MissCegenation of Reciprocal Crap Exchange sent in a link to The Perfect Phit, a NYC spa dedicated to “pelvic health” (phit = “pelvic health integrated techniques”). An article in the New York Times describes the spa and some of its services. The owner, Dr. Laura Romanzi, claims she is helping women get “in shape from the inside out,” though the article notes, “…some doctors scoff at the notion of pelvic fitness, which is not a medical term.”
The most interesting image is a brochure Dr. Romanzi provides with pictures illustrating a labiaplasty (cosmetic surgery on the labia). And no, it’s not safe for work.
A screenshot from the brochure, which divides labia into “normal” and “excessive” categories:
Another highlight from the NYT article:
Dr. Romanzi said the pelvic fitness concept is based more on her clinical experience than on rigorous medical evidence. The spa will also offer cosmetic laser treatments intended to tighten the skin of the vulva in post-menopausal women.
This is part of the increased pressure on women to pay attention to the “defects” in more and more parts of their bodies, as the NYT notes:
With the ubiquity of pornography, the pelvis had already become a marketable area for modification, ranging from the Brazilian bikini wax to genital surgery referred to as vaginal “rejuvenation.” Doctors have even coined a term for such genital “beautification”: cosmetogynecology or cosmogynecology.
We’ve seen this before–remember the days when teeth whiteners were only marketed to smokers and heavy coffee drinkers? Now whitening your teeth is ubiquitous, from products you can buy over-the-counter to services offered by dentists.
The other thing I think is interesting is the way more obviously “health” related services and cosmetic procedures are increasingly conflated and performed by the same people: you get your teeth whitened by the same dentist who does routine cleanings, and Dr. Romanzi touts pelvic “fitness” activities like Kegel exercises while also offering purely cosmetic procedures like labiaplasty. There’s something a bit disturbing to me about the idea that the person I go to for routine medical/dental/whatever care would also have a vested interest in convincing me to get cosmetic procedures (in addition to the incentives to prescribe certain medications, etc.–I’m not naive enough to think the conflicts of interest are new).
You can read MissCegenation’s take on the pelvic spa here. Also see this post with before-and-after pics of labiaplasties.
