ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on so-called 'designer vagina' surgery, defining the field and analyzing public discourse in the form of websites from surgeons who offer these procedures. It argues that these sites work in multiple ways to sell both vulval distress and transformation. Certain morphologies are pathologized, implicitly and explicitly; others are valorized. Women are invited into a medicalized regime of self-assessment and intervention to achieve the perfect vulva. The chapter examines the content of 20 surgeon websites, which were accessed in 2005. They are a convenience sample of the first hits from Google searches and sites of high profile surgeons, combined with specific sampling for geographic dispersion. The chapter discusses the use of psychological discourse and truth claims, and considers the implications of all these for women's embodied subjectivity and desires. Surgeon websites are part of the proliferation of discourse on female genital cosmetic surgery.