Apparently some people think so about THEIR problems. (Warning: feminist rant follows!) I just read here and here about genital cosmetic surgery and feel bemused and angry. As with any such surgery, one must of course differentiate between truly cosmetic (pointless) surgery and reconstructive surgery, which a woman might legitimately need. Needing “thinner, sleeker” labia which “no one even sees” (?) in order to increase one’s self-esteem is not, in my medical opinion, a legitimate reason for major surgery. In my feminist opinion, it’s a freaking travesty. TEENAGERS are requesting these operations to model their labia and vaginas after those of porn stars! It seems like a joke that operations called “vaginal rejuvenation” and “G-spot amplification” even exist, yet somehow I find it very unfunny. I know I am getting older and less hip by the day: I will even admit that I actually have pubic hair (no one under 22 does anymore, from what I can tell; I just can’t grok having someone yank out my short and curlies!), so right off the bat I’m disqualified from any kind of real self-esteem—so I don’t even know whether my labia are thin and sleek, for heaven’s sake. What happened to the good old days when it was good enough for teenaged boys to SEE a teenaged girl naked? A real girl, in the flesh? In MY day, they didn’t start comparing (”This girl’s a super freak; her labia are SO uncool!”). Genital mutilation is against the LAW in other countries, is it not? Did we not foist ourselves on these countries and pronounce the practice barbaric? So why are we doing it here now? I know, I know…slicing off a girl’s clitoris against her will is way different, so my point is stretched, but I think it still has some validity.
I speak as a person who has wasted years of her life and apparently permanently damaged her psyche by means of endless dieting and self-flagellation in pursuit of a bodily ideal. It isn’t worth it. Knowing that this obsession now extends to parts that most people (even the person they belong to!) never see is very upsetting to me. Ladies, your G-spots don’t need amplification. (Maybe your boyfriends do, if you think you need this.) You don’t need thinner, sleeker labia, either, unless those babies are giving you camel toes the size of fists. Women have all kinds of labia and vaginas, the same as we have tummies and hips (those of us after 30, anyway). Can we please stop taking scalpels to ourselves???
Final rant: WordPress thinks “vaginas” is a typo, but not “penises.” I am just bitter. It’s a legitimate body part, people!
All right. I am finished with my feminist rant for now.
wow. i am so with you in this rant. maybe i am THAT old, because no matter how i think about it, i can’t see the real point in these surgeries. i am so uncool
Bravo. I am over 50, but I suspect many much younger women would also agree with your point of view.
Where will it end? I suppose the next thing we’ll see on TV is a relaity show about sexual reconstructive surgeries like this.
Yeah… people do many frustrating stupid things. Likes smoke, do drugs, etc. Then they come in and expect to be fixed. This is just one of them. I’ve become such a cynic. LOL
I am beginning to think middle age is not so bad..the world gets more bizarre by the day…
I feel so bad for these girls. What went wrong? This is a great rant, and I agree with you 100%.
Never apologize for the feminist rant.
Didn’t I mention something about this when I first moved to SoCal? I think I did. It’s a freakin’ travesty. If I have granted someone privileged access to my vulvar region (which is hygenic, but not buffed and polished), I will brook no comments about size, shape, hair, or natural scent. What I expect to hear is, “Thank you!” (Possibly followed by muffled, unintelligible noises.)
By the way, if you want to sample a serious rant on this subject by a radical feminist spinster aunt, check out Twisty (and her commentariat) over at I Blame the Patriarchy.
Oh, and by the way, I LOVE the new look of your blog!
Oh: here’s a link to the above-mentioned blog post at IBTP.
Thanks for the compliments on the new blog design. I was weary of the old one. Out with the old! Hey…maybe I SHOULD have my labia redone…ha ha. Yes, Notorious PhD, you did mention this to me, but I thought it was stay confined to the alien universe of So Cal…
I completely agree. I once read an article about FGM from the perspective that our criticism of the practice could be considered ethnocentric. And where we say, oh my, those barbaric people do what to their vaginas? When we have children barely 18 undergoing major surgery for better breasts, vaginal rejuvenation, and G-spot amplification…
Now that’s not to say I’m advocating for FGM, because I’m not.
Now why is it that some cultures’ beliefs end up reshaping *our* vaginas? And bodies? And breasts?
And ps. I’m 23 (slightly over 22) and I am proud to sport a bush. (It’s the only Bush I support — haha!)
skinny labia is a fad. just like skinny jeans. before you know it, these butchered girls will be wearing bell bottoms and eating extra helpings of red beans and rice in order to plump up those little lips. so sad.
Amen! I’m 22, and can’t see my labia through my own short and curlies. Not that I spend a lot of time trying to look anyway.
I posted on my blog a while back about women paying to have their hymen replaced so they can “be a virgin again,” which is only okay if you’re from a country where you will be killed if you don’t have proof of virginity. But for those who just want to say “I have three kids but my new husband will think I’m a virgin,” I want to punch you.
Love your blog, by the way.
I think the problem is caused by mags like Penthouse airbrushing the labia in the photos. Additionally, in the past the Law in the UK prohibited the display of the vulva, so how was a girl supposed to know if she had a vulva like other females? I have read that most of the published photos of women are altered/airbrushed to make them visually perfect; legs lengthened, etc and of course nothing protruding between the legs! I say “Viva La Vulva” they are all beautiful