Department of Urology, Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Sex Med Rev. 2020 Oct;8(4):542-547. doi: 10.1016/j.sxmr.2020.06.002. Epub 2020 Jul 18.
Surgical and other procedures to alter the shape of the female external genitalia, especially the labia minora, are increasingly popular and controversial worldwide.
This article aims to delineate and complicate the medical and moral controversy around these vulvoplasty procedures, by describing how female genital aesthetics, their interpretation, and alteration vary over time, space, and culture.
The history of the Hottentot Venus is used as a pivot about which to consider current biomedical, anthropological, and ethical literatures regarding female genital appearance and its manipulation. Intersectionality describes how different systems influence each other to affect the agency of certain individuals or groups, and is therefore an ideal analytic method for biopsychosocial concerns of sex and informed consent.
The 19th century anatomic study and display of Sarah "Saartjie" Baartman, the Hottentot Venus, defined a European vulvar ideal by demonstrating its opposite. Today, the ideal appearance of the labia minora is variable across cultures and nationalities, and various mechanical and surgical manipulations are sought or imposed upon women to bring their bodies into conformity with these ideals.
For European audiences, Baartman exemplified a stereotypical association between genital appearance, sexual availability, and accessibility as a biomedical subject. These logical linkages were a by-product of sexist, racist, and colonial ideologies that have since fallen out of favor. However, their genital effects continue to influence bioethical considerations of genitoplasty into the present day. Chubak B. Historical and Ethical Perspectives on Vulvoplasty. Sex Med Rev 2020;8:542-547.
在全球范围内，外科手术和其他改变女性外生殖器形状的程序，尤其是阴唇缩小术，越来越受到欢迎，同时也存在很大争议。
本文旨在通过描述女性生殖器美学及其随时间、空间和文化的变化，描绘和复杂化这些外阴成形术的医学和道德争议，阐述女性生殖器外观及其改变的解释。
本文以霍屯督维纳斯为轴心，参考当前关于女性生殖器外观及其处理的生物医学、人类学和伦理学文献，探讨女性生殖器美学的历史及其变化。交叉性理论描述了不同系统如何相互影响，从而影响某些个人或群体的能动性，因此是分析性和知情同意的性别相关生物-心理-社会问题的理想分析方法。
19 世纪对萨拉“萨蒂”巴尔特曼（“霍屯督维纳斯”）的解剖学研究和展示定义了欧洲外阴美学理想，通过展示其对立面来定义。如今，小阴唇的理想外观在不同文化和民族中有所不同，各种机械和手术操作被寻求或强加给女性，以使她们的身体符合这些理想。
对于欧洲观众来说，巴尔特曼的生殖器外观、性可用性和可及性之间的刻板联系是将其作为生物医学主体的一个例子。这些逻辑联系是性别歧视、种族主义和殖民意识形态的副产品，这些意识形态在当时已经不受欢迎。然而，它们的生殖器影响仍然影响着生殖器成形术的生物伦理考虑。Chubak B. 外阴成形术的历史和伦理视角。性医学评论 2020；8:542-547。
