SiA Magazine - Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery Vs. Female Circumcion SiA Special Edition FINAL NEW Cvr | Page 4

White Women’s FGM: FGCS Special
Fuambai Sia Ahmadu
Scholar. Community Leader. Third Wave Feminist. Bondo Activist.
Advocating
for global
equality and
dignity of
All women
and girls
Let’s Be Real:
Western Women Seek
Genital Surgery
By Denise Noe
“All individuals are equal as human beings and by virtue of the inherent dignity of each human person”
fuambaisiaahmadu.com
4 SiA And The Shabaka Stone Winter Special Edition 2017
The United States witnessed a dramatic 49% in-
crease in labiaplasties in 2014 according to the
American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
These are surgeries that reduce the labia minora
by removing part of the tissue of the labia mi-
nora or, in some cases, all of it. Related surger-
ies include much less common labia surgeries to
reduce the labia majora; vaginoplasty, a surgery
that tightens a vagina perceived as overly loose,
often from childbirth or aging; hymenoplasty,
that reconstructs the hymen to simulate virgin-
ity; clitoroplexy, also called clitoral unhooding,
that removes the tissue that covers the clitoral
glans; and, clitoroplasty that typically reduces
the genitals of sexually ambiguous or transgen-
dered individuals or females who have clito-
romegaly, a clitoris that is uncomfortably large
due to a congenital or acquired condition. The
results of labiaplasties and similar surgeries
are popularly referred to as “designer vaginas.”
An article by Tara West in the Inquisitr quotes
plastic surgeon Dr. Jennifer Walden as calling
labiaplasties among the “most popular cosmetic
procedures in women.”
Such surgeries are also becoming increasingly
common in America’s neighbor to the north, Can-
ada. A 2013 policy statement by the Society of Ob-
stetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC)
states, “In recent years we have seen an increase in
female genital cosmetic surgery procedures avail-
able to women.”
Writing in Huffpost Lifestyle United Kingdom,
Brogan Driscoll reports that these surgeries are
“one of Britain’s fastest growing cosmetic sur-
gery procedures.” Driscoll quotes a member of
the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Sur-
geons (BAAPS), Dr. Paul Banwell, as disclosing
in 2013 “that his practice has seen a 300% in-
crease over the past five years” in female genital
cosmetic surgeries. Banwell continues that, as a
result, “Labiaplasty has become my area of inter-
est and expertise.”
An article by Kali Holloway published in Alter-
Net states, “One of the U.S., U.K., and Australia’s
fastest growing plastic surgeries is propagating
the notion that not all vaginas are equal.” Hollo-
way observes that labiaplasty “appeared in medi-
cal literature as early as 1971, but solely as
a corrective measure for congenital abnormali-
ties.” This started “to change in 1984 when the
first description of a purely aesthetic form of la-
biaplasty appeared in a scientific journal.”
Labiaplasties themselves vary with some reduc-
ing the labia minora while others completely re-
move it. Dr. Red Alinsod is known as developer
of the labiaplasty that removes the labia minora
and is popularly referred to as “The Barbie” be-
cause the results remind people of the smooth
crotch of a doll. Dr. Alinsod recalls, “I kept get-
ting patients who wanted almost all of it off.” To
help them achieve their aesthetic genital goals,
he elaborates, “I developed a procedure that
would give them this comfortable, athletic, pe-
tite look – safely.”
Why have labiaplasties and other female genital
cosmetic surgeries enjoyed such a surge in pop-
ularity in recent years?”
Dr. Millicent Odunze, M.D., writes in an ar-
ticle for VeryWell, “Some women have a natu-
ral asymmetry, where one of the labia minora is
longer than the other” and want to even the two
parts out by trimming one.
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