haterade: the ny liberty think your vagina stinks

In a league that so often gets it right, there's still a shadow looming over it in the form of growth and profit.

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Today in “capitalism ruins everything,” the New York Liberty announced—via an exclusive story in Women’s Health magazine—a new partnership with Vagisil, the line of “feminine hygiene” products that claim to provide “vaginal itching relief, dryness relief, and odor protection.”

“Vagisil stands for empowerment, visibility, and unapologetic ownership of women’s bodies—values championed by our franchise,” Liberty CEO Keia Clarke said in a statement to Women’s Health. “We could not be more proud to partner with a company helping to bring these critical discussions around women’s health and wellness to the table.”

womenshealthmag

A post shared by @womenshealthmag

I find everything about this partnership, and the public framing of it, to be deeply troubling. These products are the exact opposite of healthy for people with vaginas. Not only are they physically harmful, but they are psychologically damaging, as well. Instead, they “perpetuat[e] a culture of shame for profit,” as

Dr. Jen Gunter

, author of

The Vajenda

newsletter and the book The Vagina Bible, said on Bluesky.

The Liberty’s press release via Women’s Health—because that’s what it is, a press release, not a piece of health journalism—uses buzzwords like “self-care,” “self-empowerment,” “ownership,” and “wellness” to describe their decision to partner with a company whose products can either mask or cause vaginal infections, and which by their very existence imply a problem with the natural smell produced by vaginas. The marketing copy is deeply misleading, if not downright grotesque.

How grotesque is it? Let’s look at the data. One study from 2022 found that high exposure to phthalates, which can be used as a fragrance additive, and phenols, which are a class of antimicrobial chemicals, in vaginal cleansing wipes is associated with pregnancy and fertility complications, including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). A 2018 study that evaluated vaginal hygiene routines found that participants who used vaginal wipes were almost twice as likely to report having had a UTI than those who didn’t use them. Not only that, participants who reported using feminine washes had 2.5 times higher odds of having had a UTI, and 3.5 times higher odds of having had bacterial vaginosis (BV).

“The vagina is a self-cleaning oven with its own pH level,” Dr. Jacqueline Walters told Essence magazine in 2020. “When we start adding antibacterial soaps, you kill off the bacteria that creates the ecosystem for the vagina, and controls the acidity.”

Scented products are a major cause of contact dermatitis and skin irritation, especially on sensitive areas like the vulvar skin. And because these reactions can cause the same symptoms that these products are supposed to treat, they can mask larger health concerns like yeast or bacterial infections. Dr. Gunter has also said that these products can “damage lactobacilli and mucus and increase the risk of [sexually transmitted diseases]” in consumers. Also, by masking the natural scent of the vagina, it teaches people to feel shame about the way their body smells.

“The feminine hygiene industry ... like sprays, wipes and things, they tell you — women and people with vaginas — that they are dirty inherently and that there are smells and problems. And it’s not the case,” Dr. Gunter told the CBC in 2021. “These messages are harmful, and these products can be harmful.”

As I’ve written before, fans are more likely to trust products advertised by women's sports teams and athletes. Research has found that WNBA and women’s sports can "enhance a brand’s image by demonstrating its commitment to social responsibility, gender equality, and empowerment." Nielsen’s Fan Insights found that 44% of WNBA fans have visited a brand’s website after seeing WNBA sponsorships during a game, 28% have bought from a sponsoring brand, and sponsors of the WNBA received an average of 77% more media value year-over-year. The league’s fans were also 1.6 times more likely to follow a brand’s social media account. That’s a massive number of very engaged consumers.

Vagisil's target age demographic for this partnership makes this deal look particularly insidious. Recent data shows that girls ages 12-18 are the fastest growing market for women's sports. The press release cites a statistic that "by age 14, girls drop out of sports at two times the rate of boys—and a lack of both confidence and positive role models are two big reasons why, according to research from the Women’s Sports Foundation.” The Women’s Health article continues: “These stats were a huge motivator for the Liberty when it came to this partnership.”

In this context, this partnership seems like a new way for Vagisil to market itself to young people who may not know any better when it comes to taking care of their vaginal health. And when their favorite players, like Breanna Stewart and Natasha Cloud, give supportive comments to the press or appear in marketing materials for the product, they’re much more likely to want to use it.

Vagisil has a history of preying on body image issues. The company came under fire in 2021 when it released a line of washes called OMV!, which was aimed at teens to help them manage “period funk.” At the time, a slew of gynecologists and vaginal health experts criticized the company for “contributing to unhealthy body image issues for young people by promoting the idea that vulvas are ‘dirty’ and that they should appear or smell a certain way,” the New York Times reported. The line does not appear to be available to purchase any longer.

The vaginal product industry also has a history of profiting off misogynoir and racist stereotypes. Research has shown that Black women are four times more likely to use vaginal deodorizing products than white women, and those products are advertised to Black consumers via targeted ads that traffic in racist tropes.

“Black women are overexposed and underprotected, when it comes to environmental health risks,” Astrid Williams, the manager of Environmental Justice at Black Women for Wellness, a Los Angeles-based non-profit, told The Guardian in 2022. “In focus groups, we’ve learned that Black women are socialized to believe we need to smell better, by using highly fragranced products – odor discrimination is definitely at play.”

A recent Nielsen report described Black Americans as “power TV viewers,” finding that they consume video content at a much higher rate than the general population and are loyal women’s sports fans who have driven the growth of women’s basketball. Black viewers are also committed to the brands that advertise in the women’s sports space—51% of Black sports fans said they are likely to endorse or otherwise recommend a brand, and they are 7% more likely than non-Black sports fans to purchase something from a brand that’s associated with one of their favorite sports. They’re also 17% more likely to post about the brand on social media. And according to

Club Sportico

, Black Americans wield $1.98 trillion in buying power.

Another predatory layer to this partnership? Vagisil and the Liberty plan to team up with “local organizations to provide free products to New Yorkers in need.” Low-income communities are some of the most medically vulnerable people in our society. Dr. Heather Irobunda, an ob-gyn at NYC Health + Hospitals, told the New York Times in 2021 that around 30% of the patients she sees during the week come in for complaints like vaginal itching or pain, and that many of them have tried to fix the discomfort with over-the-counter products like Vagisil. Because many of those patients are uninsured, they often attempt to treat the problem at home before seeking medical attention.

Another disturbing layer to the Vagisil-Liberty partnership is the fact that Women’s Health, a publication presumably committed to educating women about their physical and mental well-being, ran the news uncritically, never challenging any of the facts or language used by the two brands with a financial interest in the initiative. Women’s media has come a long way over the last decade-plus and I’m disheartened to see a health publication seemingly unconcerned with misleading their readers.

“As a vaginal health researcher, athlete and women’s sports fan, this is so problematic,” Jen Balkus, an infectious disease epidemiologist, said on Bluesky. “These products [and] companies feed off making women think there is something wrong with their bodies, not empowerment.”

In a league that so often gets it right, there's still a shadow looming over it in the form of growth and profit. It feels like the Liberty are quickly becoming a cautionary tale. The rapidly growing franchise boasts at least 19 new brand partnerships this season, but those partnerships are coming, more and more, at the expense of the values the league and its teams claim to espouse.

And selling their fans “empowerment” in the form of bodily shame feels like one hell of a misstep.

This newsletter was edited by Louis Bien.