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Betty Dodson: Sex, Love, Feminism, Politics › In the News ›

The Risks of a Perfect Vagina (Vulva)

Posted November 13th, 2009 by Carlin
in

The first time I heard about labiaplasty was about 10 years ago on the Howard Stern show.  It was right when we started seeing the "clamshell" asethetic in porn and all the porn stars who came on the show would talk about the surgery.  One pornlet had her snipped labia suspended in a clear resin block and auctioned it off on ebay.

What struck me then was that there had been no research.  No one knew what the risks were in removing sexual tissue directly from a woman's genitals.  Most women say they want the surgery because they're embarrassed of their labia during sex.  Not that far off from Betty's experience believing she was genitally deformed because she had "dangling inner lips".  It took the right lover to convince her that she was "normal".   

Finally, someone is standing up for women. Gynaecologist Sarah Creighton and psychologist Lih-Mei Liao are challenging the ethics of offering women surgery to address such insecurities, suggesting it is advertisements for a "homogenised, pre-pubescent genital appearance" which creat these anxieties in the first place.  As far as buying the discomfort of protruding genitals argument, don't men have the ultimate protrusion? 

Dr. Creighton is quick to point out that surgery might exacerbate these insecurities by damaging the nerve supply to the area, impairing sexual sensitivity and satisfaction.

She also suggests that women who undergo this procedure might experience similar problems in childbirth as those who have experienced female genital mutilation, in which parts of the vagina are ritualistically removed.  It is now well documented that women who have undergone such circumcision are more likely to experience significant tearing and bleeding after labour and even the death of their babies, problems which are overcome by Caesarean delivery.

I have dangling inner lips and they have never bothered me during sex, in the gym, or at the beach.  As women, I wish we could love ourselves and respect the sanctity of our sex organ and not be manipulated by an industry looking for a quick buck.  God, I'm so glad we posted our Manual Skills Series.  Women need to accept their labia and learn how to give themselves pleasure.

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Thank you for Talking about this.

Joelface's picture
Submitted by Joelface on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 07:21.

The enormous pressure to fit the perceived ideal has gone too far when the natural shape of a vagina must be surgically reduced on the vast majority of healthy women just to be seen as "acceptable".

You certainly made some important points, and I just hope the message is getting out there to young, impressionable boys and girls who might be getting these unhealthy ideas about how they need to look.

Too often it seems the medical industry would rather profit off of insecurity, rather than dealing with the root issue that is causing so many women to have these absurd feelings of inadequacy. Cutting off sensitive genital tissue without medical need sounds to me like a mental disorder.. and at the very least it is a sign of manipulation and unfair pressures.

Keep fighting for this cause! The number of girls being subjected to these ideas of inadequacy every day is astounding. We can't just sit back and hope it will fix itself, because it won't.

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23 - M - Critical Relativist and Feminist (Equalist) - Canada

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