Daphne Merkin (yes, and we’re hardly the first or second one to give pause at the name) does some (self-)reflective pussy-gazing in last weekend’s New York Times’ Magazine “spread,”  Our Vaginas, Ourselves:

I have seen the future, and it is denuded. Pubic hair is out; the ubiquity of so-called Brazilian waxes, once the domain of porn stars and movie actresses, has ensured that this mossy covering is deemed no more than an aesthetic hindrance to the unfettered male gaze. Which leaves the one part of the female body formerly not available to harsh scrutiny now glaringly on display, held up to culturally defined aesthetic standards undreamed of by the smut-obsessed author of “My Secret Life,” borrowed as they are from centerfolds and online pornography. Sagging groin skin and limp labia are going the way of crooked noses and post-nursing breasts, courtesy of new cosmetic surgeries focused on this once-neglected hinterland of female beauty. As recently noted in an article in The Wall Street Journal, vaginal plastic surgery is one of the field’s fastest growing sectors, and its high priest, one Dr. David Matlock of - where else? - Los Angeles, claims that he has a five-month waiting list for women eager to get that Playboy look.

We demur at the conflation of vagina with vulva (vagina = birth canal; vulva = all the good stuff), but are, and perhaps un-hip-ly so, still giving pause at what seems to be just another bullshit beauty myth.  It’s hard to lay the blame at porn, though, when there’s surgeons pushing “vaginal rejuvenation” over at female genital surgery advocacy sites like the one that the following pitch and accompanying before/after surgery photos are excerpted from:

It’s widely known that men today are experiencing more open awareness of their sexual problems and needs — women are now feeling the same thing. There is a societal evolution currently occurring about how men and women perceive each other in areas of sexual expectation, SPECIFICALLY when it comes to sexual performance and appearance.

Simply stated, women, like men, want to “look good”. This is a perfectly normal self-expectation. Woman today, can usually achieve this prospect through labia reduction surgery, at a reasonable cost.

Now, I’m (back to the singular, time to own up) as vain as the next girl, I’ll admit it.  Probably even more so.  This critique is coming from a woman who would rather masturbate to the image of her own pussy than any other, which is likely why I got into smut in the first place.  However, the pleasure derived from gazing at my pussy is overshadowed a million-fold by the pleasure gained from finding new ways to stroke, tap, rub, pinch, and otherwise girl-handle it.  In other words, why all the fuss about the look if the issue is just as much about the feel? Even with my cyborg fetish, I don’t see myself modifying my “natural” (pierced, shaved at times, lubed at others) goods to make them smaller or less noticeable — I’d likely go in a rather radical direction, and one that most of these docs would likely balk at (subdermals along the lips, or some chrome, or…) I also wonder, what about transwomen who elect to have vaginoplasties and labiaplasties? Do pussy docs promise them, too, “the best little vagina money can buy”? How do the docs select one, and what do they leave out?

Speaking of wet-on cunts, I can’t help but notice how the “Before” photos, all full and showy lips, look much more like the “average” pussy (and I say this from a combined professional and amateur survey) in a state of arousal, rather than the comparatively thin-lipped, surgically snipped “After” images. Hmm…

Should you care for some pussy rejuvenation that won’t require financing, Vulva University’s got online courses in Masturbation, Advanced Orgasm, and Sex Toy 101. MyVag.net links out to galleries of cunts from across the spectrum, the most dizzying (in terms of diversity and design) being Vulvology, and the most renowned being, of course, Betty Dodson with her visitor-submitted galleries. Of course, you can always just do like we (again with the we!) do and bust out the mirror…

Images: LaserVaginalRejuvenationDoc.com, LabiaplastySurgeon.com (note the latter’s utter lack of a 2257 statement.  Not that it’s any less required when you’re “not supposed” to be jacking off to the spread shots within), and me, from my Flickr.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006 at 2:27 am and is filed under Beyond Adult Education, Tight Fitted News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.