Sunday, February 18, 2007

I've got your 'consent' right here...

Just in case you didn't hear me.

Now for something completely different and waaay after everyone else has finished talking about it.

The Vagina Institute. A group whose sole purpose is to tell you that your genitalia is ugly and that you should be ashamed if it doesn't match those you see in the average porn magazine. That is, if you are female. Somewhere, earlier in the week when this was first pointed out and a reference was made to male genitalia, the comment was attacked as being potentially damaging to the ego of someones son. No mention was made to the harmful effects of telling the majority of women that they have ugly vaginas which will cause their partners to ditch them if not 'corrected'.
Let's see what happens if some of the Institutes paragraphs are regendered (or more 'masculine' language added)...

UGLY PENISES VS. GOOD-LOOKING PENISES...

...how your penis measures up to the most masculine, most handsome penises in the world. The essence of manhood resides in the beauty of form, function and size... the further away the penis and testicles are from the preset parameters and symmetrical values, well the penis tends to be not as good-looking, in fact we can use the word 'ugly' to define it correctly...


Yeah, real nice. Feeling good about yourselves, guys? I know I wouldn't.
And guess what, all this stuff about vaginae being hideous is all packaged up to look professional, with statistic adding weight to their findings. So not only do they say that you have nasty genitals, but guess what? THE WORLD thinks that you should change it for the better. Keep in mind that many women already do have insecurities about their vulva, and and some have had 'corrective' surgery - sometimes loosing all feeling down there in the process, or making sex PAINFUL. So despite everything looking just like the pornographic ideal, and thus making her appear 'sexier', the actual act has now been wrecked. For some more regendering, I will refer to Naomi Wolf's Beauty Myth:

Imagine this: penis implants, penis augmentation, foreskin enhancement, testicular silicone injections to correct asymmetry, saline injections with a choice of three sizes, surgery to correct the angle of erection, to lift the scrotum and make it pert. Before and after shots in Esquire. Risks: total numbing of the glans. Diminution of sexual feeling. Permanent obliteration of sexual feeling. Glans rigidity, to the consistency of hard plastic. Testicular swelling and hardening, with probable repeat operations, including scar tissue formation that the surgeon must break apart with manual pressure. Implant collapse. Leakage. Unknown long-term consequences. Weeks of recovery necessary during which the penis must not be touched. The above procedures are undergone because they make men sexier to women, or so men are told.

Even without surgery, it can be damaging. Being told that you are ugly, repeatedly, day in day out, can lead to a fall in self esteem. Women are constantly told that they smell bad down there, that they're too hairy. The Vagina Institute, like many others, now makes it 'official': many women have unsexy vaginas. When you are told that your vagina is so hideous that your partner hates looking at it, that it's a turn off to them, then the you may indeed have some serious anxieties about going to bed with them. Same for men - not really a good idea to barrage them with abuse about how they're too small, too thin etc. as that will make many men feel bad. As many already know, a drop in self esteem is usually mirrored by a drop insexual performance, difficulty with arousal etc. But there is no Penis Institute, spouting statistics and saying that your testicles are officially ugly. Only this constant assertion that 'some women think that...', just like the whole 'some men say that...' thing. It's just not the same.

4 comments:

  1. Imagine opening up your hotmail account to see around 10-15 emails offering you things to make your cock bigger. And going to a bar and seeing in a vending machine akin to the condom dispensers something offering you a "performance enhancer" for your cock. Because obviously all men are too small and can't last during sex.
    That's what it's liek being a man.
    At least you girls don't have it shoved in your face every time you log on or go to the pub.
    The trick is in realising that it's bullshit and you don't care.

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  2. I've received a few of those spam emails too, you know. They don't discriminate on the basis of sex. They are all from obviously fake email addresses, with all words misspelled and punctuated with numbers - or it's just an image to prevent it from being filtered. None link to a website that looks and sounds professional, advertising varieties of surgical and holistic 'imporvements' and quote large-scale surveys to prove themselves. As for the performance enhancers suggesting inadequacy, we are constantly told that we smell of rotten fish and can be smelled from across a crowdwed room. Scented sanitary products, douches. We are told our breasts could do with improvement, with wonderbras, enhancers, reducers, firming underwear et cetera at the front of the section whenever wer need more underwear - not just at La Senza or wherever. The sides of buses tell us that we have hideous amount os cellulite, and even the most perfect of thighs could be improved by x y and z. Oh... not to mention the emails I've spotted here and there regarding vaginal tightness.

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  3. Most men will take those e-mail as worthless spam and pay it no heed, while women are being told by an "institute" with all the airs of being professional. For the most part, things presented professionally are more likely to be believed, so women are more likely to be hurt by this by men being sent an e-mail saying "wuld u like a bigger pEni$?"

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  4. An average man spends a lot of time worrying about the adequacy of their penis, and in the end, the vast, very vast, majority will do nothing about it. Women are supposed to see this and actually think of getting surgery? I'm no girl (lol) but you don't exactly worry about your genitals like us guys do (right?). On the internet, or probably in magazines, a man can easily find statistics on what the "average" penis should be like, and as Dave said, it's shoved in your face anyway, and for some, it's not easy to ignore. Once again, I'm no woman (...lol?), but I don't need to be to know that you don't get the same thing. Ultimately, it'll be the same type of people who'll believe this rubbish, whether male or female, it's not a gender issue. Don't be outraged about this Vagina Institute, be outraged that people actually listen to it, or things like it.

    (Sorry if I'm trying to post this twice, I'm not sure if it worked the first time...)

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