Female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS) procedures are new, but increasing in
popularity. In this article, I examine the role of female sexual pleasure in media
(31 magazine items) and surgeon (15 interviews) accounts. FGCS was framed as
enhancing female sexual pleasure, or specifically orgasm. I argue that the focus on
female sexual pleasure functions to legitimate, and promote, FGCS. Further, it
reaffirms normative heterosexuality, and promotes a generic model of bodies and sex.
Moreover, in the context of consumer culture, media accounts have the possibility of
creating problems, and their solutions, simultaneously.
Adams, A.
(1997) ‘Moulding Women’s Bodies: The
Surgeon as Sculptor’, in
D. S. Wilson
and
C. M. Laennec
(eds) Bodily Discursions: Gender, Representations, Technologies,
pp. 59-80.
New York: State University of New York Press
.
2.
Allotey, P.
,
Manderson, L.
and
Grover, S.
(2001)
‘The Politics of Female Genital Surgery in Displaced Communities’
, Critical Public Health11:
189-201
.
3.
Berger, A. A.
(1998) Media Analysis Techniques (2nd edn).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
.
4.
Blum, V. L.
(2003) Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery.
Berkeley: University of California Press
.
5.
Bordo, S.
(1993) Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the
Body.
Berkeley: University of California Press
.
6.
Bordo, S.
(1997) Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images
from Plato to O.J.
Berkeley: University of California Press
.
7.
Bramwell, R.
(2002)
‘Invisible Labia: The Representation of Female External Genitals
in Women’s Magazines’
, Journal of Sexual and Relationship Therapy17:
187-190
.
8.
Braun, V.
,
Gavey, N.
and
McPhillips, K.
(2003)
‘The “Fair Deal”? Unpacking Accounts of
Reciprocity in Heterosex’
, Sexualities6(2):
237-261
.
9.
Braun, V.
and
Wilkinson, S.
(2001)
‘Socio-cultural Representations of the Vagina’
, Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology19:
17-32
.
10.
Braun, V.
and
Wilkinson, S.
(2003)
‘Liability or Asset? Women Talk about the Vagina’
, Psychology of Women Section Review5(2):
28-42
.
11.
Brown, J. D.
and
Walsh-Childers, K.
(2002) ‘Effects of Media on Personal and Public
Health’, in
J. Bryant
and
D. Zillmann
(eds) Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, 2nd
edn, pp. 453-488.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
.
12.
Budgeon, S.
(2003)
‘Identity as Embodied Event’
, Body and Society9:
35-55
.
13.
Burr, V.
(1995) An Introduction to Social Constructionism.
London: Routledge
.
14.
Carpiano, R. M.
(2001)
‘Passive Medicalization: The Case of Viagra and Erectile Dysfunction’
, Sociological Spectrum21:
441-450
.
15.
Connell, R. W.
(1997) ‘Sexual Revolution’,
in
L. Segal
(ed.) New Sexual Agendas, pp. 60-76.
New York: New York University Press
.
16.
Davis, K.
(1995) Reshaping the Female Body: The Dilemma of Cosmetic
Surgery.
New York: Routledge
.
17.
Davis, K.
(1998) ‘Facing the Dilemma’,
in
P. D. Hopkins
(ed.) Sex/Machine: Readings in Culture, Gender and Technology, pp.
286-305.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press
.
18.
Davis, K.
(2003) Dubious Equalities and Embodied Differences: Cultural
Studies on Cosmetic Surgery.
Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield
.
19.
Davis, S. W.
(2002)
‘Loose Lips Sink Ships’
, Feminist Studies28:
7-35
.
20.
D’Emilio, J.
and
Freedman, E. B.
(1997) Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in
America, 2nd edn.Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press
.
21.
Essen, B.
and
Johnsdotter, S.
(2004)
‘Female Genital Mutilation in the West: Traditional Circumcision
versus Genital Cosmetic Surgery’
, Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica83:
611-613
.
22.
Frank, A. W.
(2003)
‘Connecting Body Parts: Technoluxe, Surgical Shapings, and Bioethics’
. Paper presented at the Vital Politics Conference, London.
23.
Fraser, S.
(2003a)
‘The Agent Within: Agency Repertoires in Medical Discourse on
Cosmetic Surgery’
, Australian Feminist Studies18:
27-44
.
24.
Fraser, S.
(2003b) Cosmetic Surgery, Gender and Culture.
Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan
.
25.
Gagne, P.
and
McGaughey, D.
(2002)
‘Designing Women - Cultural Hegemony and the Exercise of Power
Among Women Who Have Undergone Elective Mammoplasty’
, Gender and Society16:
814-838
.
26.
Gillespie, R.
(1996)
‘Women, the Body and Brand Extension in Medicine: Cosmetic
Surgery and the Paradox of Choice’
, Women and Health24(4):
69-85
.
27.
Gilman, S.
(1985) Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality,
Race and Madness.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
.
28.
Gilman, S. L.
(1998) Creating Beauty to Cure the Soul.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press
.
29.
Gilman, S. L.
(1999) Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of
Aesthetic Surgery.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
.
30.
Gimlin, D. L.
(2002) Body Work: Beauty and Self-Image in American
Culture.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press
.
31.
Goodman, M.
(1996)
‘Culture, Cohort, and Cosmetic Surgery’
, Journal of Women and Aging8(2):
55-73
.
32.
Gordon, M.
(1971) ‘From an Unfortunate Necessity to a Cult
of Mutual Orgasm: Sex in American Marital Education Literature
1830-1940’, in
J. M. Henslin
(ed.) Studies in the Sociology of Sex, pp.
53-77.
New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts
.
33.
Grogan, S.
(1999) Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men,
Women and Children.
London: Routledge
.
34.
Haiken, E.
(1997) Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery.
Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press
.
35.
Haiken, E.
(2000)
‘The Making of the Modern Face: Cosmetic Surgery’
, Social Research67:
81-93
.
36.
Hart, G.
and
Wellings, K.
(2002)
‘Sexual Behaviour and its Medicalisation: in Sickness and Health’
, British Medical Journal324:
896-900
.
37.
Hawkes, G.
(1996) The Sociology of Sex and Sexuality.
Buckingham: Open University Press
.
38.
Heath, S.
(1982) The Sexual Fix.
New York: Schocken Books
.
39.
Hollway, W.
(1989) Subjectivity and Method in Psychology: Gender, Meaning
and Science.
London: Sage
.
40.
Jackson, S.
and
Scott, S.
(2001) ‘Embodying Orgasm: Gendered Power
Relations and Sexual Pleasure’, in
E. Kaschak
and
L. Tiefer
(eds) A New View of Women’s Sexual Problems, pp.
99-110.
New York: The Haworth Press
.
41.
Jahoda, S.
(1995) ‘Theatres of Madness’,
in
J. Terry
and
J. Urla
(eds) Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and
Popular Culture, pp. 251-276.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press
.
42.
Kitzinger, S.
(1994) The Year after Childbirth: Surviving and Enjoying the
First Year of Motherhood.
Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers
.
43.
Manderson, L.
(1999)
‘Local Rites and the Body Politic: Tensions Between Cultural
Diversity and Universal Rites’
, paper presented at the Sexual Diversity and Human Rights: Beyond
Boundaries conference, Manchester, July.
44.
Moghaddam, P.
and
Braun, V.
(2004) ‘ “Most of us Guys are Raring to
go Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere”: Male (and Female) Sexuality in
Cosmopolitan and Cleo’, Manuscript under submission.
45.
Negrin, L.
(2002)
‘Cosmetic Surgery and the Eclipse of Identity’
, Body and Society8:
21-42
.
46.
Nicolson, P.
(1993) ‘Public Values and Private Beliefs: Why
do some Women Refer Themselves for Sex Therapy?’ in
J. M. Ussher
and
C. D. Baker
(eds) Psychological Perspectives on Sexual Problems: New Directions in
Theory and Practice, pp. 56-76.
London: Routledge
.
47.
Potts, A.
(2000)
‘Coming, Coming, Gone: A Feminist Deconstruction of Heterosexual Orgasm’
, Sexualities3:
55-76
.
48.
Reinholtz, R. K.
and
Muehlenhard, C. L.
(1995)
‘Genital Perceptions and Sexual Activity in a College Population’Journal of Sex Research32:
155-165
.
49.
Roberts, C.
,
Kippax, S.
,
Spongberg, M.
and
Crawford, J.
(1996)
‘ “Going Down”: Oral Sex, Imaginary Bodies
and HIV’
, Body and Society2(3):
107-124
.
50.
Seidman, S.
(1991) Romantic Longings: Love in America, 1830-1980.
New York: Routledge
.
51.
Seidman, S.
(1992) Embattled Eros: Sexual Politics and Ethics in
Contemporary America.
New York: Routledge
.
52.
Sheldon, S.
and
Wilkinson, S.
(1998)
‘Female Genital Mutilation and Cosmetic Surgery: Regulating
Non-therapeutic Body Modification’
, Bioethics12:
263-285
.
53.
Sullivan, D. A.
(2001) Cosmetic Surgery: The Cutting Edge of Commercial
Medicine in America.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press
.
54.
Terry, J.
(1995) ‘Anxious Slippages Between
“Us” and “Them”: A Brief History of the
Scientific Search for Homosexual Bodies’, in
J. Terry
and
J. Urla
(eds) Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and
Popular Culture, pp. 129-169.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press
.
55.
Tiefer, L.
(1995) Sex is Not a Natural Act and Other Essays.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press
.
56.
Tiefer, L.
(1997) ‘Medicine, Morality, and the Public
Management of Sexual Matters’, in
L. Segal
(ed.) New Sexual Agendas, pp. 103-112.
New York: New York University Press
.
57.
Tiefer, L.
(2000) ‘The Social Construction and Social
Effects of Sex Research: The Sexological Model of Sexuality’,
in
C. B. Travis
and
J. W. White
(eds) Sexuality, Society, and Feminism, pp.
79-107.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
.
58.
Toerien, M.
and
Wilkinson, S.
(2004)
‘Exploring the Depilation Norm: a Qualitative Questionnaire Study
of Women’s Body Hair Removal’
, Qualitative Research in Psychology1:
69-92
.
59.
Weeks, J.
(1985) Sexuality and Its Discontents: Meanings, Myths and
Modern Sexualities.
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
.
60.
White, J. W.
,
Bondurant, B.
and
Travis, C. B.
(2000) ‘Social Constructions of Sexuality:
Unpacking Hidden Meanings’, in
C. B. Travis
and
J. W. White
(eds) Sexuality, Society, and Feminism, pp.
11-33.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
.
61.
Wolf, N.
(1990) The Beauty Myth.
London: Vintage
.
