It seems as though there’s always someone working to assure women that their body isn’t quite up to snuff. Women with the gall to participate in modern society are constantly being taught through methods both subtle and not that even the most minor physical imperfections are a cause for grave concern. The latest nitpick critique is the “armpit vagina.”
First coined by an ebullient (and self-effacing) Jennifer Lawrence at the 2014 SAG Awards, the “armpit vagina” is the little lump of fat that pops up between a woman’s arm and her torso when a woman puts her arms at her side.
Regardless of the fact that an “armpit vagina” is a perfectly natural physical characteristic found on both men and women (even men and women in great shape), this perceived shortcoming is a huge concern to A-listers walking the red carpet. According to celebrity stylist Rebecca Corbin-Murray, the armpit vagina “comes up all the time.”
Though it hasn’t gained the infamy of the “thigh gap” or the “cankle,” the armpit vagina is no less frustrating for anyone who feels judged based on standards of beauty that require 4 hours at the gym every day and a starvation diet to maintain.
Perhaps The Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff said it best when she summed up the armpit vagina by calling it “bonkers, unreal, insane.”