Titillating Filters

Mieka Dovey, 28 a musical theater actress born in Denmark, said she and her friends take artistically styled and composed shots. “Being in a long-distance relationship, that’s kind of the only way you can be intimate,” she said. “I only want my significant other to see my pictures.”

Ms. Dovey doesn’t believe in letting it all hang out. “If you got a little pudge, you got to work around it and find an angle that’s flattering,” she said. As for grooming: “I might have a triangle or the landing strip, just enough that it doesn’t show through your underwear, but I actually had a partner who asked me to grow it out and not trim it up at one point. He was like, ‘Yeah, get the ’70s porn star on,’ and I was like, ‘all right! I’ll try it.’”

Freda, 25, a photographer and studio manager who identifies as being part of the L.G.B.T.Q. community and asked that her last name be withheld for privacy, has been taking V-selfies since she was 20 and said they are “empowering and help you love and accept every part of your body.”

“Snapchat filters banish blemish and razor bumps,” she said, adding that when she gets really fancy she uses Photoshop. “My mother is a photographer — lights and background are everything. Sometimes filters can make the ‘v’ look shaved even if it’s been two days and you’re stubbly. You want your ‘v’ to look good, so whatever light, filter, position will make your ‘v’ look best, that’s the one you should use. I use it as a narrative, as if you’re telling a story. It’s an aspect of that, it’s not just a vagina.”

Lexi Stout, 27 and the executive director at VSpot Medi Spa on Madison Avenue, which provides grooming services for the nether regions, has flashed her iPhone flora, stored in the cloud, to friends at a bar. “When I was in high school, if you had pubic hair, it was embarrassing,” Ms. Stout said.