the ultimate misogynist mindfuck. ever.
a rant in honour of labia love

i first read about surgery to "fix" female genitals in cosmo several years ago. shame on me, but back then, i still occasionally looked at mainstream women's mags.
under the headline "a hot trend out of hollywood promises to prettify and pleasure up your panty-clad parts. could one of these below-the-belt snips, nips, or tucks revolutionize your sex life?", the article described plastic surgery available for genitals: labiaplasty to make the labia minora smaller; vaginal "rejuvenation" to provide more friction during sex, removal of the clitoral hood for better orgasms, liposuction on the pubic mound, injection of fat to "reshape" too small labia.

my initial reaction was crossing my legs, protecting my beloved, perfect cunt.

generally, i'm no big fan of, but not totally opposed to, cosmetic surgery. i can get the motivations behind breast reduction or a nose job, even if i wouldn't choose those operations for myself.
plastic surgery on genitals, however, made under the premonition that the operation will lead to better orgasms, seems nothing but lunatic to me.

since first reading that cosmo article, sparked by being a sexpert at scarleteen, by growing up to realise that i am a feminist, by reading naomi wolf's "the beauty myth" and other stuff on the politics surrounding our bodies, i've read a few more mainstream articles on the issue of plastic surgery for genitals, specifically labia. they are all the same, those articles. it's always the same doctors talking, always the same questions being asked. they always cause the same reaction in me, too: they enrage me. they make me completely and utterly mad.

have you noticed what those docs who cut labias, who remove clitoral hoods, those doctores alter, matlock, lesavoy have in common besides being plastic surgeons and offering these operations: guess what: they are male. sure, there are more male surgeons anyway, but in this specific regard, their gender is especially noteworthy to me.
they have ads proclaiming "you won't believe how good sex can be!", they have publicists who contact mainstream women's mags and commission articles which "inform" women on their "options".
in short: they create the problem, the self-consciousness, the desire for correction with the scalpel, the labia-hate.

but hey, at least those scalpel and laser waving surgeons are not alone: they're in good company with those who tuck larger labia minora between the majora for crotch shots, those who layer the labia in crotch shots with pink filters in photoshop, and with those teenage boys who think the coolest thing in the world is to tease a girl with "being too loose" or having "cameltoe".

and well, those docs, those boys, those photo editors, have an easy game: most women don't know what vulvas look like. they don't know that there's a multitude of variation here, just like with all body parts. and how could they if no one shows them and tells them?
unless you get inside girls's pants, it's quite hard to get a good vulva look: vulvas don't comfortably dangle in front of bodies as penises do, you can hardly get a good look and comparison when you're under the shower with the girls at gym.
really, what's so scandalous about vulvas, that in 2003 it still creates outrage and impacts the funding of the school (as it happened in Kansas, just about 2 weeks ago) when during sexuality class in a college the prof shows vulva images of girls?

how good though, that the docs who created the problem also have the *solution*, too : labiaplasty, the removal of the clitoral hood, pubic mound liposuction.

the man who tells a woman her genitals are wrong, her sexuality faulty, cuts her genitals up, the place where her lust happens; he stitches her back together, and: wham! the woman is whole again, her genitals perfect, her sexuality delivered to her by a male, who created it by cutting and tucking and stitching. she can suddenly orgasm like wildfire, because now she is the way he wants her to be: nice, tight, clean and sculpted.

to me, that is the ultimate misogynist mindfuck, ever.

in one of the articles on genital surgery that i read, a 25 year old, who had just undergone labiaplasty, was quoted as saying the following about her post-op-lips "it's cleaner, it's more hygienic. it's sculpted. it looks nicer. it's perfect.".

"cleaner"" - sounds to me, girl, that that old belief that female genitals are dirty by default still had a hold on you.
"more hygienic"? - well, darl, let's wait and see whether you smaller, tighter, more sculpted minora are going to protect your vagina as well from infections as your original ones.
"sculpted"? - don't you think mother nature is the best sculptor, ever? did you not know, honeybunch, that you didn't need to be ashamed by your body in its natural form, not by the curve of your stomach before you sculpted with thousands of sit ups, not by the softness of your breasts that was there before you got the implants, not by the flabbiness and gentleness of your labia before they were "sculpted" by a man with a scalpel?
"it looks nicer. it's perfect"? how does it feel though? didn't you know that any cut impacts sensation in the area? is this still your vulva, not someone else's idea of one?

there are so many things that are better for our female sexuality then turning to a man to make us whole with a scalpel.
i believe in loving and accepting yourself and your genitals as they are -big, small, plump, flabby, pink, purple, dark, hairy, shaven.
i believe in getting a good look at your vulva and revelling in the beauty that your cunt is.
i believe in masturbating till you know just what you want and need and in sharing those discoveries and your love for your body with a partner.

as different as they are for each of us: our sexuality, our cunts, are our own. neither of them need fixing or approval by a guy with a scalpel so that we can enjoy them.

we're perfect, just the way we are.