Cosmetic surgery, body image and sexuality

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Notes

1 Wolf N. The Beauty Myth: How images of beauty are used against women. London: Vintage; 1991.

2 Phillips A. No joke. Review of Impotence: A Cultural History, by Angus McLaren. London Review of Books 2007;29(7 July):24.

3 Some of these forms of surgery may not be new at all. Juliet Richters, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia, recently wrote to me: “I have a gynaecology textbook from the early 20th century by EH Kisch entitled The Sexual Life of Woman in its Physiological, Pathological and Hygienic Aspects (London: Rebman Ltd, 1910), which discusses the forms of the hymen over several pages, with engravings. This is partly, the author says, because knowledge of ‘signs of virginity in the female’ are required ‘not only for the purposes of medical jurisprudence...’” She wondered if there was an industry of virginity diagnosis and restoration in the early days of gynaecology as well.

4 It would be good if someone could explain what the actual surgical procedure is for so-called vaginal tightening/hymen repair. All I have managed to get from people so far is that some stitches are inserted.

5 I find the use of the phrase “women who have been cut”, used by those who favour the term female genital cutting, particularly unpleasant, and although “women who have been mutilated” would be even worse, at least no one uses it. The international community needs to reach consensus on this language instead of introducing terms, and then forcing people to use strings of acronyms to avoid spelling them all out.

6 Equality Now calls on the American Academy of Pediatrics to retract a portion of their policy statement endorsing Type (IV) female genital mutilation of female minors. 26 April 2010. At: <http://equalitynow.org/english/takeaction/newsalert/urgentalert_us_20100429_en.html>.

7 Vardi Y, Har-Shai Y, Gil T, et al. A critical analysis of penile enhancement procedures for patients with normal penile size: surgical techniques, success, and complications. European Urology 2008;54(5):1042-50. [Abstract]

8 Fitzpatrick L. Plastic surgery below the belt. Time. 19 November 2008.

9 Lih Mei Liao, Creighton SM. Requests for cosmetic genitoplasty: how should healthcare providers respond? BMJ 2007;334(26 May):1090-92.

10 Edmonds A. Learning to love yourself: esthetics, health, and therapeutics in Brazilian plastic surgery. Ethnos 2009;74(4)465—89.