Ouch - why should we all be the same? Labiaplasty on the increase

Having your vulva cut up to make it neater, the labia smaller or more symmetrical is becoming more frequent, according to this article , and some blame it on the availability of internet porn.

From the article in the Observer , Sunday 27 Feb, 2011:

A partner in the King's University research, Dr David Veale, a consultant psychiatrist in cognitive behaviour therapy, said he believed the surge in demand could be linked to easier access to explicit sexual imagery. "We haven't completed the research, but there is suspicion that this is related to much greater access to porn, so it is easier for women to compare themselves to actresses who may have had it done. This is to do with the increasing sexualisation of society – it's the last part of the body to be changed."


What imposed norm do we need to conform to now? Are our bodies and our genitals really so overwhelmingly important - as objects? Seems to me that we just become aware of perfectly normal variations, only to wish to remove them at whatever cost, financial, psychological or physical.

Is it all part of a rather worrying trend for people to seek surgery as a solution to problems, major or minor - gastric bands  rather than exercise and diet, nose jobs and boob jobs for minor imperfections, not just real deformities, and now labiaplasty?  Or are we increasingly scared to be different?

On the same paper's website there's a debate about women, fashion and beauty and the models who, it seems, are thinner each year.

Yet, I think my initial reaction has been too negative - lots of us are not going along with these things, are we?

The election is coming?

A few stirrings in the politisphere made me think it worth noting, as and when they arise, any news items which reveal the attitude of politicians and parties towards women, or , dare I say it, feminism.



Something from a Lib Dem, Jo Swinton is campaigning about the pernicious effects of airbrushed ads on how teenagers and others see themselves. Important stuff, since we as a society seem obsessed with perfect bodies, and intolerant of anyone who falls short. This causes real misery, and makes vast amounts of money for the unscrupulous who market products, including drastic plastic surgery.

Harriet Harman has taken advantage of her two weeks in nominal charge of the Labour party to talk some sense, which has been picked up as feminist nonsense by certain newspapers.
For a couple of articles giving her a positive welcome see here and here.

Body image

Article in Independent today about unrealistic expectations from plastic surgery, and the advertising.

Plastic perfection - why?

Great, at last a whole article arguing against cosmetic breast enlargement in particular, and considering the possible motives for it.

Why alter a perfectly functional body just to make it conform to some bizarre ideal? Because someone somewhere is making money out of it - plastic surgeons, journalists among others.

I know, I'm a bit of a killjoy/puritan/don't-mess-with-nature-unless-you-have-to freak.