The Women's Stories

Age: 36

I knew when I agreed to author a film about vaginal plastic surgery, it was going to be a contentious, extraordinary and difficult journey.  I knew from the start that I didn’t want to observe from the sidelines, but that also the film couldn’t be about “Lisa Rogers’ fanny”.  So it was with some trepidation that the crew and I arrived in Brighton to film at Jamie’s studio.

Part of me thought, ‘this guy just likes looking at women’s bits…..like all straight men….and is hiding behind the guise of art to legitimise it!’  But having sat in on the first 3 casts, I realised how much of a conveyor belt it was for Jamie….he said the same things, made the same jokes to make the women involved feel comfortable and performed the same series of fairly monotonous tasks to complete the cast.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be willing to go through with it, but having watched 5 other women be brave enough to do it, I felt I would be the ultimate ‘do as I say, not as I do’ if i didn’t have a cast done too.  The actual process of casting was surreal but not unpleasant, although I think it’s probably the most unusual thing I’ve ever been filmed doing.

When I, or indeed most other people, view the Wall of Vagina, we get why it’s so worthwhile. Indeed my father, (a wise old sage) made the point that the best bit of the whole progamme in terms of making the point that we’re all different and different is good, was the plastercast wall used at the break bumpers.  We had to battle very hard with the upper echelons at Channel 4 to be allowed to use the casts there, but I’m so pleased we did.

The only question I would like to ask Jamie is….has he ever got bored of looking at vulvas?