A WOMAN WHO MADE A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT VAGINOPLASTY
INTERVIEW BY ANDY CAPPER, PORTRAIT BY ALEX STURROCK
Heather Leach is a filmmaker from Rochdale, in the north of England, which is most famous for being the birthplace of 80s “soul” singer Lisa Stansfield. Recently, Heather plunged herself headfirst into the murky world of vaginoplasty, or “voluntarily having a plastic surgeon chop off your labia.” We talked to her about what she found, and it was quite revealing, if not something you should read if you’re eating lunch right now (especially anything with roast beef or pastrami in it).
Vice: Hi Heather. Why did you make this movie?
Heather Leach: Well, Channel 4 asked me to. After that, I researched it and found out that, in the UK at least, the number of women getting surgery on their labia has doubled in five years. More shockingly, the number of women getting the procedure has gone up by 300 percent in the last two years. Even girls as young as 16 are having these labiaplasties.
Crikey.
I would hear girls complain of awful comments being made to them all the time. Things like “Your vagina is fucking disgusting” or “Going down on you is like going down on the Mersey Tunnel.” Then there was one girl who was bullied by her sister and she’d say stuff like, “It looks like hanging ham down there.”
That’s not a very nice thing to say.
There are different physical and psychological reasons for operating on vaginas and there are differing methods, but the majority of doctors reshape the vulva by amputating and trimming. They do this by slicing the inner labia off so they don’t hang below the outer labia.
I’m wincing.
Yeah, they slice it all off with a scalpel. But some surgeons cut open the labia and tie up the nerve endings so they will still have sensation. Then they fold it over in and restitch it all together. One thing people don’t realize is that the nerve endings in the labia are connected to the clitoris, so they stand a chance of permanently hampering their sex lives. But I guess teenage girls don’t think about this because they just want a “perfect fanny.”
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This sculpture/cast is called “Design a Vagina” and is by British artist James McCartney. Some of the girls in Heather’s film had their vaginas cast especially for this piece.
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We should say for our readers in the States that over here “fanny” means “cunt” and “bottom” means “ass.” “Fanny” doesn’t mean “ass” here like it does there.
Yeah, well, anyway, people used to think that if you had a tit job it meant having “perfect tits” back in, say, 1985. And now they think having a stranger hack away at your fanny is going to mean the same thing: perfect flaps. They’re also going in for things like vaginal liposuction.
Oh come on.
They suck fat out of the pubic bone area to make it flatter. They’re also doing a Botox injection that goes into where your G-spot is supposed to be. It’s a called “G-Shot.” You have to keep going back every three months to have it refilled with Botox. It’s about $1,600 a session and you have to get it through private cosmetic surgeons.
To what do you attribute this sudden increase in teenage girls getting their labia sliced?
There are the things like the big advertisements in women’s magazines from large cosmetic surgical corporations. Then you blend that with peer pressure from teenage peers, particularly boys.
How so?
It’s teenage boys who are watching pornography all the time. As far as I’ve seen, you don’t see any kind of modern pornographic imagery that contains what I would consider to be a normal vagina. People start to think that the perfect fanny should not have the inner labia protruding and that it should be completely hairless.
Right.
Bikini waxing has a role to play in all this. When Bill Clinton reduced the laws regarding porn, the porn producers pushed for total waxing so that viewers could see the whole vagina for the first time, close up. Now these images are everywhere and making young girls think that it’s some kind of natural ideal, to have a hair-free tiny-lipped fanny.
It’s becoming like, “I’m going to have somebody cut my fucking labia off. No biggie.”
Yeah, but what people don’t realize is how harrowing it can be to have the operation. The recovery period can take up to six months. I filmed a surgery and it was horrendous. Once they’re chopped off, the pieces are flung straight in the trash can and thrown away with the rubbish.
Click here to watch her documentary.
See all articles by this contributor Anonymous, on Dec 15, 2008 wrote:
It’s a shame that people thinks there is this "ideal" funny out there. It’s probably true that neat looking ones are more popular among young men, but it doesn’t mean that everyone likes that kind of fanny. There are plenty of men who love large inner labias, different shapes, pastrami open-sand, whatever people call them. There is this man who helped me in the US. His book is called "petals" and it is a photo book of vaginas. It is really beautiful, and in the beginning, I was like "I like this one better...this one looks funny..."etc, but the more I looked at them, the more I started appreciating different vaginas, and before I knew it, I also started liking my vagina. I tell you, if a boy tells me that my vagina is ugly, I stop dating that boy. But, that hasn’t happened yet. I think it’s pretty now, so it seems to affect the boys’ perception, too...funny... | | Anonymous, on Dec 9, 2008 wrote:
maybe getting braces is empowering, but having less feeling downtown suuuucks | | Anonymous, on Dec 8, 2008 wrote:
The only guys that complain are the ones who don’t know how to give good head. All vaginas are beautiful, lips or no lips. | | Anonymous, on Nov 19, 2008 wrote:
I don’t think all vaginas should look "neat" and folded in but if you didn’t go "whoa!" when you saw the before pic of the 16 yo then you are lying to yourself. I think surgery was the right choice for her. yes she is 16 but it’s not like it’s going too tighten up as you get older. I agree with the narrator generally but I wonder if she would be so anti surgery if her cucu looked like that. As it was hers was so perfect that the doc got all turned on, in case you didn’t notice!
PS: I think mine’s beautiful. | | Anonymous, on Nov 19, 2008 wrote:
capitalism stole my vagine | | Anonymous, on Nov 13, 2008 wrote:
There was a girl I once ate out, and she had the most wonderful vagina. Hairless and neatly tucked. I munched on that shit for ages.
Then I once ate out another girl whose vagina looked like an exploded inner-tube. I really didnt enjoy it so I just spat on it and crammed my dick in there.
The lesson here? Have a nice vagina and dudes will go to town on that shit. | | Anonymous, on Nov 8, 2008 wrote:
Can they re-work my sphincter? It’s got flappy lips,waaaaaah! | | Anonymous, on Nov 7, 2008 wrote:
my vag looks like an open-faced roast beef sandwich and i love it! | | Anonymous, on Nov 7, 2008 wrote:
De Evolution. its sad. | | Anonymous, on Nov 6, 2008 wrote:
I like big ones! | | Anonymous, on Nov 6, 2008 wrote:
LOL! "To sing your song, you’ve gotta have LIPS!" (sigh... that’s gonna make even less sense when that banner comes down) | | Anonymous, on Nov 6, 2008 wrote:
"...the number of women getting surgery on their labia has doubled in five years. More shockingly, the number of women getting the procedure has gone up by 300 percent in the last two years."
Are both those stats for UK women getting the same operation? How did the number "double over the past five years" (in other words, go up by 100 percent) and go up "by 300 percent" (aka quadruple) in the past two years? | | Anonymous, on Nov 6, 2008 wrote:
1. Why is the price quoted n dollars?
2. How often would your sister see your labia?
3. I loves me a big, flapping fanny. | | Anonymous, on Nov 6, 2008 wrote:
vaginas are a bit like shopping centre car parks at christmas time
most guys are happy just to find one | | Anonymous, on Nov 5, 2008 wrote:
All those cast vaginas look the same to me. most dicks look the same. people need to stop getting so hung up about all this shit.
I just think that getting this sort of surgery unless there is something seriously wrong, is insulting to all of the women around the world who have to suffer through female circumcision. Just leave your shit. | | Anonymous, on Nov 5, 2008 wrote:
i am sympathetic to the women posting about empowering themselves and seeing all vaginas as beautiful. i wish the world actually worked this way and that everyone was beautiful--but it doesn’t. think about it the analogy of teeth--some people have weird teeth, it is a fact. should we oppose braces, and encourage people w/ fucked up teeth to suck it up, and be proud of those busted shits? no, the empowering thing to do is to get braces and improve one’s self. the whole premise is overly idealistic and misguided. | | Anonymous, on Nov 5, 2008 wrote:
I love the casts. I admit after hearing about the existence of labiaplasty, I wondered to myself if my lips were "beautiful." To many women when regarding self image, there is a clear right or wrong: thin vs. fat, voluptuous vs. flat. Suddenly I was wondering if I looked "right" and if the men I’ve been with thought it looked "right." But in all honesty, men should be glad to be seeing any vaginas at all. I would only recommend or consider this type of surgery if saggy lips were really affecting life, which would have to be some pretty saggy lips. | | Anonymous, on Nov 4, 2008 wrote:
This would have made a great topic for a Seinfeld episode. | | Anonymous, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
everyone is unique, it’s disgusting that people would consider mutilating themselves.
many american men didnt even have a choice when our members were sliced up for no reason at all | | Anonymous, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
Ok, if surgery is seriously going to improve your self esteem and quality of life then go for it. But when are women (and men for that matter) going to realise that it is the uniqueness of each vagina that actually makes them attractive. If every single girl had exactly the same hairless, neat little folded-in designer vagina that the porn industry would have you believe is ’perfect’ then whipping off a women’s pants would start to get pretty boring pretty quick. Err... probably. The whole world should stop marching to a tune led by sex-starved, porn-addicted teenage boys who are threatened by the true hallmarks of womanhood and are too sheltered to understand what a real vagina looks like. | | Anonymous, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
now a documentary about penisoplasty | | Anonymous, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
I took part in this documentary and had a cast of my fanny. I advise this to anyone who feels there is something wrong with their "downstairs" bits. It gives you a massive confidence boost, an you you realise that theres nothing actually wrong. we are all unique and beautiful for being so. Granted, for older women after babies etc i can understand if you felt completely ugly there. But for young teenage girls....well what world do we live in when social stigmas make them want to cut there fannys up?its so sad and wrong. Women if you ever doubt yourself, get a cast. It is truly liberating and talk about your fanny more. Its a very beautiful part of who we are and should be appreciated. | | Anonymous, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
i tend to think most vaginas have a certain charm even if they don’t look picture perfect. but if you have one that is really fucked-up, why not fix ’er up?
and "Ladies - Love Your Vagina!", the vagina monologues called and said they want their played-out feminist shtick back. | | Anonymous, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
"it’s terrible! capitalism! patriarchy! blah blah blah!" give me a fucking break, sure it’s tragic if your vag is ugly (i really do feel for people with weird vags, or any ugly anatomical feature, actually), but why shouldn’t you have it altered if it is disgusting? should you be sexually repulsive your whole life to be a martyr for some misguided feminist sentiment?
-raku ga | |
| Norseberserk, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
Shit, people gotta sport what they got and stop being so homogenous. | | Anonymous, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
"how shitty of a dude do you have to be to insult a girl’s vag lips?"
i dunno, i hear girls making fun of guys’ dinks all the time. seems only fair, especially if she’s packin the radio city music hall down there. | |
| gabugabu, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
what does capitalism have to do with girls trimming their vag? | | Anonymous, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
“It looks like hanging ham down there.”
is probably one of the meanest things I’ve ever heard... how shitty of a dude do you have to be to insult a girl’s vag lips? | |
| Tiago, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
girls have the right of cut & trim their pussies. also to do the anal bleaching thing for avoiding the problem of the black asshole. | | Anonymous, on Nov 3, 2008 wrote:
"Once they’re chopped off, the pieces are flung straight in the trash can and thrown away with the rubbish."
What else would they do with the vulva slices? Make a salad?
Let’s have a moment of silence shall we for the destroyed vaginas! | | | < Previous 30 comments | Next 30 comments > |
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