Rihanna, Don't Worry, Your Vagina Is Literally Fine

A widely shared interview with Rihanna, conducted by director/artist Miranda July for T, The New York Times Style Magazine, uncovered some interesting tidbits that landed on various points of the scandalous scale. She confided that she's turned on by cultured guys who can keep her interested and teach her a thing or two, that her Mom is impressed by her famous daughter's sassy nature and ability to defend herself, and that she's often driven to distraction by the all consuming fear of having a very deep vagina. (Wait, what?)

The "V word" heard around the world went off about half way through the interview when July asked Rihanna what kind of stuff she Googles. ‘‘Oh, random things. Like I will be sitting around Googling childbirth," she answers. Picking up the issue again later in the interview, July asks for clarification on the vagina Googling being done, and Rihanna admits that she has a fear of having a deep vagina. And then everyone in the world's heads exploded at the same time.

Fact: The vagina is a thing of wonder and befuddlement for the majority of the world. 

Another fact: Most things you think you know about a vagina, are wrong.

A really great article that Jezebel ran in 2013 debunks a lot of the "my vagina will become a hallway in which no hot dog will care to pass through" myths. In it, sex expert Michael Castleman says:

"Pull the corners of your mouth out toward your ears then let go. What happens? The mouth immediately snaps back to its pre-stretched state because the tissue is elastic. Do it 100 times. There's no permanent stretching. The mouth quickly returns to its pre-stretched state and no one would ever know you'd stretched it. The same goes for the vagina."

And as for the specific worry of depth, which is RiRi's main concern here, Columbia Universityhas this to say:

"The depth from the vaginal opening to the tip of the cervix is 3 to 4 inches when they are not sexually aroused. Other women may have a vaginal depth of five to seven inches. Regardless, during arousal, blood flows to the genital area, and sexual excitement causes the upper two-thirds of the vagina to lengthen by forcing the cervix and uterus to ascend."

So, Rihanna (and everyone else worried about vaginas) think of it not as a cavernous void laying in wait to suck in your suitor and leave them floating, as if a hubcap lost in space, but as an amazingly flexible, fun loving thing that just wants to make you, and others, feel happy and welcome.