What Sandro’s Parachute Really Revealed

**Read only if you are over 12 years old**

I don’t like to be superior, but aside from the perpetual practice of naming women’s lower regions after small furry animals, I get most frustrated at how we mislabel the female anatomy. More specifically, the misuse of the word “vagina.”

On Project Runway, when one designer’s design revealed his model’s external genitalia, several commented that her “vagina” was showing. Unless Sustainable Timothy had his model in stirrups and wheeled onto the runway instead of dancing, including special lighting and a speculum, it would be impossible for anyone to see a vagina there. And it seems that few of us use the more accurate “vulva,” for the external genitalia preferring to let vagina do double duty for that.

But, in reality, what the designers and judges saw on Sandro’s model were likely (and I’m only speculating since we got that lovely little electrical tape placed over the offending part) labia majora, or the “major lips” which actually hide and protect the female vulva. So the next time a designer decides his/her model should reveal that pillowy part of the body, take in a sharp breath and whisper, “Oh, no, the big lips!”