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This tweet about Taylor Swift's vagina isn't just bizarre, it's medically incorrect

Also, your vagina is not a ham sandwich.

Andrea Romano

on July 7, 2016

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

A tweet posted by a self-proclaimed "wife, mother, Christian" isn't just deplorable, but also factually incorrect.

The tweet (we have blurred out the poster's identity) shows two ham sandwiches: one meant to represent the woman's daughter (who we assume from the tweet has never had sex) and the other meant to represent Taylor Swift (the implication being she has lots of sex due to her very public dating record).

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Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

There is a lot to unpack in this tweet.

The first thoughts that come to our heads:

Slut shaming is never cool. Taylor Swift is a normal woman in her 20s. She dates, she breaks up, she dates again. No woman should judge her for that.
The choice to use a sandwich as a vagina is weird.
The choice to call attention to your own daughter's vagina to make a point is weirder.
That's not even a vagina; that's a vulva and labia.
This isn't what happens to a vagina when you have sex.
Apples aren't oranges and vaginas are not ham sandwiches.

It's important to note here that vaginas, labia, vulvas, etc. come in all shapes, sizes and colors. They are all normal and all valid and there is no such thing as a "good" vagina or a "bad" vagina.

However, what this tweet seems to imply is that sex, especially sex with more than one partner, turns your vagina into a swollen, stretched out, mangled mess. This is simply, medically untrue.

According to a piece on Psychology Today that debunks common myths about the vagina and sex, a vagina is an elastic, tightly folded muscle that expands or contracts based on sexual arousal or childbirth.

"Try this: Pull the corners of your mouth out toward your ears then let go. What happens?," writes author Michael Castleman, who has also written several books about the physiology of sex. "The mouth immediately snaps back to its pre-stretched state because the tissue is elastic. Do it 100 times. There's no permanent stretching,"

"Arousal-related vaginal loosening does NOT produce a big open cavity like the inside of a sock," he continues. "If the vagina feels 'too tight' during lovemaking, the woman is either (1) not interested in sex, or (2) she has not had enough warm-up time to allow her vaginal musculature to relax enough for comfortable insertion."

In other words, the vagina is a resilient organ belying the crude line about hot dogs being thrown down hallways after a woman has had sex. In the same vein, a tight vagina does not imply virginity or purity.

Now, apply this newfound knowledge to the above tweet and glean from that what you will.

Not only have many women (and some men) online spoken out against the inflammatory tweet, they also created a hashtag to call attention to the frankly bizarre comparison of a vagina to a ham sandwich.

Honestly, searching the hashtag #IfMyVaginaWereASandwich might be the most fun you'll have on Twitter in a long time.

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Some men have also tweeted in solidarity, although we respectfully disagree with the man saying a hot dog is a sandwich:

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This only proves that the best way to combat hateful tweets is to make fun of them. What a time to be alive.

Mashable has reached out to a practicing gynecologist for her medical opinion on the matter. We are awaiting her response.

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Andrea Romano

Andrea Romano -- comedy writer, craft enthusiast, lady -- was a Watercooler Reporter. She worked as an intern at Mashable beginning in January 2014. Andrea recently completed her Masters degree in Media Studies and Film from The New School and writes sketch comedy at Upright Citizens Brigade and The People's Improv Theatre. She once watched three Paul Rudd movies in a row on a bicoastal flight and didn't realize it until she landed. She does things like that a lot. Twitter: @theandrearomano