Kristie Mercer Looking at pictures of her vulva with her best friend and a plastic surgeon.
THOUSANDS of women in Australia every year are cutting into their vulvas to achieve a more “normal” look. And if I’m really honest, for a microsecond, I’ve considered doing it too.
So I decided to bare all to a labiaplasty expert, to get my vagina assessed and find out more about the procedure.
Labiaplasty is the removal of excess skin off the labia, which are the bits on either sides of the vagina, to achieve a neater, more “tucked in” look. In 2013, 1500 labiaplasties were performed in Australia — a number that’s tripled in the past decade.
I know what you’re thinking … WHY?! Surely it’s painful? Yep. Surely it could go wrong? Potentially. Surely it’s expensive? You betcha!
Aside from a very slim percentage of women who experience chafing or physical pain from a protruding labia, for the most part the reason women do it is due to a fear of abnormality.
As someone who’s stressed for over a decade that my lady bits don’t stack up to the accepted standard, I know the immense anxiety around normality when it comes to our bodies.
But what defines ‘normal’ when it comes to a vulva? For the most part, people have never actually seen this part of a woman up close, so the masses have little to no idea.
I certainly don’t ... and I have one!
You’d think the best place for a close up of what’s “normal” would be pornography right? Wrong. Because of Australia’s Classification Guidelines that state “realistic depictions may contain discreet genital detail but there should be no genital emphasis”.
Only ONE type of vulva is ever shown — the kind with a single crease that resembles a prepubescent girl (saaaa discreet.) What is this actually teaching us? And how will we ever understand that a vulva is as varying and unique as a snowflake if we’re constantly projected a single type to compare against? The bottom line is we won’t. We can’t.
According to plastic surgeon Dr Jack Zoumaras who performs labiaplasties regularly and joined us on The Thinkergirls show, the most common reason women contemplate the procedure starts with either “seeing something on the internet” or perhaps a boyfriend asking them “why don’t you have a vagina that looks like the one on the porn site?”
While a patient’s mental and emotional state is always taken into account, the bottom line is the majority are ashamed of their labias looking the way labias are supposed to look.
To get a deeper understanding of the procedure itself and why it’s becoming increasingly popular, we (The Thinkergirls) sat before a labiaplasty expert for an in-depth consultation, just like thousands of women before us have done and sadly thousands more will follow.
After a vagina photoshoot (legit) where a close-up photo of my labia was assessed (and yes Stace took a squiz #Besties) Dr Zoumaras explained, “there is no such thing as a normal looking vagina”.
Dr Zoumaras getting up close and personal with Kristie. Picture: The ThinkergirlsSource:Supplied
While this allowed me a sigh of relief, it also really saddened me. All this time, society has sold us a picture-perfect downstairs to compare ourselves to, but it’s all lie. As Dr. Zoumaras pointed out “the tucked-in look (often referred to as an inny) is actually the minority of how female genitals are shaped.”
While every woman should feel empowered to make decisions about her own body — and for some that may be deciding to get labiaplasty — it’s a huge concern to consider how much society has influenced so many of those calls.
Straight after the consult, I felt incredibly protective and of my own labia and apologised to her profusely. Quite frankly, I’m confronted that I’ve ever been embarrassed about the thing that defines me as a woman.
The Thinkergirls Kristie Mercer (left) and Stacey June.Source:Supplied
Kristie Mercer is one half of The Thinkergirls — who chat all the thoughts you’re thinking but not saying weeknights on the KIIS network. Find the girls videos or podcasts on facebook or www.thethinkergirls.com.au
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