[WARNING: This post contains content and images that may offend.]



Based on some reactions in Australia and overseas, it is a fair bet that some readers will be offended, even outraged, by this story. The national broadcaster, the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), aired a radio item Is Vaginal knitting art? on 9 December 2013. It concerned a performance art work by Australian Casey Jenkins entitled Casting Off My Womb. She is spending four weeks knitting wool from inside her vagina. SBS2 (Special Broadcasting Service), a TV station that is also government owned, had shown a video a couple of weeks earlier.

Online reaction was swift. Comments on the ABC program website Books & Arts Daily were strongly divided about whether it was art and its suitability. Lux Dentata was very positive:

Of course this is art.

It is creation with a message. If that is not art, what is?

I don't understand people's disgust about inserting wool into your vagina. What do you think a tampon is? Cotton, wool, tomato, tomata…

Well done Casey, It's awesome.

Stan Osmelak’s message was brief but multi-pronged:

1st World self-indulgent twaddle

After suggesting the need for “psychological or psychiatric intervention”, Sue took aim at the messenger:

This sort of topic is also providing fantastic ammunition to the Federal Government that the ABC is not relevant and to cut funding or close it down. For goodness sake ABC – get real.

Meanwhile, twitter had numerous reactions in Australia including:

Vaginal Knitting (The Feed) I'm not sure anyone needs to see this but my jaw is still on the floor. #Vagina http://t.co/HmFgxLunZp — Cori (@Cori_Cori_Cori) December 4, 2013

As the hashtag #vaginaknitting clearly shows, there was a global eruption on twitter as well.

In fact, it was too viral for some. ‘American-Australian geek’ Kris Howard sought relief: