Nia Sharma’s ‘Vaginal Tightening Pill’ Endorsement Sparks Outrage: Why It’s Problematic

Vaginal tightening has been a controversial topic. The backlash on her post makes that evident. Users’ comments ranged from “Is this for real??? What a shame to do this. It’s 2024 and you’re still promoting this????? Horrible” to “Don’t you think you have a moral responsibility towards the society for not promoting such a gimmick product? Shame on you!”. Others speculated how big the paycheck for such an endorsement must have been.

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HerZindagi breaks down everything wrong with her endorsement, and the video she posted.

Do Vaginas Need Tightening?

Before we decode whether pills can help at all, we need to understand how vaginas function in the first place.

Being an elastic organ with tissues, the vagina cannot become “loose” by having sex or by using pleasure products like toys.

Talking to Krati Purwar from HerZindagi, Dr Tanaya Narendra (aka Dr Cuterus on Instagram), MBBS, MSc. (Oxon), FRSPH, and sexuality educator, said, “It is a long canal that expands to make way for penetration of the penis or a sex toy or even a baby. When it is not accommodating anything, the muscles contract. Technically and biologically, the vaginal canal is supposed to loosen up. It is natural.”

It then goes back to its original form, in most cases. Dr. Tanaya highlighted that the only two things that affect the firmness of the vaginal tissue are pregnancy and ageing.

Read: HZ Exclusive: Dr Cuterus Gets Candid About Vaginas & Pleasure Toys

Can Vaginal Tightening Even Happen With Pills?

Multiple doctors on multiple forums have written about how pills cannot help with any vaginal tightening.

They’ve even highlighted how in some cases they may even cause harm.

So in the first place itself, the idea of pills magically making vaginas feel different is unlikely – so the efficacy of the product she is promoting can safely be called questionable.

The product promoted by Nia Sharma costs Rs 1299 for a pack of 24 tablets. They have to be inserted inside the vagina, their site instructs.

Why Do Women Need Vaginal Tightening?

The defending argument which would advocate for vaginal tightening is that if the women themselves want such a procedure, even if that’s a surgical one.

The key benefits listed on the site endorsed by Nia sharma are “Helps in rediscovering inner confidence in 30 minutes, helps in dealing with loose intimate muscles and strong muscles & stronger sensations.”

How vaginas can help develop inner confidence, in just 30 minutes, is not explained. There is no elaboration on why loose muscles in intimate areas pose problems.

Also read: How Social Media And Therapy Speak Could Be Ruining Relationships

The “stronger sensations” perhaps hint at women’s pleasure. According to plenty of studies and reports, around 20% of women claim that penetration alone is sufficient for orgasms and/or pleasure. Considering that all others require some form of clitoral stimulation, the highlighted focus on the vagina is absurd.

On the other hand, male pleasure too, isn’t affected. “It should not affect pleasure for penis owners as well. It is the patriarchal mindset that tries to control the bodies of women. In fact, a relaxed and loose vagina offers more pleasure. If we condition men to think in that direction, they would find pleasure in it. It’s just a conditioning issue,” said Dr Tanaya.

Problems With Comparing Vaginas To Bottle Caps or Jeans

In the video, as described in the beginning, Nia Sharma compares vaginas to loose jeans, a loose bottle cap, and loose shoelaces. This trivializes and objectifies women's bodies, reinforcing damaging narratives that a woman’s worth or desirability is tied to her physical attributes.

The idea of comparing a human body part to household items reduces their wide variety of functions and abilities. Such endorsements also perpetuate the harmful notion that women must "fix" or alter their bodies to meet certain societal expectations. Vaginas, like all body parts, serve a range of functions, from childbirth to sexual pleasure, and cannot be likened to objects that can be "tightened" to maintain their usefulness.

Given her 8million reach, most of who are youth (which she has talked about earlier), her messaging can have harmful and far-reaching after-effects. It contributes to the age-old narrative that a woman’s value lies in her physical form, or worse, in satisfying others' needs, often at the cost of her health.