Female genital modification: Untangling visual attractiveness of female genitalia from an Afrocentric perspective of male sexual partners

Abstract

Genital modification in the form of labia minora elongation is a common practice in Sub Saharan Africa. The practice happens at the onset of puberty or at a request from a sexual partner. The practice is done for both functional and cosmetic purposes. It is the visual attractiveness of the later purpose that this study seeks to evaluate. The study sought to determine the levels of visual attractiveness of female genitalia based on the assessment of sexual partners. Eight hundred and thirty men were surveyed in the city of Harare, Zimbabwe. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with age, marital status, and multiplicity of previous sexual partners as covariates was used to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that elongated labia minora were more visually attractive than natural one. The genitalia attractiveness was moderated by pubic hair depilation. The attractiveness of elongated labia minora was higher under shaved conditions than under bushy conditions. The implications of these results in the African context are that perhaps social campaigns meant to dissuade women from practicing labia elongation under the guise of calling it female genital mutilation may not be heeded to since most men were noted to be attracted to women who had undergone elongated labia minora, and so women find the practice to be of cosmetic nature that enhances their sexual appeal. Moreover, the sexual appeal of women was found to be high when their pubic patch was shaved; thus, women are encouraged to regularly practice pubic hair depilation.

Keywords:

• Genital modification
• genital mutilation
• labia minora elongation

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

The purpose of the study was to establish how African men find the attractiveness of female genitals after stretching the inner lips of female external genitalia. A survey of 830 men in Zimbabwe was done. Results revealed that men found stretched inner lips to be more attractive than natural female genitals. The attractiveness was more enhanced when women shaved their genitals to remove pubic hair. This practice has been disapproved by the World Health Organization as genital mutilation, but we recommend that this view be revoked to allow Africans and other cultures that practice it to go for official medical surgeries done by qualified medical practitioners and also get modern medication to stretch their genitals as they wish in a safe way since they will be more attractive to their sexual partners.

1. Introduction

The prevalence of female genital modification has been noted in more than 30 countries in Africa as well as in Asia and the Middle East, of which girls and women in excess of 200 million are involved in some form of genital elongation or mutilation (World Health Organization, 2018). Women, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, have taken their quest to attain sexual attractiveness to labia minora elongation (Perez et al., 2014). This practice is common in most countries such as Mozambique (Bagnol & Mariano, 2012), Rwanda (Koster & Price, 2008), Democratic Republic of Congo (Gallo et al., 2010), Uganda (Martínez Pérez et al., 2013), and Zimbabwe (Venganai, 2018). In Zimbabwe, at one time in history, this practice was a must for every girl as a rite of passage to womanhood (Venganai, 2018). Although the practice is rampant in most rural areas, cosmopolitan women are increasingly finding the practice to be less appealing and the World Health Organization (WHO) through its various platforms is decampaigning the practice through labeling it as genital mutilation (World Health Organization, 2018). The WHO also discourages health practitioners from medicalization of the so-called “female genital mutilation”.

The WHO bases its advice to discourage female genital elongation or mutilation on biological side effects of the process (World Health Organization, 2018). However, the aesthetic appeal to African men of women who have undergone female genital elongation as a form of physical attractiveness was not considered. Physical attractiveness is the extent to which one’s physical traits are aesthetically pleasing. Physically attractive people easily interact with people of different persuasions (Ward, 2017), and they can easily get assistance when in need. Moreover, people spontaneously judge strangers on the basis of facial attractiveness and are willing to reveal their personal information to physically attractive strangers (Jaeger et al., 2022). Similarly, people tend to prefer to share a seat with attractive people when using public transport (Houston & Bull, 1994). In the job market, physically attractive candidates have a greater chance of getting employed (Marlowe et al., 1986). Moreover, in the job market, physically attractive people earn more, and have a higher chance of getting promoted (Pan, 2021). In the justice system, physically attractive people are likely to be acquitted or to get off with a lighter sentence (DeSantis & Kayson, 1997). When it comes to sex-related crimes, courts have often found the physically unattractive defendants to be more dangerous than their attractive counterparts (Esses & Webster, 1988).

While physical attractiveness can be viewed as a subjective construct, there are common traits that elicit objective assessment of physical attractiveness. These physical attractiveness attributes include a high degree of symmetrical face (Feng, 2002; Fink & Penton-Voak, 2002), and smoothness of the skin (D. Buss, 2003). However, sexual dimorphism creates certain gender-specific determinants of physical attractiveness. Research reveals that both males and females pay more attention to female attractiveness (Fisher & Voracek, 2006). This could be based on the fact that women have maternity certainty, while males have paternity uncertainty (D. M. Buss & Schmitt, 1993). The ideals of female attractiveness vary across cultures. Western ideals of beauty refer to what is commonly known as the “Barbie look” which include a waist-to-hip ratio of approximately 0.7 (Fisher & Voracek, 2006), symmetrical, large, and firm breasts (Buss & Haselton, 2005; Sugiyama, 2004), full lips, large and clear eyes (D. Buss, 2003), youthfulness (D. Buss, 2003), high forehead (Feng, 2002), long legs (Sorokowskia & Pawlowskib, 2008), long hair (D. Buss, 2003), and light complexion (Baumann, 2008). In Africa, ideal traits for physical attractiveness include being chubby, voluptuous, curvaceous, and having wobbly buttocks (D. Buss, 2003; Pradeilles et al., 2021). Men have always been evaluating the attractiveness of women through assessing various anatomical traits (D. Buss, 2003). This has prompted many women to seek various ways of modifying their bodies through cosmetic surgical and non-surgical methods, such as breast and hip enlargement and wearing hip and breast enhancement clothes, respectively (Esho, 2015). However, there are some parts of external female genitalia that men have not been privy to evaluating, except during intimate times when their sexual partners remove their clothes (DeMaria et al., 2020).

What is missing in the extant literature is how men, who encounter and utilize labia elongation of women in sexual encounters, find the outcomes of this practice, in terms of whether it is visually attractive or not. Therefore, this study seeks to determine whether men find labia elongation to enhance the visual attractiveness of their sexual partners’ genitalia and how it interacts with female genital depilation. The rest of the study is organized as follows: literature review immediately after this introduction, the methodology adopted in testing the hypotheses in this study, the results and the related discussion, as well as the social implications of this study.

2. Literature review

Visible female external genitalia is usually represented by the pubic patch and the vulva as made up of the labia majora and minora. For cosmetic purposes, females indulge in genital modification (Gunes & Alinsod, 2018) such as labiaplasty. The western female beauty ideals indicate that the female external genitalia are characterized by the labia minora being smaller than the labia majora (Gunes & Alinsod, 2018). However, ideals in sub-Saharan Africa seem to point to labia elongation as a form of attaining aesthetically attractive genitalia (Venganai, 2018).

2.1. Genital modification

There are several methods of genital modification in the extant literature such as hymenoplasty, labiaplasty, vaginoplasy, clitoral hoodectomy, perineoplasty, hymenorrhaphy, vulvar lipoplasty, and labia minora elongation aimed at improving the appearance of the female external genitalia (Gunes & Alinsod, 2018). In Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular, labia minora elongation is the most common form of genital modification (Perez et al., 2014). While modern trends view labia elongation as a retrogressive practice that involves female genital mutilation (Venganai, 2018), there are some practices in the developed world that fit in the same bracket of female genital modifications such as the ones already mentioned above (Gunes & Alinsod, 2018; Koster & Price, 2008). Labia minora elongation is the practice of manually stretching or pulling the labia minora to the size of almost a finger (Venganai, 2018) which normally starts at the puberty stage (Ross et al., 2016). The origin of labia minora elongation is not known and is not documented in the extant literature (Koster & Price, 2008); however, what is known is that the practice has been passed from one tribe to another and from one generation to another (Perez et al., 2015). Labia minora elongation is a decidedly homosocial practice involving women sharing ideas, lessons, and assisting each other to achieve the expected levels (Venganai, 2018).

The female elders in a community are the ones who are tasked with the duties of promoting the practice through elaborating the supposed benefits (Mwenda, 2006; Venganai, 2018) which are of both functional and cosmetic nature (Perez et al., 2014, 2015). Functionally, the practice elicits homoerotic and autoerotic pleasure in women (Mupotsa, 2020). Some females practice labia elongation at the request of their sexual partners (Venganai, 2018) whose intentions are to enhance their sexual pleasure (Perez et al., 2014). This contrasts with the practice in most parts of the world where women desire smaller labia to the extent that surgical operations are done to reconstruct the genitalia (Koster & Price, 2008).

However, a search in the literature indicated that there is no study that has assessed the extent to which male sexual partners visually appreciate elongated labia. Most studies have been concentrated on how labia elongation enhances sexual intercourse satisfaction (e.g. Venganai, 2018). Culturally, males in countries that practice labia minora elongation are expected to find female genitalia to be more visible (Venganai, 2018), but as women grow in age or become multiparous, they tend to be voluptuous leading to obscuring of the visibility of their external genitalia. The external genitalia of the females will only become visible when the females elongate their genitalia, hence the suggestion that perhaps women elongate their genitalia in order to make them more visible during intimate occasions. It is therefore suggested that males find elongated labia to be more attractive because it is more visible than the natural labia. Thus, the prediction is that;

H1:

Elongated labia minora are visually more attractive than the natural labia minora.

2.2. Genital depilation

Genital depilation, which is a normative practice across various cultural contexts (Toerien et al., 2005), is the deliberate removal of hair around the genitals, which is known as pubic hair (Rouzi et al., 2018). Pubic hair is the course hair that grows around the pubic patch (Gaither et al., 2017; Smelik, 2005) at the puberty stage (DeMaria et al., 2020; Jolly, 2017; Rowen et al., 2016). The pubic patch is an area above the external genital organs just below the lower part of the abdomen. Pubic hair serves the biological purpose of reducing friction with the pants and friction during sexual intercourse (). Furthermore, anecdotal evidence has it that rural women, who use pubic bathing places along the rivers, maintain pubic hair in order to cover their genitalia from the young boys who are peeping toms. Pubic hair is also believed to keep the genitals warm so as to increase satisfaction during sexual intercourse (Caron, 2022).

The reasons for depilating differ among women. Most women regularly depilate for health reasons (Butler et al., 2014) such as preventing pubic hair from being a habitat for pubic lice that can be transmitted during sexual intercourse (Smelik, 2005). Moreover, the removal of pubic hair gives women a youthful look that makes them more attractive to their sexual partners (DeMaria et al., 2020; Enzlin et al., 2019). Keeping up with the prevailing trends as portrayed in the media constitutes another motivation for pubic hair depilation (Howarth et al., 2016; Stone et al., 2017). Furthermore, pubic hair removal is also a common pre-labour perineal practice that is done to protect the child from any harm that may be caused by the friction with the pubic hair during labour (Jolly, 2017). Women have a wide array of methods of pubic hair depilation that include but not limited to trimming, tweezing, electrolysis, razor shaving, waxing, and the depilatory creams (DeMaria et al., 2020; Hodges & Holland, 2017). However, the removal of pubic hair is associated with some problems (Gaither et al., 2017) such as vulvovaginal irritation, itchiness, rashes, burns due to chemical removers, and small cuts from sharp razor blades and scissors (Rouzi et al., 2018), swelling, follictus, and bacterial infections.

It was suggested that sexual attractiveness of sexual partners depends on what is visible (Conroy-Beam & Buss, 2019). The genitalia of women is often obscured when women have a bushy pubic patch (Smelik, 2005). It is therefore anticipated that men will find the genitalia of women to be visually attractive when the pubic patch is shaved since the external genitalia would be more visible. The attractiveness of elongated labia is only visible when the pubic patch is shaved, although some labia protrude beyond the bushy pubic patch. It happens that labia minora elongation starts at the puberty stage when the puberty stage when pubic hair starts to grow. Both labia minora elongation and pubic depilation simultaneously get practiced at that age in order to enhance the erotic capital of the women. Therefore, the visibility of labia is clearer when the labia minora is elongated and the pubic patch in shaved. It is therefore anticipated that;

H2:

The attractiveness of the female elongated genitalia is higher under the pubic hair depilation conditions than under the natural conditions.

3. Methodology

3.1. Population and sampling

The target population in this study was men who had, at the time of this study, had sexual partners, and were residents in the city of Harare. Harare is a cosmopolitan city whose residents are less conservative. Furthermore, the target respondents were adults since sexual intercourse is an act for legally permissible to adults.

3.2. Data collection instrument

A single-item attractiveness scale anchored between 1 and 7 was used. The scale was adapted from Kujawa and Strzałko (1998) and modified to improve its sensitivity through increasing the response options. Physical attractiveness was therefore measured on a scale that ranged from: Very unattractive = 1, Unattractive = 2, Slightly attractive = 3, Moderately attractive = 4, Fairly attractive = 5, Attractive = 6, Very attractive = 7. Single-item scales are reliable where the sample size is large and the scale is very sensitive (Kaiser et al., 2012). In this study, the sample size of 850 is large enough, and being a 7-point option scale is also sensitive. Single-item scales are a viable method of data collection when the respondents are likely not going to cooperate with the study (Verster et al., 2021). For instance, studies related to sexual preferences risk non-compliance, especially if the questions asked are many. Therefore, the use of single-item scales made the subjects to participate and quickly move on with their chores without feeling exceedingly embarrassed or detained. It is under these special circumstances that single-item scales are used (Kaiser et al., 2012).

The relationship between two variables that is meant to take a causal nature is usually affected by confounding variables. In order to attain internal validity, some covariates were included in the data collection instrument, and these are age, marital status, and multiplicity of previous sexual partners. The covariates were chosen on the basis of their empirically proven relationship with the dependent variable in the extant literature.

3.3. Data collection procedures

Data were collected on the weekend in the summer. On the weekends, most men are not busy, hence they could spare some time to respond to the survey questions. Summer was chosen since most people spent most of their time outdoors when the weather is warm. Lone men were targeted in order to avoid confounding effects. Most of the respondents were contacted in public parks and beer halls. In public parks, men are free to talk about sexual matters because there are striking distances from the next person. Beer drinkers found in beer halls are generally sociable and open to discuss most of the issues that are ordinarily deemed to be of a privacy nature. The respondents had their anonymity preserved by not asking for their personal details. The responses provided were deemed to be true since the respondents voluntarily participated in the study.

4. Results

4.1. Description of respondents

The demographics recorded in this study relate to the respondents and the attributes of the subjects of the study as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics

Labia	Pubic area	Mean	Std. Deviation	N
Natural	Bushy	4.51	1.342	194
	Shaved	4.35	1.349	197
	Total	4.43	1.347	391
Elongated	Bushy	4.65	1.450	213
	Shaved	5.07	1.485	236
	Total	4.87	1.482	449
Total	Natural	4.58	1.399	407
	Shaved	4.74	1.467	433
	Total	4.67	1.436	840

Dependent Variable: Satisfaction with visual appearance of genitalia

The respondents who had partners with elongated labia were 30% and those with natural labia were 70%. The respondents whose partners practiced pubic hair depilation were 40% and those that maintained natural pubic hair were 60%.

4.2. Reliability

Reliability of the attractiveness measurement scale was assessed using the test–retest method, which is also known as the stability reliability. The test–retest reliability was assessed using a small sample of 40 respondents in a pilot study. The interval between the pilot study and the main study was 2 weeks in line with previous studies (e.g. Schaefer & Thompson, 2018). The reliability assessment results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Intra-class correlation coefficient

	Intra-class Correlation	95% Confidence Interval		F Test with True Value 0
		Lower Bound	Upper Bound	Value	df1	df2	Sig
Average Measures	.847^c	.711	.919	6.423	39	39	.000

Two-way mixed effects model where people effects are random and measures effects are fixed.

a. The estimator is the same, whether the interaction effect is present or not.

b. Type A intra-class correlation coefficients using an absolute agreement definition.

The results show an intra-class coefficient of .847 which indicates that the attractiveness measurement scale is stable over time. Having satisfied the reliability requirement, hypotheses testing were then done.

4.3. Hypotheses testing

A two-way analysis of covariance was run to examine whether satisfaction with a female sexual partners’ genitalia differed between males with partners who have natural labia and those with elongated labia, between those with public hair and those shaved, while controlling for age, marital status, and multiplicity of previous sexual partners. The study also sought to determine the interaction effect between genial modification and pubic hair depilation. Preliminary checks were completed to assess the assumptions of linearity, normality, and homogeneity of variance. The results indicated that the relationship between the levels of satisfaction with a partner’s genitalia and age, marital status, and multiplicity of partners was linear in all the categories of the independent variables. Shapiro-Wilk tests indicated that the satisfaction scores were approximately normally distributed in the natural labia group, the elongated group, and the bushy pubic patch group. The distribution of the shaved group, although not normal, was not very far from normality. Therefore, no steps were taken to address this since ANCOVA is robust to modest violations (Pallant, 2011).

The Levene’s test of equality indicated that the assumption of homogeneity of variance was not violated, F (3, 836) = 1.841, p = 1.38, as shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Levene’s test of equality of error variances

F	df1	df2	Sig.
1.841	3	836	.138

Dependent Variable: Satisfaction with visual appearance of genitalia

Tests the null hypothesis that the error variance of the dependent variable is equal across groups.

a. Design: Intercept + Age + Marital status + Multiplicity of sexual partners + Labia + Pubic patch + Labia * Pubic patch

An analysis of the covariates (see Table 4) revealed that age was not significantly related to satisfaction with a female sexual partners’ genitalia, B = .003, t = .779, p = .424. Marital status was also not significantly related to satisfaction with a female sexual partners’ genitalia, B = .076, t = .728, p = .467. However, the multiplicity of previous sexual partners was significantly related to satisfaction with female sexual partners’ genitalia, B = −.115, t = −4.394, p < .001.

Table 4. Parameter estimates

Parameter	B	Std. Error	T	Sig.	95% Confidence Interval		Partial Eta Squared	Noncent. Parameter	Observed Power
					Lower Bound	Upper Bound
Age	.003	.004	.799	.424	−.005	.011	.001	.799	.126
Marital status	.076	.105	.728	.467	−.129	.282	.001	.728	.112
Multiplicity of sexual partners	−.115	.026	−4.394	.000	−.167	−.064	.023	4.394	.992

Dependent variable: Satisfaction with visual appearance of genitalia

a. This parameter is set to zero because it is redundant.

b. Computed using alpha = .05

As shown in Table 5, after controlling for age, marital status, and multiplicity of previous sexual partners, there was a significant effect of labia modification status, F (1, 843) = 14.412, p < .001, partial η² =.017, observed power = .967. Estimated marginal means were not similar in the natural labia group (M = 4.45, SE = .073) and the elongated labia group (M = 4.84, SE = .067). After controlling for age, marital status, and previous multiplicity of sexual partners, there was no significant effect of pubic patch, F (1, 843) = 1.163, p = .281, partial η² =.001, observed power = .190. Estimated marginal means were almost similar in the bushy pubic hair category (M = 4.593, SE = .071), and the shaved pubic hair category (M = 4.701, SE = .068). The interaction effect was significant, F (1, 843) = 9.501, p = .002, partial η² =.011, observed power = .868, indicating that labia minora elongation effect was greater in the shaved condition of the pubic patch than in the bushy pubic patch condition.

Table 5. Tests of between-subjects effects

Source	Df	F	Sig.	Partial Eta Squared	Noncent. Parameter	Observed Power
Labia status	1	14.412	.000	.017	14.412	.967
Pubic patch	1	1.163	.281	.001	1.163	.190
Labia * Pubic patch	1	9.501	.002	.011	9.501	.868
Error	833
Total	840
Corrected Total	839

Dependent Variable: Satisfaction with visual appearance of genitalia

a. R Squared = .060 (Adjusted R Squared = .053)

b. Computed using alpha = .05

5. Discussion

Female genital cosmetic surgeries have become a common practice across cultures (Boddy, 2016). While much publicized western culture has taken to labiaplasty and vaginoplasty as their most preferred forms of genital cosmetic surgeries (DeMaria et al., 2014), in Africa south of the Sahara, labia minora elongation is the most common (Venganai, 2018). There is a body of the literature arguing that labia minora elongation should not be classified as genital mutilation as the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests, but rather it is a form of genital cosmetic procedure that can be equated to labiaplasty, and vaginoplasty practiced in the developed world (e.g. Venganai, 2018). To move forward, we recommend that the WHO must reconsider their myopic and etic western view on labia minora elongation and acknowledge its prevalence and acceptance from an emic African context. Medical practitioners must be allowed to conduct labia minora elongation surgery to reduce pain, swelling, and lacerations caused by manually pulling girls’ and women’s vaginal lips. Moreover, some indigenous herbs used may have side effects since they are not clinically tested before use.

In this study, the researchers sought to determine how visually attractive is the elongated labia as appraised by the male sexual partners. The results revealed that satisfaction with the appearance of the sexual partner’s genitalia is not a function of the male sexual partner’s age. As the property of the cognitive system, the assessment of physical attractiveness does not vary with age (Kujawa & Strzałko, 1998). This implies that the preferences of men do not vary as they age (Perusse, 1994). This is in support of previous research that revealed that men are consistent in terms of their sexual preferences throughout their life (e.g. Conroy-Beam & Buss, 2019; Diamond, 2016; Zebulon et al., 2000).

The results revealed that as males’ number of lifetime sexual partners increases, their levels of satisfaction with their current partners’ female sexual partners’ genitalia decrease. It seems males tend to compare their current partners with their previous sexual partners (Miner & Shackelford, 2010) leading to reduced levels of satisfaction with the visual appearances of their current sexual partners’ genitalia. This could be explained using the laws of diminishing returns. As the exposure to a phenomenon increases, its appeal tends to diminish. Thus, it seems men who had a higher number of lifetime sexual partners are motivated by having new prey as a way of increasing their visual satisfaction as well as other types of satisfaction attained in a romantic relationship.

The results revealed that men with sexual partners who have elongated labia were more satisfied with the genitalia appearance of their sexual partners than those without elongated labia. Usually, the genitalia of women is hidden between their thighs, especially if they are a bit voluptuous. This probably explains why labia elongation is more appreciated with their male counterparts who would be able to see their partners’ genitalia (Smelik, 2005; Venganai, 2018). The visibility of the labia minora becomes more pronounced when the women assume a prepubescent form through pubic hair depilation (Schick et al., 2011). It seems that the long-held preference for elongated labia minora persists through generations of men (Venganai, 2018). These findings provided further empirical evidence in support of labia elongation. However, these findings reveal the challenges that the proponents of the elimination of genital modifications in the form of labia minora elongation face. As long as women find their sexual partners to be satisfied with the elongated labia, this practice is likely to persist (Koster & Price, 2008; Perez et al., 2014). Women seem to do anything possible to modify their bodies in order to increase their sexual appeal (Venganai, 2018). We therefore submit that perceiving labia minora elongation as a genital mutilation practice, while considering labiaplasty as cosmetic surgery, is a bit myopic and ethnocentric. Labia miniora elongation from an Afrocentric perspective must be appreciated with the same measure as labiaplasty is appreciated in the western culture.

The attractiveness of the pubic patch did not differ significantly among male sexual partners. This may be a result of the fact that a bushy pubic patch has the natural beauty. Moreover, pubic hair keeps the vagina warm thereby increasing sexual satisfaction. Moreover, the ungroomed pubic hair increases the invisibility of the female genitalia thereby preventing it from being analysed in communal bathrooms that are common in Africa, since males generally would not be pleased with other people viewing their sexual partners’ genitalia (Butler et al., 2014). The shaved pubic patch is equally appealing since it makes the labia more visible. Moreover, the preference by males for female pubic depilation might be motivated by the fact that pubic hair might block the entrance of a penis to the vagina (Fahs, 2014), leading to male sexual partners missing the entrance. This is particularly common among sexually inexperienced males who may not fully comprehend the geography of female genitalia. Most of the times, inexperienced sexual partners try to penetrate through the upper angle of the vulva, which has no opening causing some bruises on the penis and severe discomfort during and after sex. Other reasons why males find women with pubic hair depilation to be attractive may be a function of access to pornographic material that is now easily available on the internet and is shared easily via social media. Most actors in blue movies have clean shaved pubic patches to enhance the visibility of the genitalia during sexual acts (Smelik, 2005). Furthermore, the interaction between labia and pubic patch was very significant. This implied that the attractiveness of the elongated labia is stronger under the conditions of a shaved pubic patch. This is most likely due to the visibility of the elongated labia when the pubic patch is shaved. A bushy pubic patch as has already been explained tends to obscure the labia (Fahs, 2014) such that when it is natural or elongated the sexual partner may not see anything.

The desire for labia elongation in Southern Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular is surprising considering that in most developed nations there is a desire for prepubescent aesthetics which is normally achieved through labiaplasty (Perez et al., 2015). The untempered with labia minora of young females is generally fuller, symmetrical, has smooth contours, and a more petite appearance (Gunes & Alinsod, 2018; Magon & Alinsod, 2016). It becomes surprising why these young women would be encouraged to tamper with their labia through elongating it, considering that there are some of the risks associated with that practice such as walking discomfort since the stretched labia causes friction between the thick thighs that are characteristic of most African women (Venganai, 2018). This causes most women in societies that practice labia elongation to hardly appreciate modern trends in dressing such as putting on less bulky lingerie like thongs and G-strings. A thong is a type of female underwear that is made of a larger front covering the entire pubic patch, with a smaller back in a triangle format that is connected by a band. A thong tends to squeeze in between the flaps of the protruding labia, causing severe discomfort to women with elongated labia. Thus, women with protruding labia are confined to less attractive high-cut pants for the sake of mobility comfort.

6. Conclusions and implications

The study concluded that labia minora elongation, a social cultural practice which women in sub-Saharan Africa practice freely for cosmetic purposes, increases women’s erotic capital. Sexual partners seemed to find elongated labia minora to be very attractive. Men are aroused by seeing, and therefore, if the labia minora is not elongated, sexual partners may not have anything to see in order to get aroused. The need for labia minora elongation stems from the fact that as African women reach ripe age for sex, they tend to become chubby. Voluptuousness tends to obscure the visibility of their external genitalia. This challenge is worsened by the ungroomed pubic patch. Therefore, elongating the labia minora and practicing genital depilation makes the external genitalia more visible and hence the potential to become attractive to male sexual partners. Thus, women should uphold the practice of labia elongation alongside genital depilation as the ways of increasing the attractiveness of their genitalia through increased visibility and enhanced pre-pubescence appearance.

The results of this study have gotten both social and commercial implications. Social implications are that women who practice labia elongation should not be discouraged from this practice since it cannot be equated to female genital mutilation. Labia minora elongation is a cosmetic procedure that is meant to increase women’s erotic capital as evidenced by the male sexual partners appreciating the attractiveness of their female partners with modified genitalia when it has elongated labia minora accompanied by well-groomed pubic patch. Labia minora elongation may be equated to other genital cosmetic practices done in other parts of the world such as labiaplasty (Earp & Johnsdotter, 2021; Koster & Price, 2008). In fact, labia elongation can be regarded as a procedure that results in women having designer genitalia.

Commercially, the findings in this study have a bearing on two industries that are the clothing industry and the cosmetics industry. Firstly, in this part of the world, fancy lingerie such as the thongs and G-strings are likely not to have a market since they may strap through the flaps of the two pieces of labia thereby causing some discomfort, since large labia minora sometimes leads to discomfort when wearing certain clothes (Gunes & Alinsod, 2018). Perhaps based on anecdotal evidence, this explains why most women in Zimbabwe always put on high cut brief panties whose seams are always visible through the trending tight-fitting skirts and slacks when fashion trends favour thongs and G-strings. Secondly, the findings in this study have gotten a bearing in the cosmetics industry. Extant literature (e.g. Koster & Price, 2008; Perez et al., 2014) indicates that women use various herbs to enable effective labia elongation. However, the chemical and biological compositions of these herbs have never been analyzed, and therefore, the related side effects have been reported in many cases (Perez et al., 2014). Therefore, industrialists can invest in labia minora elongation creams that have minimal side effects. Such a business has a ready market since many women in Zimbabwe have positive attitudes towards the labia minora elongation practice (Venganai, 2018). Attitudes are known to predict behavior, so the practice of labia elongation will pass from one generation to another just like how labiaplasty is widely accepted across different generations in the western world (Koster & Price, 2008). Pubic hair removal was found to enhance the attractiveness of females. However, previous research has already indicated that pubic hair removal is associated with injuries, lacerations, folliculitis, itching, burns, and rashes (e.g. Beksinska et al., 2020). Therefore, innovators and industrialists must come up with ways of hair removal that do not cause any injuries to women’s pubic patches.

7. Limitations and future research directions

The study was focused on the perspective of African men, yet the views of women and also the perspectives of sexual partners and couples would authentic men’s views. These views are a rich area for future studies.

The study does not control for the general attractiveness of female sexual partners which has the potential to confound the evaluation of the genitalia. Therefore, future studies must assess the general attractiveness of the partners and control for it in the model. Furthermore, there is potential that the nature of the relationship may temper with a partner’s evaluation. Therefore, future researches must also control the general state of the relationship. The other cases that may need to be assessed and controlled are the marriage type. The status of the marriage may influence how males find the genitalia of their sexual partner in terms of attractiveness. For instance, hypergamy and homogamy must be controlled in future studies. Furthermore, the size of women or their voluptuousness need to be assessed as a moderating variable in future studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Divaries Cosmas Jaravaza

Divaries Cosmas Jaravaza (PhD, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa) and Dr Paul Mukucha (PhD, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa) are working on several projects on contraception, social, and health-care marketing. There is a particular thrust on HIV/AIDS, women, and culture. The studies are done in subsistence markets in sub-Saharan Africa, and the authors can forge collaborations with researchers in other countries for cross-cultural studies in transformative consumer research as well as in entrepreneurship, supply chain management, branding, and indigenous knowledge systems.