# Vagina sizes in (human) populations **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 1, 2002, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vagina-sizes-in-human-populations/101153 "2002-04-01T02:19:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vagina-sizes-in-human-populations/101153/21 "2002-04-02T04:36:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by PosterChild \* > \*\* > Even though I mentioned it, my friend reminded me that a baby doesn’t actually pass through the vagina until the connective tissue has had a chance to “loosen” so that’s not a normal sexual situation. > \*\* Well no, but accomodating something _quite_ that big probably isn’t a normal sexual situation either. 🙂 Actually, it just occured to me that you haven’t been clear as to whether your friend thought her boyfriend’s penis was uncomfortable _wide_ or uncomfortably _long_. It does make a difference. I think that practically any grown woman, barring medical problems, when properly relaxed, aroused, and lubricated could stretch wide enough to accomodate practically any human-sized penis. However, the vaginal canal is only so deep. The cervix moves back when a woman is aroused (most women can actually feel this happening, although they may not realize what it is), and the more aroused she is the better, but there is a limit to how far it can go. A man with a particularly long penis may be unable to fully penetrate his partner without painfully bumping her cervix. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vagina-sizes-in-human-populations/101153/22 "2002-04-02T05:19:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by PosterChild \* > does that mean that there are ethnicity differences in vagina, um, accomodations? > [@](#): > > - [http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Exhibition.html](http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Exhibition.html) \* > > Saarjite Baartman, a young Khosian woman from Southern Africa whose body was the main attraction at public spectacles in both England and France for over five years, is perhaps the most infamous case of a Khosian body on display. Baartman, who became known as the Hottentot Venus, was brought to Europe from Cape Town in 1810 by an English ship’s surgeon who wished to publicly exhibit the woman’s steatopygia, her enlarged buttocks. Her physique, particularly her steatopygic appendage, became the object of popular fascination when Baartman was exhibited naked in a cage at Piccadilly, England… > > …The spectacle of Baartman’s body, however, continued even after her death at the age of twenty-six. Pseudo-scientists interested in investigating “primitive sexuality” dissected and cast her genitals in wax. Baartman, as far as we know, was the first person of Khosian-descent to be dismembered and displayed in this manner. Anatomist Georges Curvier presented Baartman’s dissected labia before the Academie Royale de Medecine, in order to allow them “to see the nature of the labia” (Gilman 235). Curvier and his contemporaries concluded that Baartman’s oversized primitive genitalia was physical proof of the African women’s “primitive sexual appetite.” Baartman’s genitalia continued to be exhibited at La Musée de l’Homme, the institution to which Curvier belonged, long after her death. ---
**Author:** ![PosterChild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e274bd/32.png) [@PosterChild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PosterChild)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vagina-sizes-in-human-populations/101153/23 "2002-04-04T02:52:59Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by_ **Lamia** > Actually, it just occured to me that you haven’t been clear as to whether your friend thought her boyfriend’s penis was uncomfortably _wide_ or uncomfortably _long_. It does make a difference. I think that practically any grown woman, barring medical problems, when properly relaxed, aroused, and lubricated could stretch wide enough to accomodate practically any human-sized penis. However, the vaginal canal is only so deep. The cervix moves back when a woman is aroused (most women can actually feel this happening, although they may not realize what it is), and the more aroused she is the better, but there is a limit to how far it can go. A man with a particularly long penis may be unable to fully penetrate his partner without painfully bumping her cervix. Actually both, but if the average penis 6.3 inches long (see Cecil’s column) and the average vagina is 4 inches long, I guess a little cervical impact is normal if the guy’s not careful. My friend said she feld “stretched” out because it was big around, but she was surprisingly happy to keep researching. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vagina-sizes-in-human-populations/101153.md?page=1)