Meet Madeline AKA Madge | Artist/Writer/Advocate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Madeline AKA Madge and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Madeline, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
The core value that has shaped my life, my path, and my career thus far is community.

I have pulled a direct quote from my original Voyage Houston interview: “Since opening up about my struggles with pelvic pain, I’ve found a community of people dealing with similar issues and my shame lessens each time I’m honest about my experiences.”

My team and I are now in post-production for our limited series, MASHED. A tender, raunchy, and queer exploration of pelvic pain and sexual dysfunction as it relates to those with vaginas.

I vehemently believe that we heal in community and that shame cannot survive being spoken. It is through sharing with my community that MASHED has been brought to life.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
🍓ABOUT MASHED 🍓

MASHED follows a woman struggling with vaginismus as she tries to connect with her sexuality through rushed and reckless intimacy and vigorous EMDR trauma therapy.

With 6 bite-sized episodes, the series is an edu-tainment vessel that confronts us with questions like: How does your trauma manifest itself in your body and your life? What makes you feel safe, and what takes that away? And most specifically, why might sex be painful for you?

This story is a story for the next time you or your friend with pelvic pain (because believe us, you have one) are alone and googling “sex if painful”, “my vagina is broken”, “tampons feel like hitting a brick wall”.

MASHED is what I needed on screens in adolescence when I was too scared to tell my friends I couldn’t go to the beach because it hurt to use tampons. When my first boyfriend thought he was simply too big and I simply thought I was gay, as if it were simple. I needed it in the beginnings of adulthood when I started experiencing flashbacks and body memories from a childhood that didn’t feel like mine. When I started having painful casual sex because I didn’t think my pleasure and safety held any relevance. When I started kicking at the gynecologist and using alcohol to numb in moments of intimacy.

And I need it now, as I digest that 1 in 4 people with vaginas are affected by chronic pelvic vulvovaginal pain. I need it now as I become conscious that I am not, nor have I ever been, alone in this. I need it now as I talk about my vagina to anyone who will listen and hear my own story reflected in the stories vagina owners share back. I need it now as I heal and embark on the sex life I deserve, that we all deserve.

MASHED exists to insist that those who live with pelvic pain are represented, held, and never alone with just their thoughts and google again. By creating artistic, educational content around our pain and shame, we are normalizing its prevalence and creating space for people with vaginas to explore and share their experiences.

Advocating for comprehensive sex education, healing the shame that binds us, and centering ourselves in our sex lives, MASHED is a love letter both to and from my vagina. I hope it reaches yours.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I dedicate my shoutout to the team at Besties Make Movies.

For believing in me, my work, my sensitivity.

For becoming my community.

For making MASHED.

They are a queer, women & non-binary run, eco-friendly production company who write, direct, produce and collaborate with other filmmakers to tell immodest, unfiltered, provocative, and subversive stories that center underrepresented people and topics and you should follow them everywhere @bestiesmakemovies and check out their website: bestiesmakemovies.com

Website: linktr.ee/projectmashed

Instagram: @projectmashed @madgetable @bestiesmakemovies

Other: TikTok @projectmashed