BANGKOK: When Sally* and *Monica arrived at a clinic in Thailand last month, they were admittedly apprehensive. They were there for one purpose: to beautify their vaginas. While they said the idea was preposterous to them only a few months before, after speaking with other women in Thailand and across Asia who had work done on their private parts, they decided to give it a go. “We had a bunch of women show us and tell us how much better sex they were having because their partners were into that idea of a tighter and more beautiful vagina,” Sally told Bikyanews.com. At only 24-years-old, she said the concept at first appalled her, but she warmed up to the idea after talking to her husband of two years. “He and I talked about this and how our sex life was going downhill and he said he thought a new ‘look' would be nice to be around,” she said. For Monica, the reasons were similar. “I wanted to get a new spark in my life and this has resulted in days of sex.” But other women in Asia continue to be appalled by the idea and concept, saying it folds into the belief that men can choose almost everything about a woman and how she appears. “This is simply disgusting and I want nothing to do with it. I will protest and fight against it at every turn. Women are stupid to think a new vagina or one that looks different will be better for them. It's stupid,” 29-year-old former sex worker and women's rights activist Marie told Bikyanews.com. While the concept has taken off in the Western world, especially in the United Kingdom, it is growing in Asia, especially in India and Thailand. Cosmetic surgery hot spot of Thailand is now catering to a growing number of women from around the region – including plenty from Hong Kong. Part of the trend for so-called “designer vaginas” – other popular types of cosmetic vaginal surgery include vaginal rejuvenation or tightening, hymenoplasty (“revirgination”) and clitoral unhooding – labiaplasty is a fairly straightforward surgical procedure, using a scalpel or laser. It can be performed either under local or general anaesthetic, takes about 20 minutes and rarely goes wrong, doctors say. For Sally and Monica it has opened a whole new world for them and they don't regret the decision. “I would do it again for what has become of my life with sex. It's brilliant,” said Sally, with Monica nodding in agreement. In India, a “virgin” cream has taken the market by storm, but has also led to a backlash. According to the 18 Again cream ad, a woman sings and dances while she smiles into the camera, in an obvious seductive position that alludes to the fact she is not a virgin. “I feel like a virgin," she then says. Her shocked in-laws look on, before her husband joins her for some salsa-style dancing. “Feels like the very first time," she continues, as she is twirled around. The cream has sparked massive outcries over the role of women in the public sphere. After last summer's controversy surrounding Sherlyn Chopra's nude photo shoot with American adult magazine Playboy, the concept of women's empowerment has once again sparked concerns across the country that India is heading in the wrong direction in terms of women's rights. Women in the country have linked the concept of virginity promoted with the 18 Again cream with the nude photo shoot by Chopra. They feel that women are being pushed to be more sexual, privately and publicly, than ever before. With Indian women's rights activists lamenting the sexualization of women in the country, they fear the backlash from Chopra's nude shoot with the American adult magazine. Although they grant Chopra the right to do what she wants with her body, show it off to whomever, including the world, they argue it could be a negative for the country, hit by a massive number of sexual violence toward women in recent months. Chopra released the photos in a series of tweets on her personal Twitter account last month. They were nude photos and almost immediately went viral across India, with men and women wanting a glimpse of their first cover girl. The nude shoot has sparked anger among women's rights advocates in the country, saying that India has already “sexualized" women and the nude shoot will only “heighten the stereotypes." Sunita Gudnanti, a social worker who works with battered women in Delhi, told Bikyanews.com that she is disappointed in Chopra's decision to do the photo shoot. “I have heard so many stories of women being beaten up by their spouses or boyfriends because they refused to do something the man read or saw online, so the idea that an Indian woman will go nude for the magazine is likely to sexualize the issue of women's rights and heighten the stereotypes that women are objects," she said. When published, Chopra will be the first Indian to grace the cover of the magazine. She said the shoot will be “explicit," which Gudnanti argues will be a negative for Indian society. “We deal with sexual violence towards women on a daily basis here and one of the reasons for this explosion, we believe, is that the media has sexualized and made women objects," she argued. “Look at Times of India's website and others, it is full of articles about women and sex, their bodies and images of naked or little clothed women. It is very sad," she added. * Names have been changed ** Farah Hyder in India contributed to this report. BN
