Protest Against Unstudied and Unregulated Genital Cosmetic Surgeries reported by Time Online!

Protest demanding a moritorium on genital cosmetic surgery, investigation by government agencies, monitoring of these surgeries by the FDA and the Amerian College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and true informed consent standards providing information on the wide variaiton in normal genital anatomy.   

Here is the link for the Time magazine ONLINE article and below is a report of the demonstration.  

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1859937,00.html

November 17th, 2008 was quite cold (38oF at 10 a.m.), but sunny and cloudless. Our eight-woman planning group met for breakfast at a nearby apartment for solidarity and to have some last-minute rehearsals of our play, “Dr DIFFA and the 2 VULVAs.” DIFFA was an acronym for Dr. Interest Free Financing Available (all NYC surgeons prominently advertised this on their websites!), and our play was a mime with Dr. DIFFA, Ms. Before puppet, Ms. After puppet, and a chorus of feminist protesters. (See attached photo.)

            We assembled at the chosen spot where, as prearranged, the police had kindly left us a bunch of  blue wooden sawhorses to be used as barricades. We set up a space and taped our colorful signs to the barricades. The signs were gradually removed and held aloft by marching protesters as they arrive and joined us. At the peak there were probably about 25 marchers, 3 documentary film crews, 2 print journalists and 1 web journalist.

            During our allotted two hours, we marched in a circle, chanting slogans such as:

·        More Research, Less Marketing

·        Vulvas are Beautiful, no 2 alike

·        Don’t be fooled, Cutting has consequences

·        FTC, end the ads; vulvas need protection

·        Long Live Long Labia

·        Say no to the knife, keep your vulvas free of strife

·        Leave us alone, Stop marketing distress

·        Say No to Designer Vaginas

·        Genital Cosmetic surgery, satisfaction not guaranteed

·        Real choice, not consumer choice

·        We want research, we want science, no more ads and no more violence

            Five times during the 2 hours, we stopped marching for a performance of “Dr. DIFFA and the 2 vulvas” which got better and more polished and involved more and more exuberant participation by the watching marchers!

            We handed out our 200+ pieces of literature and got into a few discussions and a couple of arguments. Most people were bemused, and, its seems, the phrase “genital cosmetic surgery” does not seem to mean much. But when we explained that this meant cutting the labia or clitoris for a smooth uniform look like porn stars, people knew immediately what we meant. “They do that in here?” gesturing towards the building, they said, making a face! A man who identified himself as an ophthalmologist insisted that women follow fashion blindly, and that cosmetic surgery was very lucrative for many doctors, but he did agree that advertising by doctors often went too far! Several young men said they liked diverse vulva!

            After two hours, we had made our point, folded the barricades and went back to the apartment for a brief debriefing.  The entire event was filed by a young film-maker who plans to incorporate some footage into her upcoming film interrogating the concept of the “G Spot”.  Stay tuned!