I have to say this isn’t something that I was aware of, but Amanda Palmer tweeted this article from the Guardian yesterday, and I couldn’t quite believe that it is becomming more and more popular. Not only is society dictating what clothes we where, social pressures by adverts clearly not representative of how the average person looks but now many females are having their vagina’s modified for cosmetic reasons (I accept there are always medical reasons why certain procedures are necessary)
UK Feminista and performance artists The Muffia are leading a march down Harley Street tomorrow to protest against this increasing practice.
Activists in London and Southampton will stage a ‘Muff March’ on Saturday 10 December (1) to speak out against a ‘pornified’ culture driving increasing numbers of women to seek vaginal cosmetic surgery, and to protest against the cosmetic surgeons profiting from it. Wearing fake ‘muffs’, activists from UK Feminista (2) will march down Harley Street, famed for its cosmetic surgeries, and stage a synchronised ‘muff dance’.
Demand for labiaplasty is on the increase. Between 2007- 2008 there was a 70% increase in the number of labiaplasty operations carried out by the NHS, and last year the Harley Medical Group received more than 5,000 inquiries about cosmetic gynaecology (3). Researchers at Kings College London carrying out a study into demand for labiaplasty have suggested this increase stems from the increasing ‘pornification’ of culture (4). The protest comes two weeks before Christmas, a period during which demand for cosmetic surgery has been found to surge (5).
The ‘Muff Marches’ are part of a creative new wave of feminist protest (6), and slogans suggested by activists for the march include: “Keep your mits off our bits!”, “there’s nothing finer than my vagina!”, and “Harley Street puts my chuff in a huff”. Over 320 people have so far signed up to the London event on Facebook (7).
Kat Banyard, Director of UK Feminista, said:
“Muff March is about speaking back to a pornified culture which is pressuring women to go under the surgeon’s knife and get a ‘designer vagina’. We also want to shine a spotlight on the cosmetic surgeons who ruthlessly mine women’s bodies to extract maximum profit.“Women’s beauty regimes increasingly encompass ‘ideals’ peddled by the pornography industry, like the porn norm of women removing all their pubic hair, the industry preferring its performers to look more like pre-pubescent girls. Now pornography is exposing women to the toxic myth that there is one ‘right’ way for their labia to look. It’s time to fight back.”
Jason E Cooper 