Bits - A new play exploring myths about the vulva (360G-Wellcome-208428_Z_17_Z)

We are applying for funding to develop Bits, a new play for 15-25 year old women exploring the myths, anxieties and confusions that surround the vulva. Women, particularly young women, are not talking about their bits. Sex education has only just been made compulsory in England and is yet to be made compulsory in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Athletes who talk about their periods, writers who write about their vaginas and actors who show their vulvas (real ones, with hair and bits that hang) are deemed radical. This stifling silence has become a breeding ground for confusion and unrealistic aspirations that could explain disturbing patterns in female behaviour such as the significant rise in requests for labiaplasty, particularly amongst adolescents. Using a cabaret style, Bits will feature singing and stand up with a story about a mother and a daughter at its heart. We will conduct interviews and collaborate with medical health professionals to create a truthful and inclusive play that asks: what is normal? What are you worried about? How can you change that? How did we get here? The project is being supported by The Yard Theatre, London and will culminate in a sharing in the autumn.