Janelle Monae: 'I Don't Believe Women Need a Vagina to Be Women'

Janelle Monae -- who last week released her album Dirty Computer -- clarified that the pants she wore in her "PYNK" music video weren't necessarily meant to simulate a vagina, and also clarified that her femme anthem is for all women, no matter what genitals they possess.

"Sometimes I think people interpret those as vagina pants, they call them vulva pants, they call them flowers, but it just represents some parts of some women," Monae told People. "There are some women in the video that do not have on the pants, because I don't believe that all women need to possess a vagina to be a woman. I have one I'm proud of it, but there's a lot of policing and controlling that people are trying to have over our vaginas and when you think about female genital mutilation, when you think about all these women's issues, I wanted to make sure we were discussing these issues but we were also celebrating each other."

When "PYNK" was first released, Monae's co-star (and rumored girlfriend) Tessa Thompson voiced her support for trans women.

Monae supported Thompson's statement with one of her own.

Monae also revealed that she intends to mass-produce the vagina/vulva/whatever pants (which were designed by Duran Lantink, adding, ""I'm so tickled and honored that people are talking about the 'Pynk' pants, I think that it's so cool to have discussions around women's issues and women's bodies, I think it's amazing."