Our Bodies Ourselves

By: Yussett Navarrete
In the vagina monologues they have what they call, “vagina fact.” I was reading them and I came across the topic of genital mutilation. According to these vagina facts genital mutilation is when a girl gets her clitoris cut or removed then gets part or all of her labia sewn together.  It also says, “Genital mutilation has been inflicted on 80 to 100 million girls and young women.”  I was in total shock of the amount of girls and young women that are forced to undergo this procedure. Reading this made me think of labiaplasty. According to the book,Our bodies, ourselves labiaplasty is a surgery that some women undergo in which, their inner vaginal lips are cut and shortened to make them smaller or more symmetrical. In Our bodies, ourselves they also mention that some men are pressuring their female partners to have surgery so they more closely resemble the women in pornographic movies. This made me realize that the media has a lot to do with what we think of our body images. Every single part of our body no matter how hidden it may be can’t escape the criticism of society. According to www.ourbodiesourselves.org  “Every part of the female body is picked apart and scrutinized, with most articles telling us outright which products we should buy to fix--or at least camouflage--our numerous "flaws."” Women are pressured into looking like the supermodels in the magazines, the women in pornographic movies, and the women we see on television etc. Reality is that those women we see in the magazines or on television don’t really look like that in real life. They use photoshop to make them look skinnier with a smaller chin, no blemishes, longer legs, nicer lips, young, etc. Many are airbrushed and have had plastic surgery. In the article provided by www.Ourbodiesourselves.org they say, “Real women with pubic hair and breasts that aren’t perfect round orbs begin to seem unnatural compared to the altered images we see in the media.” This proves that we are brainwashed by the media to believe that to be beautiful you need to look like the supermodel in a magazine when in reality that supermodel doesn’t even look like that herself. Many women that are in the pornographic business have undergone labiaplasty to make themselves look more appealing and beautiful to the viewer. Then the viewer perceives this image of how a woman’s vulva “should” look like to be sexy and attractive. I believe that this is a trend that will always continue but, we need to learn to appreciate and love every part of our body just the way it is because no one is the same. We are each one of a kind.

Reading Response

By: Jacqueline 


After learning the definition of feminism from Merriam-Webster “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes or an organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests”, it was very disappointing to be in a women’s studies class and be assigned reading material that did not discuss much about feminism. These articles are an example of how, I believe, feminism is looked at by the majority of society today. The article “Never Just Pictures” talks about females being under pressure and having problems with their ideas of the ideal body size. It seems that if there is anything that deals with women it is considered feminism. This article fails to try and connect to feminists by saying pornography is sexist because of males ejaculating on women. Women are not forced into pornography, these have chosen for themselves to be put into situations as such. Pornography is a filmed based industry and thus has a contract for men and women to sign that they will perform on stage based on a script just like every other actor in Hollywood or Broadway. Also these ideas that women are the only victims to self-consciousness can be countered with the fact that men are also body conscious. “Unlimited Partnership” simply describes how to analysis information without ever actually analyzing females from history. “From ways of seeing” once again has nothing to do with feminism but describes the idea that women let men think they are in charge, “Everything must appear to be the result of his being there.” The article “What is Women’s studies” is the only one that talks about feminism, and how different cultures have handled female oppression.