Is Labiaplasty "Empowering?"
Not everything we do with our bodies grants us power.
Last night, I participated in a debate hosted by
and on the “state of our holes.” My topic specifically was whether labiaplasty is empowering — with my opponent being cosmetic gynecologist Dr. Michael Reed, I argued that it’s not. I ended up winning (yay!), and wanted to share the argument I made. We were each given four minutes for an opening argument, two minutes for rebuttals and one minute for closing remarks. My issue is only marginally with labiaplasty itself. Rather, I’m critical of the cultural compulsion to label individual decisions as empowering on a social level. Empowerment needn’t be the only justification we have for pursuing something, particularly with regards to our bodies. It may in fact be disempowering that we’re always encouraged to frame things as such.
By the way, I’m offering a quick discount before I raise prices next week — it’s available at this link.
I am here tonight to debate with someone who has devoted much of their life to labiaplasties, having actually performed countless of them himself, whereas I am just here because I am someone with opinions.
The question is whether labiaplasties are empowering — not whether they are sexually appealing, or necessary, or comfortable, or worth the cost. Do labiaplasties grant us power, authority, or rights?
Particularly on a societal level, I believe the answer is “no.”
Our current culture is obsessed with empowerment. It’s a useful tool for justifying otherwise unnecessary or even harmful behaviors. It’s easy to say, for example, that splurging on new makeup is “empowering,” that it helps us feel good about ourselves and is therefore an act that combats the oppressive forces that have us down. In reality, the only ones who benefit from this line of thinking are the makeup companies themselves. It might be pleasurable, it might be fun, it might even make us feel more sexually appealing, but it does not, in fact, grant us power. It merely grants power back to the ideological forces that compel us to have these desires in the first place.
The same can be said of labiaplasty. I take no issue at all with the individual decision to undergo the procedure, be it a matter of physical discomfort, changes to the body after childbirth, or merely because someone believes it looks better. Your genitals are your own business, as is your sex life.
But to classify it as empowering does have broader social consequences. Asserting that there is a specific type of labia that affords us rights and authority only limits the number of women to whom we perceive to have power — an explicit act of disempowerment.
The number of labiaplasty procedures has risen dramatically over the last decade, though it’s leveled off somewhat in the last year. There was a 36 percent increase in labiaplasties between 2020 and 2021, which was preceded by a 73 percent increase from 2015 to 2020. Just under 11,000 women per year in the United States receive one for cosmetic purposes. Published research shared by the National Library of Medicine reports that appearance is the primary motivating factor, despite the majority of women seeking labiaplasty having labia minora within the range of what is considered medically “normal” by size and appearance. These women cite desiring a “neat” and “tidy” aesthetic. Similar studies have found that 71 percent of women who have undergone labiaplasty had previously received critical comments from a sexual partner regarding their labia.
To that end, I’d argue that there may be several cases in which a labiaplasty is not even empowering on a personal level, but rather is an example of a woman succumbing to the tyranny of culturally dictated perceptions of sexual beauty.
I could spend hours discussing precisely where these perceptions formed, whether from pornography or tight leggings, as the New York Post has claimed. Whatever their origins, there is no world in which a practice which enforces increasingly rigid expectations of our bodies is collectively empowering, regardless of the specific body part in question.
____
Sexual norms, be they from pornography or those represented by shifts in fashion, are an obvious place to look for answers in the labiaplasty problem. We are not otherwise afforded many opportunities to compare labias and assess what we believe looks “best.” I do not wish to treat porn as a monolith or place all blame here. Many porn stars and adult industry experts assert that claims about porn’s influence on labiaplasties are inflated, and there is indeed much porn that celebrates a variety of genital appearances, but it is still worth highlighting how porn functions as the primary place through which these norms are established for many people. Where else are we granted such abundant access to various labias?
It seems further worth establishing that in purely cosmetic labiaplasty procedures, reports of women doing anything to their labias beyond getting parts cut off, slimmed down and tightened are next to none. I can find no reports of women enlarging their labias. This suggests to me again that women are pursuing labiaplasties purely to adhere to a rigidly defined standard.
Our sex lives are often critical to our happiness and wellbeing, and anxieties over our genitals are often an impediment to that. But when it comes to labias, these anxieties are truly only culturally formed. They have no basis in our actual sexual function. Rather than surgically removing the tissue from our labias, it would be far more empowering to embrace our bodies in their natural state.
___
I’d finally like to reiterate my thoughts on our relationship with empowerment. We are allowed to make various decisions about our bodies and our purchases without needing to label them as good for the greater culture. The personal is political, yes, but that does not mean every facet of our lives is dictated accordingly. Even so, I do not believe that labiaplasties are empowering — rather, they seem to me to represent the increasing discomfort we have with the messier parts of our existence, our desire for everything, including our genital flesh, to be neat and tidy. This discomfort has granted us no new authority.
It would be cheaper, less painful, and less dangerous to just get rid of the loser who think your lady parts aren't good enough.
And leave him with a parting shot about dick implants.
It's fascinating, that as a woman with a labia, you would go toe to toe with someone who profits from women wanting labiaplasty.
Curious too that in a world obsessed with size, that a man with a large penis is a cultural ideal, whereas a woman with a large labia is not equally desired. *sigh*
And as a sex educator, might I point out to the class that labias are erogenous tissue. Altering the labia can damage the nerve endings and impact a woman's ability to feel pleasure.