Dr. Jackie Walters (aka Dr. Jackie) is determined to transform taboo discussions surrounding vaginal health into everyday conversation. Her new book, The Queen V: Everything You Need to Know About Sex, Intimacy, And Down There Health Care, debunks myths about sex while providing tips to keep the genitals happy and healthy.
“We have been what I call vaga-shamed to think that there’s something dirty about the vaginas, so much so that we don’t even say it on daytime TV. But this book is set up where women can learn to speak up about their feminine health, not only helping themselves but helping other women,” Walters told TheGrio.
READ MORE: Wendy Williams apologizes to LGBTQ+ community for ‘out of touch’ comments
The Married To Medicine star may be a recognizable public figure now, but growing up, she saw very few examples of Black female physicians in the medical field.
“I decided to become a physician because I resided in a small town in Mississippi and not seeing doctors who looked like me gender or race, I always wanted to be in that arena. I wanted to be able to give back and inspire and impact women who probably were very much like me didn’t know a lot about anything,” the OBGYN explained.
Now that she’s in a position to educate our communities, she wants to use her platform to make every person comfortable talking about their vaginal health. She created vagina personality types to describe every vagina owner from the shy Virgin Mary Sanctified Snatch type to the loud and proud Vitorious V-A-G types.
“Many people think when I wrote vaginal personalities, I’m truly talking about a vagina, and I’m not. I’m really talking about the person who owns the vagina. And I got the personalities because you’ll see patients who are even afraid to say the word vagina out loud–so much that they whisper when they say vagina,” the TV star explained.
Dr. Jackie is creating space for folks with vaginas to be unapologetic about their nether regions, and that means embracing its scent, too.
“The vagina is not supposed to smell like fruits and flowers. She has a musky—I didn’t say musty, but a musky aroma. And it’s supposed to be that way, that bacteria in there gives it a ‘I’m a vagina’ smell.” says Dr. Jackie.
The bacteria is good bacteria and its presence in your body is an indicator of flora health and does not make it dirty.
Dr. Jackie adds, “The vagina is not nasty. It’s cleaner than your mouth. And so the bacteria in the vagina is better than the bacteria in the mouth,”
The book is in stores now and is a perfect buy for anyone looking to love on and learn more about their vagina without fear.