The Fragrant and the Fishy: Dr Ally Louks on the politics of smell and femininity - Recording

Join us for an evening unpacking the politics of smell, disgust and femininity with internet phenomenon and recent PhD grad, Dr Ally Louks. Since December 2024, Dr Louks has been educating the public on the ins and outs of her field, which just so happens to intersect with our mission at the Vagina Museum.

• How many times have you heard someone commenting on vaginal smell?
• Have you ever noticed the way people correlate cleanliness, smell and purity - especially in relation to vaginas? 
• What can we do to dismantle the shame and stigma surrounding vaginal smell

The panel will be moderated by Katja Holtz, the VM's Operations Manager. In between running the museum's day-to-day operations, Katja is a writer and chronic people pleaser (aka service industry veteran) with dreams of finishing a speculative fiction novel about bright, green, queer futures. Other than keeping houseplants alive and baking sourdough, she's reading CS Lewis and Toni Morrison. Before joining the team at the VM, she spent some time studying the anthropologies of ethics, place, Japan, and migration.

The Panel 

Dr Ally Louks

Dr. Ally Louks is a supervisor in English Literature at the University of Cambridge. Her work is situated in the interdisciplinary field of Sensory Studies, but her focus is on smell, culture, and literature. Her PhD thesis, 'Olfactory Ethics: the Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose' went viral online in December 2024, sparking widespread conversation about the intersections between smell, prejudice, and identity. She is currently working to turn her PhD thesis into a literary monograph and a trade non-fiction book. She is invested in bringing academic work within literary studies, sensory studies, and the humanities more broadly, to public audiences through social media, broadcasting, and public writing. 

Ciara Joyce

Ciara is a PhD student at the Open University in collaboration with the Folklore Society. Her research investigates how vaginal smell is culturally constructed and misunderstood, exploring its links to female purity, power, and health. By connecting contemporary discourses to historical practices, she examines the persistence of rituals like fumigating the ‘wandering womb’ and modern ‘yoni steaming,’ despite their harmful effects. Ciara explores the concept of ‘deodorization’ and why these practices endure, even with greater knowledge of female anatomy. Her work delves into how vaginal smell is imbued with cultural meanings, portraying the female body as both dangerous and erotic. With a BA in History and an MA in Medical History from the University of York, Ciara’s research focuses on the social construction of bodies and gender. She also volunteers at The Vagina Museum, promoting accessible sexual health information. 

Zoe Williams

Zoe is communications professional who specialises in not specialising, preferring to work at all levels in small organisations who make a big difference. Currently, she is Director of the Vagina Museum. She's worked for diverse causes from democratic reform to rare genetic diseases, and is delighted to be a part of the Vagina Museum to use her skills to educate, empower and challenge. Zoe is an ardent feminist, and in her spare time gets involved in activism for social and gender justice, as well as writing and baking for fun. Zoe's educational background is in Health Psychology.

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