Today I have the debut guest post on the site Making Midlife Matter writing about women’s desires to erase the laugh lines of life from their faces with a ubiquitous injection.
My article is a lightly edited version of an anti-Botox post I wrote in the fall. The day I published the original on my blog (Don’t read it, read the one on the new site…fewer typos for me and more traffic for them…) I met a friend for lunch. She is not a regular reader (I KNOW and I STILL eat with her…but I don’t buy her lunch) I asked her what she thought about plastic surgery and she floored me with this one. “I am thinking about having my lips done. My vaginal lips.”
Four responses crowded my brain at once
- What. The. Fuck.
- By the time they are down there no one cares what it looks like anyways.
- Other than Georgia O’Keefe I don’t know many people that consider vaginas to be as beautiful as flowers.
- I can’t wait to get this on my blog. (Maybe I should buy her lunch.)
I spat out something like “Fuck my ugly vagina blog down there.” It was her time to be confused. After a few calming sips of herbal tea I was ready to try again. I went with my most uplifting rebuttal:
By the time he (in her case) is down there he isn’t thinking about what your vagina LOOKS like. He is pot committed. I mean, he is already all in. What IS it with the poker. He is ready to poke-her. Oh god the tea isn’t working. I decided to cash in my chips and stopped screeching my outrage.
She is calm as she responds. “The surgery has a 90% success rate.”
I am less calm. “Ninety percent??? What could the other 10% feel like.”
I needed more than a few sips of tea as I contemplated these women, propped on pillows, swollen in pain, watching Downtown Abbey and slamming tequila shooters. These were the 90% success women. The other 10% were mangled, numb, or unable to come. Probably all three. Even tequila and the dowager countess would be at a loss with their loss.
Finally I calmed down enough to talk about the upside of plastic surgery. If someone is fixated on a particular part of themselves that can be “cured” by a simple surgery why not pay for that confidence. We do a version of this when we wax our legs and put on heels.
Make up has been around for over 6,000 years. A little injection, insertion, snip or tuck is simply progress. Or so the argument goes. I don’t even brush my hair so it comes as no surprise that I am arguing the extreme case for comfort over cosmetics.
A few weeks later at a “Ladies Mexican Fiesta” fundraiser for our public school I bring up the topic to a handful of women in the kitchen. I told you tequila would figure into this.
One sane woman walked out. The rest of us, various shades of blonde, debated the lip surgery. One or two never got past the idea that we were talking about lips that live beneath our nose despite my repeated cries of “VAGINAL lips.” More party goers seemed open to the idea than I would have guessed. I trod the five house home in my clogs and wondered what the ravages of time and hopefully other ravages have done to us.
What it comes down to down there is that the middle aged vagina shows it’s story the way the middle aged face does. Kids and love and lust have all left their mark. Why would we erase that?
[Tweet theme=”basic-white”]the middle aged vagina shows it’s story the way the middle aged face does.[/Tweet]
Ummm…….trying to think of something…….better not say that one…….nope that will get me in trouble also…….ummm…….great post :). Short of a horn shooting out of it yes by the time some one is down there you are “pot” committed!
Right? Thank you. That is affirming.
My reaction would have been the same as yours! The tea would have been sprayed around the room … I’m praying now that my best friend doesn’t hit me with that bombshell … unless you really need work on the vagina, I would leave well alone – it sounds too painful to me!
I can only think of one profession where you “really need to work on the vagina”. Tea spray…now that is a beauty tip I can get behind.
There’s a larger issue here, of course and it’s the war being waged against women’s bodies. We are too fat, too old, too saggy, too ugly, our hair is too thin, our noses are too big, our lips are too small and on it goes. Vaginal reconstruction is a symptom of the disease, I’m afraid. We are taught to hate our ohysical bodies from the second we are exposed to any media. So disheartening.
Oh how I know. Today my nine year old son asked me if I thought he was overweight. Sadly we ALL are exposed to unrealistic standards from a very young age. I didn’t really get to the heart of it in this post obviously. I kept it pretty surface level.
I really wasn’t obsessed with looks until they started going downhill, quickly, with age. As a married woman, my husband is stuck with my vag, but I would change things people see if I could (and I have, no regrets). Wow, I was a lady from the kitchen; I am so excited to be in your blog!
So you think it is a relative difference that is the main impetus? Trying to keep up with a younger version of ourselves rather than simply meet a societal norm? I don’t know if that make the conversation different or not. It is a losing battle. Just ask my boobs. You can find them down at my waist.
For me it was aging. I just woke up one day and was all “self, you look like hell” and I lost all interest in aging gracefully, within reason. No botox or knife to my face, but never say never. I spend my money in facials and peels and serums and stuff. I got a mommy makeover, my decision. ( I hate that name). So far that’s my line…no face work. Talk to me in seven years when I hit 50. I really don’t feel a societal norm at work but maybe it’s subconscious.
I am just focused on how beautifully tanned the legs on the woman in your image is. Because really, I can not even conceive of vag surgery. I mean. What is success? LOL
So, I had no idea that this was actually an operation. Interesting. I can’t think of anything else to say. 🙂
I don’t know what else there is to say…
I love it, I am weirded out about kykie Jenner getting a new face but a vagina seriously takes the cake…I love your truth and it inspires me bc these are the thoughts I have every day.
Thanks! Yes…I remember when Jennifer Grey changed her nose and was no longer Jennifer Grey. I always wondered how her career would have gone if she had stuck with her distinctive look. All of the re-figurement has me baffled. As does the word I just made up.
Holy moly! I had no idea women cared so much about their vaginal lips. I thought a vagina is well, a vagina. It’s not there to look pretty!
I hope this isn’t a repercussion of stupid media and men watching too much porn :/
Me too. It’s just ridiculous.
A little bit of touch up there wouldn’t harm anyone. In fact it might spark up some “playfulness” in a relationship.