Why These Women Are NOT Happy With Their V*g*nas
New research has found that those who looked at ‘designer vaginas’ were more more likely to consider
them ‘normal’ and ‘ideal’ when later comparing them to unaltered private partia.
Airbrushing and waxing are two of the main reasons why women are becoming unhappy with their appearance, the researchers say.
Many also don’t realise how much appearances can vary, they add.
The number of labiaplasties performed by the NHS has risen five-fold since 2001, according to the study’s Australian authors.
The surgery involves reducing the size of a woman’s labia minora to make them more symmetrical and smaller than the labia majora.
‘The rise in private part cosmetic surgery for women is a very worrying trend,’ the study’s lead author, Claire Moran, from the University of Queensland said.
‘There seems to be massive misconceptions around perceptions of normal private part appearance and I wanted to explore this further.’
Generally, there are no health reasons to have the surgery – it is only for the sake of appearance. So the researchers wanted to know what drives women’s perceptions of what looks good.
Ms Moran added: ‘There are misconceptions around normal private part appearance.
‘This is due to airbrushing, lack of exposure to normal women’s private parts, greater private part visibility due to Brazilian and private part waxing and the general taboo around discussing private parts and private part appearance.’
Ninety-seven Australian women ages 18 to 30 years old were divided into three groups. In the initial stage of the study, one group was shown almost three dozen images of modified female private partia; another group was shown images of unmodified private partia. A third group was not shown any images.
Next, all three groups were shown a mix of images of modified and unmodified private parts and asked to rate them for the degree to which the vulva ‘looks normal’ and ‘represents society’s ideal.’
All three groups rated the images of the ‘designer vaginas’ as more like society’s ideal than those which hadn’t undergone surgery.
Women who had viewed the images of the modified private partia first also rated the modified vulvas as more ‘normal’ than the unmodified private parts.
But women who had seen the photos of unmodified private partia first tended to rate them as normal in the second stage.
The researchers suggest that young women may not realize that normal private partia vary considerably in appearance.
‘The reality is that when it comes to women’s private parts, as with other body parts, diversity is what is normal. The results demonstrate that exposure to one kind of image impacts women’s perceptions of normal,’ Ms Moran added.
Vanessa Schick, co-author of ‘Read My Lips: A Complete Guide to the Vulva and v**ina’, told Reuters Health: ‘It’s important to understand whether women are seeking elective private part surgeries because they want their vulvas to appear “normal” or because they want them to be consistent with an “ideal”.
‘If they want to change their labia color, shape or size because they find them to be abnormal, concerns about potential variation may be addressed by showing women a variety of private part images,’ she added.
‘There a number of books, websites, posters and projects devoted to helping women “normalise” their private part appearance. If women are electing to have surgery in order to match a private part ideal, it may be more difficult to counter those women’s concerns.
Source; Dailymail
