Hollback Girl sent me an article today from The Washington Post about plastic surgeons that specialize in vaginal restoration and "rejuvenation." Specifically, surgeons who specialize in the nipping, tucking and tightening of the hoo haw. One passage in the article stated "Warner and Matlock say that patients frequently request 'a nice sleek look'... Women tell us they want to look like they're 18 again.'" I don't know about you, but if your face says 40, your vagina is going to look pretty darn strange if it's a fresh faced 18. Personally, there are lots of other body parts that I'd prefer to freshen up before my nether regions. Call me crazy, but more people will see my face in broad daylight than my dooja (or at least I hope so).

This is yet another step in the continuing trend to achieve a shiny, sleek, hairless, flawless, lineless, ageless blank physical canvas. Really, people, this must cease. At this rate, we'll start morphing into Spielberg styled aliens. As human beings, we have hair and body parts that eventually sag and those charming facial lines that indicate you've had more than a few good laughs. Hollaback Girl asked the question--When is the pendulum going to swing on this one? When are we going to see a backlash against ultra-waxed celebs and age-defying enhancements? Well, that's a fine question.

If we're going to go back to celebrating our natural selves a bit more realistically, fashion will have to be the arbiter. There seems to a lurch toward adapting some of the fashion sensibilities of the 1970s (by this I mean early 70s and not the skin tight polyester second half). With the introduction of some of these fashion staples (the platform, hot pants, the baby doll dress, the peasant blouse, etc), will the 70s natural approach in appearance follow suit? Will we celebrate the radiance of our experience on our faces? Will we wear the battle wounds of our years on our bodies like the rings of a felled tree? Will we let our vaginas flap in the wind because we enjoyed the sex we had and we won't lie about it? It's kind of hard to imagine the Upper East Side plastic surgery emporiums deserted like upscale ghost towns, but at some point women may start to like themselves just as nature made them. What a novel idea that would be.