Wtf? The point is that activism has been necessary to educate women.

When I was 17, I thought I was perfectly fine until one day, I googled “clitoris.” I could not find my clitoris. So then I was wondering what the rest of my vulva was called. A google search for “labia minora” pulled up before and after photos from labiaplasties. Though my labia minora were probably within one standard deviation of the mean according to normative studies published since, I saw that I looked like the before photos. I read, on doctor’s websites and in peer reviewed medical literature, that protruding labia minora are unfeminine, embarrassing, and caused by excess androgens. Based on what I read, which doctors had published, I concluded I had a very bad problem, that my labia minora were abnormal, and that I needed surgery.

I also read that these surgeries carried no risk to sexual function. Outcome studies reported no serious complications. When my dad asked around at the hospital, in 2004, he said, “It turns out people do these all the time and they are no big deal.” Based on the information I had, there was no reason not to do it.

To this day, if you google “labia minora,” you will read derogatory things about them. You will read about them being considered ugly or being called “beef curtains.”

One study of women seeking surgery in the NHS showed, of 33 women, 66% were virgins, 66% were students. Most were in their teens and 20s. Though the distribution of labia size in this sample was nearly in-differentiable from that found in normative studies, most reported that they felt abnormal or ugly. In an interview study, themes of feeling abnormal were common.

What is going on here is the exploitation of an ignorance.

Had someone cared to educate me when I was 17, I would never have had surgery, I never would have been mutilated, and I would still have sensation in my clitoris. My life would be entirely different, as I would not have suffered such a significant trauma and I would not still be trying to stand up for myself to this day.

Instead, when I was 17, there were no normative studies (except one from the 1800s which indicated that labia minora of 3 cm long were in the 97th percentile or so). When I was 17, there weren’t as many people educating women and spreading awareness about labia size. All the positive comments I found on the internet back then were explicit in nature. I’d been raised to think that was gross. I was very naive and not sexually active so those comments didn’t help. I was afraid of people thinking I masturbated too much, that I was “used up,” etc, based on comments I read on the internet.

As for my doctor, he was recommended as the best OB/GYN surgeon by the head of the department. Maybe today online reviews for doctors are a good indicator of how qualified they are. But I doubt this based on the answers I get on RealSelf when I ask doctors who do these questions.