Surgeons Mutilate Women's Genitals, Say It's for Beauty (Part 1)

by Heidi Stevenson

12 November 2009 Bloody woman with threatening surgeon wielding butcher knife

Concerns about genital mutilation generally focus on cultures "over there", not here at home. But make no mistake, female genital mutilation is alive and well in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia—and the practice is both increasing and highly profitable. Surgical clinics have sprung up all over offering female genital mutilation—more often termed labiaplasty—for women who have been cowed by absurd and impossible standards imposed by a culture of false beauty.

Labiaplasty is an umbrella term for a range of surgeries. The most common and heavily hyped is reduction in size of the inner labia. The "problem" that's "fixed" in outer labia is also oversize. A "hooded" clitoris is surgically dehooded. A vagina deemed not tight enough is surgically tightened. The basic assumption seems to be that any female genitalia that doesn't look like it's prepubescent needs to be surgically altered.

Claims Made by the Doctors Who Perform Genital Mutilations

Heavily hyped by unscrupulous doctors, whose practices consist of nothing but labiaplasties and lugging buckets of money to their banks, the advertising is aimed at adding to the sense of inferiority by offering a nonexistent normal sexual appearance or an end to embarrassment for not having perfect genitalia—whatever that might be. A quick search on the 'net found all of these statements in less than five minutes:

It's not unusual for a woman to feel dissatisfied with her labia, especially if they are asymmetrical, long or slightly bulky. (Name of Surgery) is one of the UK's leaders in labia reduction surgery, so you can count on our experienced surgeons to enhance your personal comfort, boost your self-confidence and make your labia more aesthetically desirable - for both you and your partner.
Thick or large labia may prevent women from wearing certain clothes that could reveal their condition, such as tight shorts and pants.
Undergoing labioplasty or labial reduction in Toronto may improve a woman's self esteem and general happiness.
...in many cases women are just not happy with parts of their genitalia. This can be embarrassing, uncomfortable and can even lead to sexual dissatisfaction or difficulty.
Additional related negative comments made by others can have devastating effects on her self-esteem and confidence. Cosmetic vaginal surgery can help restore their self-esteem and confidence and assist them in recreating sexual excitement and rejuvenation of their love lives.
Many more women are considering these procedures to improve their career prospects, such as in advertising, sport modeling, etc.
With your femininity suitably restored, you can embark your new life, safe in the knowledge that your cause of pain, discomfort and embarrassment has effectively been removed through the straightforward and increasingly common treatment in labiaplasty.
Restoring womanhood...Restoring confidence.

Another claim is that women find tight clothing uncomfortable. Apparently, wearing appropriately-sized clothing isn't an adequate solution. Another claim is that reduction in labia size is necessary to make bicycle riding comfortable. Perhaps a different bicycle seat would solve the problem? Apparently, some boyfriends and husbands are not satisfied with a woman's genital appearance. A replacement of the male part of that picture might best resolve the issue. Wouldn't a caring man want to assure his partner that she's beautiful, rather than demean her for not meeting some bizarre image?

Claims are even made that women's sexual satisfaction is improved. Yeah. Right. Mutilating surgery's a great way to improve sexual pleasure. Only someone with the initials MD following his name could make that claim. MT, for Medical Terrorist, would be a more appropriate acronym.

Big Business

This is big business, built by a profession with ethics that make the mafia look good. It preys on women in a society that values their appearance over their character and talent.

Surely, though, these procedures are safe? Aren't they? After all, doctors take the Hippocratic Oath with its "First, do no harm" edict...don't they? I suppose we need to first define what harm means—because it apparently doesn't have the same meaning to these doctors.

These procedures are done with anesthetics and other drugs, which always carry some risk, and knives. Obviously, infections and errors are also potential risks. The most salient issue, though, is that there are no requirements these doctors must meet before setting up shop. Well, greed is certainly a prerequisite, but that doesn't improve surgical quality.

Even these concerns, though, don't touch on the fact that these surgeries are being done without any research into risks and without any research into method. It's commonly believed that medical procedures have been carefully studied before being trotted out for use on the masses. That, though, is a myth. There are no rules about what kinds of surgery may be performed. Doctors hang up shingles claiming expertise in procedures with virtually no studies on them, either in terms of method or risk.

The next article, Surgeons Mutilate Women's Genitals, In Spite of the Risks (Part 2), addresses these problems in labiaplasty.

Please note that there are women who have a legitimate need for labiaplastic surgery. In such cases, though, plastic surgeons who do needed surgeries, as opposed to cosmetic ones, can be consulted. This article is focused on those doctors who make their livings by hyping labiaplasty surgeries in the manner described above.

References:

All the above quotations were copied directly from websites that were found on the first page of a Google search of the terms "labiaplasty us", "labiaplasty uk", and "labiaplasty canada". I refuse to cite them as references and provide them with further publicity.