Image sourced from: The Muff March

Reminiscent of 'The Slut Walk' a few months back.

The Muff March is an attempt to readdress the growing numbers of female genital plastic surgery such as: hymen reconstruction, vaginal tightening and labiaplasty - which have tripled over the course of the last few years. Criticism has been directed at the fact that women are free to make their own choices, as consenting adults and that the health concerns assosiated with these types of surgeries are more worring than the influence of pornography in our culture.

Quoted from the above article:

"...Dr Petra Boynton, sex researcher and educator, commented: "The focus of the Muff March on porn is, I think, limiting. While porn has undoubtedly had an impact on how we view our bodies I don't think it is accurate to simply see it as the main factor driving women to have cosmetic genital surgery or remove their pubic hair. In fact I'd say the mainstream media has a far greater role to play here but is not held accountable."

I just wanted to point out that mainstream media and pornography go hand in hand - the pornography indutry is not afforded the same promotional benefits as any other business. In order to populate the mainstream, they target the media in order to promote their wares. (For example, Hugh Hefner labelled 'the granddaddy of porn,' in articles in the Guardian or highest paid adult film star Jenna Jameson featuring on Opera  and discussing how empowered she feels as a woman by making porn, Cosmopolitan headlines reading "101 ways to please him in the bedroom" - watch porn with him etc.) The PR companies promote 'porn-friendly' stories that make it into the newspaper and it normalises the attitude towards it - the rise in pole-dancing exercise classes or vajazzling are just two of many examples.

I think it's important that woman are speaking up and I don't think they are condemning women who do choose to have plastic surgery on their genitals. I think they are just trying to inflitrate the media and send out (actually empowering) positive body image messages. 

It's OK to be embarrassed about your body, but it's more empowering to not be defined by those insecurities.