October 4, 2011

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Vaginas should smell like vaginas, not flowers: my 24/7 Ig Nobel talk

By Kate Clancy

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Last Thursday, a number of dreams I didn't even know I had were fulfilled: talking about vaginas in front of over a thousand people at Sanders Theatre at Harvard University, singing the Elements Song with Nobel Laureates and Amanda Palmer (I KNOW!!!), making jokes about the effects of coffee as a diuretic as I, aforementioned Nobel Laureates, and Ignitaries served as the chorus for a Coffee Opera, and did I mention I talked about vaginas at Sanders Theatre at Harvard?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_wu19NA4yo

To watch the 24/7 talks, start at 0:55; to watch mine in particular, start at 1:00. I even get to give two different 7 word descriptions. ETA: To understand the context of the 24/7 talk, see this post I wrote in August on vaginal pH and douching.

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I had a great time with all involved. The Ig Nobel crew were efficient, funny and kind. I can only hope to be funny enough to be allowed back again one day.

I am Dr. Kate Clancy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. On top of being an academic, I am a mother, a wife, an athlete, a labor activist, a sister, and a daughter. My beautiful blog banner was made by Jacqueline Dillard. Context and variation together help us understand humans (and any other species) as complicated. But they also help to show us that biology is not immutable, that it does not define us from the moment of our birth. Rather, our environment pushes and pulls our genes into different reaction norms that help us predict behavior and physiology. But, as humans make our environments, we have the ability to change the very things that change us. We often have more control over our biology than we may think.

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