Labiaplasty and the Melancholic Breast

Bibliographic Data

ID4577394
AuthorsCamille Nurka (Film Independent, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume16
Issue3
Pages204-225
Publication date2015-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Gender and Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1524-0657 • E-ISSN: 1940-9206
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15240657.2015.1073070
OpenAlexW1751615285
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited27

This article is an attempt to think through the sociosymbolic dimensions of the phenomenon of nonmedical or cosmetic surgical reduction of the labia minora, an interventionist medical practice that is gaining currency in the contemporary Western context. The article seeks to navigate the symbolic meaning of labial excision in the contemporary Western “postfeminist” context. I suggest that the desire for labiaplasty is embedded in a dialectical narrative of femininity that draws upon a specifically postfeminist distinction between desirable sexuality and undesirable maternity. I use the Kleinian theory of melancholic loss to argue that the contemporary desire for labiaplasty is indicative of a failure of mourning and the inability to establish the maternal breast as a good internal object in the psychosocial formation of the feminine body-ego. I argue that because the mother’s breast cannot be legitimately mourned, the female body is compelled to abject its reproductive, animal materiality

Aesthetics · Art · Breast augmentation · Dialectic · Epistemology · Femininity · Human sexuality · Labia minora · Literature · Narrative · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Issues · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Gender Studies · History · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology

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