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History of Feminism
Related: About this forumWhat’s in your Vulva?
Teaching women about the most intimate parts of their bodies was a hallmark of the feminist health movement of the 1970s. Our Bodies, Ourselves, published in 1970, signaled the beginning, encouraging women to know what was happening both in the gynecologists office and in the bedroom. It was 1983 when I was reaping the benefits of this up close and personal approach to my own body and the bodies of several other women.
The cervical cap instructional session turned out to be one of the most formative experiences of my life. It taught me several things that I never would have truly believed otherwise. The most important lesson was that everyones body looks different. In this group that I had the privilege to observe, some women had large labia; some had small; some had a visible clitoris; some women had shaved; others hadnt. And all these women had sexual experiences with men apparently, because they all were at this gathering to obtain birth control. Their private partsin fact, their entire bodieswere ALL alright, even desirable to somebody!
The realization that everyones body was different went beyond what their labia looked like. These women were young, old (from my mid-20s perspective), thin, fat, homely, pretty. . . . all kinds of women who didnt want to get pregnant and who were taking matters into their own hands, taking charge of their own sexuality and their own bodies. The entire experience was weird (Im not going to lie), but exhilarating.
Self-health is power!
I am convinced that if more women had the opportunity to see other womens labia and vaginas, we might stem the rising tide of cosmetic vaginal surgeries. Labia reduction and vaginal rejuvenation, as these procedures are broadly called, are the fastest expanding area of cosmetic surgery. In fact, an entire discipline, called cosmeto-gynecology, has evolved to accommodate (and convince) the increasing numbers of women who believe there is something wrong with the way their labia are shaped. Some people are making a lot of money off of womens growing insecurities. How do these women know their labia are not normal, when, most likely, they have no idea of the wide range of what normal actually is? Heterosexual women typically do not have the opportunity to scrutinize other womens genitals.
http://nursingclio.org/2013/05/13/whats-in-your-vulva/
The cervical cap instructional session turned out to be one of the most formative experiences of my life. It taught me several things that I never would have truly believed otherwise. The most important lesson was that everyones body looks different. In this group that I had the privilege to observe, some women had large labia; some had small; some had a visible clitoris; some women had shaved; others hadnt. And all these women had sexual experiences with men apparently, because they all were at this gathering to obtain birth control. Their private partsin fact, their entire bodieswere ALL alright, even desirable to somebody!
The realization that everyones body was different went beyond what their labia looked like. These women were young, old (from my mid-20s perspective), thin, fat, homely, pretty. . . . all kinds of women who didnt want to get pregnant and who were taking matters into their own hands, taking charge of their own sexuality and their own bodies. The entire experience was weird (Im not going to lie), but exhilarating.
Self-health is power!
I am convinced that if more women had the opportunity to see other womens labia and vaginas, we might stem the rising tide of cosmetic vaginal surgeries. Labia reduction and vaginal rejuvenation, as these procedures are broadly called, are the fastest expanding area of cosmetic surgery. In fact, an entire discipline, called cosmeto-gynecology, has evolved to accommodate (and convince) the increasing numbers of women who believe there is something wrong with the way their labia are shaped. Some people are making a lot of money off of womens growing insecurities. How do these women know their labia are not normal, when, most likely, they have no idea of the wide range of what normal actually is? Heterosexual women typically do not have the opportunity to scrutinize other womens genitals.
http://nursingclio.org/2013/05/13/whats-in-your-vulva/
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What’s in your Vulva? (Original Post)
ismnotwasm
May 2013
OP
Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)1. Oh my! The mystery book!
I've always thought of that book as 'the mystery book' because I have no absolutely no idea how it ended up in my grandmother's house.
I grew up with my grandparents. My grandfather was retired by the time I was born and my grandmother wasn't too far behind him.
Somehow a copy of "Our Bodies, Our Selves" ended up on a book shelf in our house in the early 70s.
There is no way either of my grandparents read that book (it looked as it hadn't even been opened when I came across it one day) and I really can't believe that either of them would have bought it. It will always remains a mystery since I never had a chance to ask my grandmother about where the heck it came from before she died many years ago.
I guess I was about 13 at the time and I can remember that every week when she would head out of the house to go play bingo I would grab the book off the shelf and sit on the bathroom floor with the door shut reading every word of it and looking at all the photos and diagrams.
LOL
mopinko
(69,804 posts)3. your grandma put it there for you to do just what you did.
i used a cervical cap for years, and have no idea why they were never legal here. it's a great bc method.
BainsBane
(53,001 posts)2. My mom had a copy of this
That looked almost exactly like the one in the picture, minus the 40 cent mark.
redqueen
(115,096 posts)4. Aw, such cheerful optimism.
Many women who undergo procedures to create designer vaginas, construct their own self-esteem according to what they think men want in a sexual partner. Some show their physicians pictures of women from pornographic magazines to indicate how they want their bodies to look after surgery. Perhaps times have changed, and todays easy access to porn has made men more critical; all the more reason for us to clue them into what real women look like. I can only hope that most men agree with my male informant. When I told him that some women are self-conscious about their vulvas and worried that guys might criticize them, he exclaimed, Are you kidding me? Men are just so happy to be there!"
There are lots of insults which target non-porny women's genitals.
In "Sexy Baby" we see a young woman whose boyfriend has 'lovingly' informed her that her body isn't perfect enough and she goes to the doctor to discuss labiaplasty. Her mother cries as they wait for the doctor.
She smiles and reassures her mother. I'm sure just like all the women undergoing major surgical procedures to look sexier just for themselves, to make themselves feel happier and better about themselves, she is happy for choosing her choice.