In Politics and Fashion, 2016 Was the Year of the P***y

Remember when “p***y” was unprintable? Not after this year. Once the notorious Access Hollywood video starring Billy Bush and our president-elect went public, “p***y” became a 2016 buzzword, appearing everywhere from CNN to the Wall Street Journal. (The New York Daily News got a little more creative, swapping out letters for kitty faces on its front cover.)

But the P word’s popularity didn’t stop with politics. “Pussy Bow” blouses from Givenchy, Saint Laurent, and Marc Jacobs were runaway runway hits, while the Russian punk band Pussy Riot just released its latest song — “Straight Outta Vagina” — on YouTube. (It already has 1.2 million views.)

At Yahoo, our copy editors’ advice on “profanities; obscenities; hate words” is: “We take a family-friendly approach. Use asterisks to replace all but the first letter in the root word … adding the last letter is OK.” But since “pussy bow” blouses are clothes, the word can be written out in that context.

Does that make 2016 the Year of the P***y? Read on for the evidence…

Melania Trump’s Pussy Bow

Swiftly after the Access Hollywood tape was released, Melania Trump appeared in a hot pink pussy bow blouse by Gucci that nearly broke the Internet. Twitter theories abounded: Melania was trolling Hillary; Melania was supporting Hillary; Melania didn’t know what the blouse was called. … But André Leon Talley — Mrs. Trump’s stylist for her 2005 wedding — had a different idea: “I don’t think she’s a disrupter,” he told the New York Times. “If anything, it was a signal of support for him, using the mot du jour and taking it to the next level with fashion.”

Of course, she wasn’t the first to wear it: According to Jezebel, the pussy bow blouse first became popular when women entered the workplace and wanted their own version of the standard necktie. (Perhaps that’s why Peggy and Joan wore them on almost every episode of Mad Men.)

Pussy Riot’s Art Basel Miami Beach Party

Madonna and Kendrick Lamar may have gotten the headlines, but Art Basel Miami Beach had another MVP performer this season: Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova. The Russian artist headlined a party for New York City gallery the Hole, delivering a speech on everything from pop stardom to climate change.

Her most-tweeted quote: “When people ask me where I’m from, I say I’m from Vagina. When people say I’m from Cambridge or Paris or China, I say, ‘No, you’re not, you’re from Vagina.’ Globalism is in trouble today. There’s a rise in populism all over the world, and my version of ultra globalism is vaginal globalism. Vagina has no borders.”

The Vivienne Westwood Vagina Print

We were too jet-lagged to laugh when designer Andreas Kronthaler sent a vagina-print dress down Dame Viv’s Paris runway, but gosh it was fun. Part of the label’s see-now-buy-now initiative, the “Doric Dress” was available immediately after the show, along with its partner in crime a penis tunic. It can (still) be yours for $840.

The Céline Vagina Print

Far more subtle but just as pussy-powered was Phoebe Philo’s spring 2017 show, with an installation by artist Dan Graham that read “I want to show that our bodies are bound to the world, whether we like it or not.” Her collection included two paint-stained dresses with the unmistakable shape of a woman’s body stamped across the front — an allusion to artist Yves Klein and his 1960 Anthropometry paintings.

The Rachel Antonoff Pussy Sweatshirt

Goddess bless Rachel Antonoff. The designer and LGBT activist designed a range of sweatshirts proclaiming “I’m With Human” (seen on Gilmore Girls), “Equal Pay” (seen on Cleo Wade), and “World’s Smallest P***y,” as modeled by pint-size movie star Mae Whitman. She’s also got prints of the female reproductive system on T-shirts, cashmere sweaters, and enamel pins. Go, girls!

The Georgia O’Keeffe Retrospective in London

“Men put me down as the best woman painter,” said artist Georgia O’Keeffe. “I think I’m one of the best painters.” Her 100-painting show at the Tate Modern museum in London proves it, with plenty of her signature close-up flower studies. Yes, they look like the female anatomy, and aren’t they spectacular?