While there are perfectly good medical reasons why some women will need to undergo labiaplasty. However there has been a significant rise in recent years in the number of women who undergo this procedure for aesthetic reasons.
Yesterday women in London and Southampton protested against the social pressures that lead women to think that they somehow improve their self image by shaving off their pubic hair and/or effectively mutilating their genitals.
the muff marches look like they were quite well attended. I for one wish them every success.
Personally I don't find the idea of a woman doing something that makes her vagina look like it belongs to a prepubescent in any way attractive or desirable. I simply cannot understand or support a culture that makes such a look the norm.
But then there is a drumbeat that says "be thin", "be blonde", 'perk up those tits", 'shave that pussy', be ashamed of those "stretch marks", "cellulite is disgusting" and so on and so forth... and so on and so forth... and there are drumbeats for men too....
Somehow I would be a happier person if our media role models weren't the likes of Katie Price and bimbos and himbos from The Only Way Is Essex...
Yesterday women in London and Southampton protested against the social pressures that lead women to think that they somehow improve their self image by shaving off their pubic hair and/or effectively mutilating their genitals.
the muff marches look like they were quite well attended. I for one wish them every success.
Personally I don't find the idea of a woman doing something that makes her vagina look like it belongs to a prepubescent in any way attractive or desirable. I simply cannot understand or support a culture that makes such a look the norm.
But then there is a drumbeat that says "be thin", "be blonde", 'perk up those tits", 'shave that pussy', be ashamed of those "stretch marks", "cellulite is disgusting" and so on and so forth... and so on and so forth... and there are drumbeats for men too....
Somehow I would be a happier person if our media role models weren't the likes of Katie Price and bimbos and himbos from The Only Way Is Essex...
18 comments:
I think the women and men should be proud of their natural state. It is normal!
That being said, overeating can be a problem, which leads from other media pressures...
I agree totally Cherie. I hate the drone of messages that tell women and men to hate their bodies.
I'll probably continue with bikini line shaving along with the armpits and legs so long as I can still be trusted with a 'lady bic'. Still, I don't think personal hygienic practices should be mandated.
And quite right too Susan. It's the compulsion to conform that gets my goat. It may not be someone screaming directly at a person to do this or that but when a lie is repeated enough, however circumspectly, it becomes a truth
I agree, Shaun. It's the pressure to conform that I hate. I don't want to be told what to do with my body at all.
It's very difficult for me to understand why anyone would want to re-construct their labia, but I have considered getting a clitoral hood piercing and I'm sure that that is incomprehensible to most.
I have two tattoos, a nose piercing and four piercings in each ear lobe. I shave my legs and my top lip but not my under arms.
I have in the past shaved off my pubic hair, years before I'd ever heard of Brazilian waxing, in the spirit of adventure . . . and fun! It does increase sensitvity but then it starts growing back. Itchy! Itchy! Horrible.
I understand your objection to it as resembling pre-pubesence and I don't doubt that's the attraction for some, but for me the attraction was a further undressing; a greater nakedness.
What angers and saddens me is the extent to which people are brainwashed into thinking that they MUST be a certain way to be acceptable.
Oh yeah, I shaved my head once, too. :)
Haha! Word verification on this comment is 'ought' - one of my least favourite words.
Fair play to you Syncy. It's your body and who am I or anyone to say how you present it so to speak. I have tattoos as you've seen but I don't have piercings. I've never felt any desire to pierce my body and certainly not a Prince Albert! but then a hood piercing is not the same as a clitoral piercing.
As for shaving your head or pubic hair as part of an exploration I'm all for it. Al
It's all those pressures to conform to (what I find personally) an undesirable and unhealthy stereotype which I dislike.
I may come over as inconsistent in my views. I don't think I am (I hope!). I'm not saying that say shaving the pubic region is wrong. It's the motives that count.
You don't come across as inconsistent.
And clearly we're in agreement about stupid social conditioning.
I've been reading Oliver James's book, 'Affluenza' which ties in very nicely with this.
Thanks Syncy! I will have to ad that book to the list
Ha! Re that "Personally I..." paragraph - you try to pretend that someone is asking you.
As for the Marches: you know, there is something fishy about all these cycles. First marches against armpit hair removal (do men really ask women to do this?), then against use of bras, animals in cosmetics industry etc. - all this is supposed to be men's fault and oppression of women by male chauvinists.
I would like to see the list of the males who asked for all that crap in the first place... oh gosh.
Now there's the rub Snoopy. Most men couldn't care less about most of these issues. But most men aren't the ones setting the beauty agenda.
When it comes to vaginas wh are we to cast aspersions! Hell nobody would call our mean and two veg beautiful (or a cocktails sausage and two petit pois in my case)
I'm sorry but I disagree, some men do expect shaven armpits and fannies.
So many people, both men and women have commented negatively about my underarm hair. My family in England see it as 'European'. One young man, many years ago told me he would cut it off in my sleep. One young woman in recent years found it totally disgusting and repeatedly told me so.
This doesn't offend or embarrass me as it's too ridiculous and personally, I actively like underarm hair. I actively dislike having chicken skin under my arms.
Bodies, body modification, body image etc are all very interesting to me.
Sorry, Shaun. The penultimate comment was in reply to Snoopy.
I don;t doubt it Syncy. Personally I think they are stupid and are buying into the stereotypes themselves. They are listening to the drumbeat of dysmorphia too.
As for shaved pits it wouldn't worry me in the slightest if Shirl never shaved them again.
Ach Syncy I'm probably all over the place on this matter.
S.E. - I can agree to the point that some men (as well as some women) may have problems with other people's body hair.
From that to the claim that men have been the initiators or enforcers of the whole cosmetic business... oh well, you know what I mean.
Men mainly are but it is not most men Most men don't control the fashion, media or porn industries
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