labial reshaping?

[merchimerch]

I've know about the rise in cosmetic vaginal surgery for a while, and every time I see an article on it I feel sad. Here's the most recent:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/features/article4211836.ece

I find this an interesting trend from the society that got SO up in arms about vaginal cutting/excision in non-Western countries (which is, admittedly, a very different thing and serves a very different purpose). But really, why are we so concerned about knives cutting others' vaginas, but we're all to happy to cut into our own for the sake of beauty?

I'm disturbed by this trend.

I'm disturbed by the need for some women to trim their labia minora to porn-star petiteness. I wish there was a way for us to appreciate vaginal diversity as much as I wish our culture was more tolerant of diversity (instead of just giving it *lip service*).

I'm disturbed that waxing is now considered standard and that so many women either sculpt their pubic hair into odd shapes or remove it completely. The option currently seems to be between post-modern pubic hair coiffures or the pre-adolescent none-at-all approach.

Neither are acceptable to me, and now I'm afraid that vaginal cosmetic surgery is going to become some kind of accepted norm as our current treatment of pubic hair has.

It scares me that this surgery is tauted as empowering for women to enjoy better sex, since they will no longer feel ashamed of the appearance of their loose canals and flabby lips. This doesn't fall far from the "your parts are dirty" rhetoric of decades past, with the subtle difference being that now a woman with "offensive" labia can purchase herself acceptable parts.

I like the originality of my girl parts -- I don't want them to look like porn parts. How can we nudge the culture a bit more toward appreciation of women and their sexual parts, rather than homogenization and control?

Comments

[merchimerch.livejournal.com]

I agree that my statement was a bit extreme, and in practice I think that people should do with their pubic hair what they will (so long as they harm none).

Mostly I'm just reacting to negative comments about my natural growth that I've gotten in my most recent forays into the dating pool. It seems like the assumption is now that a woman will wax/shave/trim/scuplt/depilate before allowing someone access to her nether regions and that assumption and the resulting expressions of shock/dismay/disgust are what I'm railing against.

If all people were as understanding about their partners choices in terms of pubic hair as you are, then obviously there wouldn't be an issue. But as the last year of dating has proven to me, it is an issue - it's a huge issue.

Also, it may not be a media influenced issue for you, but I think it is for many.

[nonseqmenagerie.livejournal.com]

And there I agree - there should be more of a range in the media (both mainstream and porn), and people shouldn't expect their partners to do things their partners don't wish to do.

However, when so many discussions about shaved vs. unshaved basically boils down to me or my partners favoring pre-adolescents, or me being a dupe, I do take a bit of umbrage.

[merchimerch.livejournal.com]

no I don't think you're a dupe, but I'm worried that preteen girls growing up now are going to be pressured into shaving/waxing their pubic area much in the way that I was pressured into shaving my legs starting around the 6th grade.

It wasn't even a question. All the girls on my swim team started doing it, and it was clear from TV and all the silly Nair commercials that in order to be a normal woman I had to remove the hair from my legs.

I've since rethought such things, but I wish I'd never started down the leg-shaving path. It seems that young girls are already being taught that their vaginas are dirty, smelly places that they shouldn't look at or mention. When you add the burden of hair removal to that, well it makes me nervous.

I wish the Cunt Coloring Book was part of sex education programs nationwide, and I agree about the Everyday Vulvas project.

[nonseqmenagerie.livejournal.com]

I think if we got past the "vaginas are dirty smelly places unless you use product X to make it smell like flowers," you'd probably actually find less worry about pubic hair. The general line of reasoning I've seen for that is "Vagina is smelly - hair keeps smells - no hair equals clean."

If we can get the former taken out of the equation, or at least pounded in that the scent of a healthy vagina is a good thing, you'd probably find less concern about hair.

[merchimerch.livejournal.com]

That rings quite true, and the same could probably be said of armpit hair as well.

[merchimerch.livejournal.com]

and with the pre-adolescent thing...I realize that it is an extreme statement that is often bandied about, but I do think it is valid that the media is pushing an image of the desirable woman as pre-pubescent. I usually talk about this in terms of all over body hair, but also in terms of hip girth and chest.

Truly womanly bodies are remarkably scarce in the media, and when they show up it is usually as the brunt of a joke or some other form of ridicule.

[nonseqmenagerie.livejournal.com]

Deleted previous comment because I was uncomfortable with my tone. I'll try to think of a more calm way of saying things when I calm down some.