Distorted ideas about a normal vagina
Australian researchers found that women are getting increasingly distorted ideas of what their genitalia should look like. In fact, there are so many pictures of these so called 'designer vagina's' that many women think their bodies are abnormal.
The number of labiaplasties 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.
Women who looked at photo's of 'designer vaginas' were more more likely to consider them 'normal' and 'ideal' when later comparing them to unaltered genitalia. 'The rise in this kind of genital cosmetic surgery is a very worrying trend,' the study's lead author, Claire Moran, from the University of Queensland said. "Especially younger women have massive misconceptions about normal vagina's and how they can vary in appearances."
Rate the pictures
The Daily Mail says that 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 genitalia; another group was shown images of unmodified genitalia. A third group was not shown any images.
Next, all three groups were shown a mix of images of modified and unmodified genitals 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.
Brazilian waxing and airbrushing are two of the main reasons why women are becoming unhappy with their appearance. Because of the general taboo around discussing genitals and genital appearance women have no other means to compare their own vagina but with the 'designer vagina pictures in the magazines.
The results of the new study were published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology.
