The curious case of the designer vagina. Genital satisfaction, pornography and self-objectification: an empirical investigation

Abstract

Many popular writers and academic theoreticians have postulated that pornography is the main, or only driver of labiaplasty. In this model, that we have termed the Porn Thesis, women consume pornography, compare themselves unfavourably with the women depicted, become dissatisfied with their genitals and seek surgery. We hypothesised that common historical bases underpin both modern cosmetic labiaplasty and pornographic aesthetic conventions. The Porn Thesis has never been tested empirically. The five studies that comprise this thesis investigated the accuracy and utility of the Porn Thesis as a model for genital satisfaction, and proposed and evaluated alternative predictors. The study findings indicated that the Porn Thesis is not a useful model for understanding genital satisfaction. Our initial model, based only on the Porn Thesis and therefore including only demographic predictors and pornography consumption did not account for the variance in genital satisfaction. Analysis of the open-ended questions indicated that women were assessing their bodies in an holistic fashion, rather than comparing themselves to outside images. Accordingly, we identified Objectification Theory as a potential predictor of genital satisfaction. Objectification Theory posits that exposure to sexually objectifying experiences and media (including pornography) is deleterious to the psychological wellbeing of women. Unlike the Porn Thesis, Objectification Theory has testable outcomes. Additionally, self-objectification peaks at the time at which most girls are experiencing pornography for the first time. We assessed the accuracy of Objectification Theory through a systematic review of the literature investigating the role of self-objectification in the development of depression. We found that empirical work largely supported the predictions of the theory, although many studies failed to include common risk factors for depression. We then deployed a second study investigating predictors for genital satisfaction including pornography consumption, self-objectification and other predictors. We found that self-objectification was the only modifiable factor that remained in the model. This has implications for clinicians and policy-makers. Lastly, we investigated the role of self-objectification in depression and disordered eating in the context of other predictors. The Objectification Theory model was not supported for the depression outcome. However, it was supported with regard to disordered eating. Overall, we found no support for the assertion that pornography consumption impacts negatively on women’s genital self-assessment. However, self-objectification, as a model that incorporates media and bodily evaluation may have practical implications in this field. Show more