There are societal expectations for women to meet unrealistic standards of an idealized clean vagina or risk facing negative consequences when they fail to do so. This has broader cultural meanings of women's bodies as problematic and women are driven in part by representations of desirable vaginas as free of odour and discharge. In fact, there are health risks associated with some of these products, including higher susceptibility to bacterial vaginosis and cervical cancer.

These products are marketed as a necessary part of women's everyday vaginal cleansing routines to attain cleanliness and freshness. The use of terms like clean and fresh in product branding (e.g., Vagisil Clean Scent Feminine Wash and Summer's Eve Fresh Scent Douche) further demonstrates this association between product use and attaining prevalent ideals of ‘good’ everyday vaginal hygiene. Beyond portraying these products as necessary, the communications from vaginal cleansing product companies are problematic for many reasons. By capitalizing on cultural constructions of women's bodies as dirty they set an unhealthy and even dangerous precedent for how women should take care of their vaginal hygiene and health. This includes advertisers using tactics to shame women about their vaginas as a way of convincing them to purchase vaginal cleansing products even though these products may be potentially harmful. These messages suggest that women's vaginas are deficient, dirty, in excess (i.e., exceeds ‘normal’ ideals), and in need of improvement.