Gynecologist Dr. Jen Gunter calls out Vagisil for 'predatory' products aimed at teens

A Winnipeg-born gynecologist is calling out a popular company known for its vaginal cleaning products, saying it is targeting impressionable teens.

Dr. Jen Gunter says OMV! — a new youth-focused product line from Vagisil that says it will ensure "period funk and bikini itch don't get in your way" — is "predatory."

The company's website says its OMV! line was "designed with teens and the experts at Vagisil."

Gunter is disturbed by claims that the products can give a young person's vagina a "glow up," and says that sends a message to young people that their body isn't good enough as it is. 

"The feminine hygiene industry ... like sprays, wipes and things, they tell you — women and people with vaginas — that they are dirty inherently and that there are smells and problems. And it's not the case," the gynecologist said in an interview Thursday with Radio Noon host Marjorie Dowhos. 

"These messages are harmful, and these products can be harmful. And to see it marketed to teens was just too much."

Gunter, who was born in Winnipeg but now lives in California, is the author of The Vagina Bible. In it, she critiques businesses that she says prey on people's insecurities about their vaginas, including Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle website Goop.

Gunter says research has proven the vagina is self-cleaning and doesn't need to be cleansed with products like Vagisil's, which she says are unnecessary at best, but could also cause harm. 

"We don't shake hands, eat, or cut raw chicken with our vulvas," Gunter wrote in The Vagina Bible. 

Young women want products: Vagisil

In an email, a spokesperson for Vagisil said OMV was created with mothers and their teens to offer young women their own product line.

"We respect that Vagisil products may not be for everyone. Our commitment has always been to provide safe, effective products for those who trust us with their personal care needs," the spokesperson said.

On social media, the company also said the product was created "because young women are athletes and active in so many ways, and shared with us that they get sweaty, worry about period hygiene and odours, and want their own cleansing products with scents they enjoy for themselves."

Gunter questions Vagisil's claims about period hygiene and odours. Menstruation is completely natural, she says, and vaginas aren't supposed to smell like rose gardens or vanilla-clementine — scents the OMV! product line advertises. 

"Why do they think women need to have peach smelling vulvas?" Gunter asked.

Companies like Vagisil are preying upon young people with vaginas who already feel immense pressure to be perfect versions of themselves, Gunter says. Just because teens might have said they want the product doesn't mean it's not bad, she said. 

"A teen wanting a product that has been built on endemic misogyny and a patriarchal system is simply testimony to the pervasiveness of that patriarchal system," said Gunter.

"Offering them a product that reinforces that narrative is just harmful. So shame on them."