In This Issue

Harmful Traditional Vaginal Practices Worldwide: An Overview
Many societies and cultures worldwide have significant traditional practices that alter or modify women's vaginas. These practices are often harmful, pose health risks and violate girls' and women's rights. Traditional vaginal practices play a significant role in many societies and cultures worldwide. Many of these practices are harmful, posing health risks and violating women's human rights. Putting a stop to these practices demands attention, analysis, and action on a global scale. Although some communities worldwide have made great strides in abandoning some practices, in many places, they remain entwined with local gender norms, sexual scripts, and standards of beauty and marriagability. The following are brief overviews of some of these harmful practices, including where they are practiced, their prevalence rates, and their consequences for individual and public health. Read More...

One by One Communities Abandon Female Genital Mutilation
In Africa and the Middle East, and in immigrant communities throughout the world, more than 3 million young girls and women undergo female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) every year. FGM/C-cutting the external genitalia or sewing shut the vagina-is a social convention that often defines cultural gender identity; undergoing FGM/C ensures a girl's or woman's status, chastity, health, and beauty and is often celebrated with parties and gifts. This traditional practice is carried out for a range of reasons in each community, with variations in the severity of the cutting and the ages at which girls are cut. In general, the ritual means she is a member of the community, desirable as a wife, and has brought her family honor. Read More...

Sexual Practices as Context: the Case of Microbicides
Scientists have been working for more than a decade to create microbicides, chemical agents typically in the form of gels or creams applied topically to the vagina or anus that will prevent unintended pregnancy and protect against the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Scientists expect that a viable microbicide will be available soon, yet even once these products are scientifically proven to be physically safe and effective there remain serious logistical questions about how to make them accessible through adequate funding and supportive policies. In addition, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations about sex will determine whether or not individuals will actually use this new prevention technology. Studies examining the acceptability of microbicides and the factors that make their use more or less likely are underway. Read More...

Desire and Dollars Equals Designer Vaginas for More and More Women in the United States
In some cities in the United States, cosmetic genital surgery is becoming increasingly available to women with the desire and means to pay for their vagina to be tightened, tucked, or otherwise altered. Critics argue that such surgeries are the medicalized, Westernized version of the female genital mutilation (FGM) long associated with Africa, reflecting the same desires for virgin-like "tightness" albeit with typically less medically dire results. Providers argue that that their services are empowering for women, improving their sex lives, and increasing their self-confidence. What is not in dispute is that the market for these elective surgeries is on the increase, and this slow growing trend gives rise to many questions about sexual expectations and physical aesthetics in the U.S. and other industrialized countries. Read More...

Vaginal Practices in Indonesia
Throughout Indonesia, a majority of women regularly engage in a number of practices to "clean," "dry," "tighten," or "deodorize" their vaginas. These practices derive from longstanding traditions designed to achieve conformity with expectations about the appearance, function, and sexual performance of the vagina. These are rooted in a widespread belief that "tight sex" or "dry sex"-vaginal intercourse without any or with minimal lubrication in the vagina-is more pleasurable for men and gender norms that require women to "please" men. The vaginal practices range from the innocuous to the dubious to potentially extremely harmful. Read More...

Making Sense of Female Genital Alteration Practices
Around the globe, girls and women routinely undergo a range of genital alteration procedures.  Some procedures, such as some intersex surgery or labial reduction, are performed once with permanent effects; others, such as pubic hair removal or vaginal drying, need to be done repeatedly, as their effects are only temporary.  Some are done without choice, or against the person’s will; others are “freely” chosen. Some practices are agonized over; others are so mundane and routine that they are barely questioned. Some, such as “traditional” genital cutting (female genital circumcision (FGC), also known as female genital mutilation (FGM)), are illegal and legislated against in many countries; others, such as genital cosmetic surgery, are available to all who can pay up front or qualify for financing.  What unites all of these procedures is a belief  about the way women’s genitalia should be, if girls and women are to be appropriately gendered and sexually desirable.  My focus in this article is exploring understandings of women’s genitalia, and how they inform and enable alteration practices, through an examination of the specific practice of female genital cosmetic surgery in the west. Read More...