dedicated to human females. It appears to be a sort of female pubic art museum and meeting space. Aside from the pubic hair fixation, they have a nice sense of humor regarding the stuff they sell.

It’s too bad that both museums are so far away. I’m far more likely to visit England than Iceland. I suspect that I wouldn’t be welcome in the vagina museum. I have the wrong equipment, and I don’t have pubic hair. Two strikes for the lion! I’m happy that someone decided to create these cool places. It would be interesting if both institutions learned from one another. The vagina museum would profit by featuring more natural history. The penis museum needs a gift shop with lighthearted cock art and objects.

I’m not sure that I’m interested in comparing mammal penises. I suppose academics travel from all over the world to study the collection. The vagina museum is more local and political in scope. It would be wonderful if both museums made their entire collections (not just the gift shop, ladies) available for viewing on the Web.

I think it’s interesting that the penis museum was founded by a man and is currently curated by his son. The vagina museum is a female project. Does this reflect an onanistic fascination by the founders? Politics and pubic hair aside, I’m much more interested in female genitalia as a male. I’m pretty expert on mine. I think that the two museums are true opposites. No, not because one is male and the other female, but because one is a natural history and the other political. Let’s take a trip to the museum this weekend.