A cut too far

Today's Independent on Sunday includes an article by Claudia Pritchard criticising the labiaplasty trend, and highlighting a new form of female cutting - the so-called 'Toronto Trim' - which excises the clitoral hood as well as the labia.

It's good to see criticism of the pressure on women to get their vulvas reduced but the article falls short of the analysis I'd like to see in the media. As with so many articles about male circumcision the author's critique is weakened by the fact that she doesn't seem to have considered what the tissue is or does... It would be easy for a surgeon to counter her position by claiming that labiaplasty is no different from a nose job...

The reality is our genitals are not like our noses. I've got a roman nose but its size and shape does not affect my ability to smell. My labial form gives me huge pleasure, including direct stimulation, indirect clitoral pressure, and of course the vicarious pleasure of watching a man treat them as his toy...or even his lost foreskin.








 

Thank Goodness for Lippy Mothers

My mother is a lippy woman - in both senses - and I would not be writing this today if it hadn't been for her great attitude. So I'd like to say thank you mum, for making me feel pleased with what I've got; especially my hottentot apron.

Surgeons like to tell us that long labia can result from hormonal changes, or physical damage done through childbirth, cycling, or excessive masturbation*. This plants the idea of a disease requiring treatment. Although clearly hormonal changes or stress to the tissue (including manual stretching) can substantially increase labia minora size, I haven't seen any research showing that this is the reason why most lippy girls are lippy. We just are.

When my mother first washed me as a tiny newborn baby she saw prominent lips just like hers. When my sister arrived a few years later she was cuter, blonder; less skinny; but down there just the same.

How lucky to have a mother who isn't worried about being like everyone else! Far from thinking there was something wrong with us and we needed to be reduced, when she changed the nappies of friends' daughters' she considered they were missing something: "....it looked just like a little bottom!".

Thanks mum, and here's your flower for Mothers' Day, from a National Collection of simply beautiful rhododendrons. Lots of love L xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

*No I don't know what excessive masturbation is either. I've often wondered.

The Rise of the Intimate Nip/Tuck

Lippy girl is out there! I have a mention in the August edition of Red, which reveals that labiaplasties on the National Health Service have more than doubled in two years.

The article quotes gynaecologist Dr Deborah Boyle who says, "labia is not just additional skin that's redundant". Hurrah for doctors who know about female anatomy!! 
  
Dr Boyle also comments, "it's sensitive, and some people have orgasms which originate in part from the vulva." Again hurrah, but why is this treated as a medical revelation several million years after we first started enjoying our flappy bits...? 

The article also quotes 'Anna', a woman who has undergone labiaplasty because she 'dreaded' sex;  and who is presented as an example of why labiaplasty is a valid choice. Even Dr Boyle comes down for it in the end, implying she sees some strong women who are determined to amputate, some so much that 'they'd consider doing it to themselves'.

I've got some sympathy for the informed choice argument. But Dr Boyle needs a challenge here, in the light of legislation which states labiaplasty may not be performed without medical reason, notwithstanding a woman's desires - or even her threats of DIY. And also because there have been no public sightings of that creature she mentions: the informed assertive women who chooses labiaplasty as a positive option. Show me the evidence!

Anna I'm sorry to say is not the one. 

She begins, quite petulantly, by stating that labiaplasty is not a female circumcision, 'it's just not'. Wrong. The WHO clearly defines removal of the labia minora as a type IIa female genital mutilation (FGM). This surgery forms 8% of FGM in Egypt, where cutting has been dominated by medics since the 1990s or earlier. When finally in 2007 the Egyptian government closed the medical loophole, they banned any "cut of, flattening or modification of any natural part of the female reproductive system". Clearly labiaplasty was in their sights...

Anna's follow up rings equally hollow as a demonstration of knowledge and empowerment. She says that labia are, 'just excess skin that's unsightly'. The first point is not correct, and the second is a scattergun insult. Neither ignorance nor aggression are generally considered hallmarks of empowerment. 

As regards Dr Boyle's position, it should be said that the UK FGM Act 2003 is clear that many women buy into cutting practices (in all their multifarious forms) - Clause 2 explicitly rules out the threat of DIY cutting as a doctor's defence. The Act protects, "any part of .... labia majora, labia minora or clitoris".

However a loophole has been built into our FGM law. It denies women the right to present a belief in 'custom or ritual' as a reason for tissue excision, but fails to legislate against the equally crazy/misogynistic/unscientific Caucasian view that women should just be a neat little hole.... 

As such it seems to have been designed to protect the Western (and mainly white run) labiaplasty industry, rather than female empowerment per se.

The distinctions in the act raise an interesting challenge for doctors. Imagine that the next patient who visits Dr Boyle to demand labial excision is an educated professional of Egyptian origin, and a member of a family in which each generation has undergone automatic excision to be (as she sees it) beautifully smooth, clean and feminine.
 

Where then for autonomy? 

This is a blog about lips and about life. It's about how great our bodies are and how important it is to celebrate them, love them, have fun with them.

I want to persuade you - and I hope most of you won't need much persuading - that the labia minora are as beautiful as the petals of a flower - and even more functional.

As for so called 'normality' - there is no normal flower shape or size: I may be a rhodedendron, you a rose, and your best friend a forget-me-not ... we are all beautiful.

I don't want this site to attract porn bunnies, and my guiding principle is that it should be somewhere you might encourage a young daughter to look, if she needs knowledge or reassurance about sex and sexual bits. So while I am going to encourage people to submit images, I'm asking for tasteful/abstract images. Flowers are good, line drawings might be ok, possibly I might accept an arty shot of you with a bow tied on yours ...or a wedding ring.

The theme is celebrate!

And here are 10 of the reasons why I've chosen to blog about women's bits:

1. Because I measure 5 cm (2 inches) at full stretch but I don't feel abnormal - I feel great

2. Because I rode horses and bikes lots as a child and never found it painful or uncomfortable

3. Because I had glorious sex for 20 years before realising anyone had an issue with labia

4. Because I learned that people have an issue with labia from a TV programme

5. Because after that programme I found myself apologising before taking my knickers off

6. Because no woman should ever apologise before taking her knickers off

7. Because men love looking at and playing with labia, perhaps as much as any other part of your body*

8. Because my mother is lippy and her mother was and probably her grandmother and her grandmother's grandmother too

9. Because having this part as a white family links us to our African ancestors, and current day Khoisan sisters

10. Because less isn't always more - in sex more can be more!

And so more of this tomorrow. While I want to make this blog generally positive I do also want to strike back at those who promote and profit from type IIa female circumcision - aka labiaplasty. I'll be asking you to help me by writing complaint letters to medical regulators about plastic surgeons who peddle myths about female genital cutting (and sometimes male).

Thanks for reading!

*The man I apologised to thought I was mad, said I'd answered his prayers by being so large and showed me the pictures he had on his iphone to prove it!