'Everyone Wants a Vagina That Looks Less Like a Vagina': Australian Women's Views on Dissatisfaction with Genital Appearance

We present a thematic discourse analysis of 94 Australian women's written comments about women's presumed dissatisfaction with their genital appearance. 

Two themes emerged: 'from natural to normal' and 'the difficulty of resistance'. In the first theme, participants discuss genital dissatisfaction with reference to hegemonic constructions of femininity and to postfeminist, neoliberal discourses that position the natural female body as inadequate, with beauty practices necessary to achieve acceptability. 

The second theme addresses the difficulty of challenging this positioning, referencing discourses that position the vagina as unpleasant and discussion of it as taboo. 

We consider implications of these constructions for women's well-being.

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By:   Moran C1, Lee C2.

• 1The University of Queensland, Australia.
• 2The University of Queensland, Australia c.lee@psy.uq.edu.au.
• J Health Psychol. 2016 Mar 23. pii: 1359105316637588. 

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