Sad -- video on labiaplasty

[SplitDik (imported)]

Here is a graphic promotional video for labiaplasty. NSFW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ0hKVvK7a8

I think it is sad that the woman who has really very normal labia is getting them removed.

Even though I have my own severe body dysmorphia related to my genitals, it is sad when anyone is in conflict with their own body, especially when it is otherwise properly formed.

Labiaplasty to me really represents a lot of what is wrong with people's self image and the plastic surgeons who are happy to make money off of this. Just look at the smiling doc in the above video or the creepy lesbian doctor in the second link below. I'm quite sure the doctors going into this get off on the whole thing.

People should of course be free to do what they want with their bodies, but I do think there are mental problems when a person perceives their body to be imperfect when it is really quite nice.

Here are some other similar videos -- women with very normal labia getting them removed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZULGQi9 ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7onyn-J4 ... re=related

[Paolo]

But - don't many members here, or those who lurk here, have properly formed testicles, even properly functioning ones, and they want them gone as well?

[A-1 (imported)]

But - don't many members here, or those who lurk here, have properly formed testicles, even properly functioning ones, and they want them gone as well?

Yeah, I suppose, but us old, perverted str8 men are not interested in sucking on testicles...

[SplitDik (imported)]

But - don't many members here, or those who lurk here, have properly formed testicles, even properly functioning ones, and they want them gone as well?

Yes, but that is sad too -- all of us who are at odds with our own bodies. I think many of us have lived with an internal battle all our lives.

There is also the self-questioning: at what point is changing your body a legitimate journey to self-identity versus just some perceptual mental illness? Is changing your body really the solution, or is accepting your body the way to go?

Anyway, life is harder if you have such struggles within, which is why I feel sympathetic sadness towards others with the same struggle.

[Batman (imported)]

I don't see why it is even a problem, visually, if the labia protrude a bit. Still looks edible to me...I know women in porn have the area neatened up, but still think its silly.

[speedvogel (imported)]

There are very good medical reasons for labiaplasty. A woman with very long and protruding inner labia will have trouble riding a bicycle. They may interfere with her orgasm. These are just two of the reasons why this procedure may be valid medically. Fact it, though, that most women who undergo plastic surgery on their naughty bit do so because they are not happy with the appearance. Some surgeons do wonderful work (Pam Loftis in West Palm Beach, for example) and others are hacks. I have no problem if a woman wants to improve the appearance of her vulva. I do have a problem if husband/boyfriend/lover coerces her into doing it.

Speed

[SplitDik (imported)]

There are very good medical reasons for labiaplasty. A woman with very long and protruding inner labia will have trouble riding a bicycle. They may interfere with her orgasm.

Sorry dude, that is just marketing, and only would apply to extreme cases of labia size. Genitals interfere with everyone riding a bicycle, and how important is bicycle riding anyway?

Also, it's funny how people never stop to wonder why women have labia in the first place. It is probably related to stopping infection -- women basically have a hole in them that connects right to the inside of their body, and only through having properly acidic environment are all the germs kept at bay.

The real issue (which also affects many of us) is that genitals are pretty ugly when you consider them objectively. You basically get equipped with a wrinkly, slimy hole or with veiny, dangling bits. At some point in our lives our hormones overcomes this and somehow makes them seem attractive, but objectively most of our sex drive is just some of us trying to stick parts of our bodies into slimy holes in other people's bodies. Keep in mind that one of the oldest stories in the Bible is about Adam and Eve covering up -- people have been almost universally uncomfortable with the look of their genitals for at least last 5000 years!

So there is no end of money to be made by making people realize that their genitals are ugly and therefore a problem. Just look at how penis enlargement is the vast majority of spam e-mail.

I read a funny commentary once on labiaplasty that said that when a woman has her labia removed you can no longer tell where her ass crack ends and where the vagina begins.

Anyway, I still think it is interesting and relevant to us here: at what point is wanting to change your otherwise "normal" body just healthy self-discovery and at what point is it an aberrant self-esteem problem that can be preyed on by marketing?

[ramses (imported)]

I find the idea of cutting off a beautiful extra large labia to just be horrifying. They are just so enticing. The bigger the better! Then again, I'm sure most women would think it a real waste to cut the nuts off of a guy...

To each their own. It's your body, do as you please with it.

[punkypink (imported)]

I'm not sure that just because I want bits of me cut off, that I think I have an imperfect body, not the the extent of dysphoria anyway. Rather than it being a need, I see it as a want. Just like, I don't need ice cream but boy it would sure be awesome to have one now.

And to be fair labia trimming is about as horrifying, maybe even less so to me, than breast implant surgery.

[Hash (imported)]

The Labia are what the scrotum turned into in men. Same tissue, just different function.