From vaginal exception to exceptional vagina: The biopolitics of female genital cosmetic surgery

Abstract

Female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS) refers to a group of procedures designed to alter the aesthetics or ‘function’ of women’s genital anatomy. This article analyzes the biopolitics of FGCS, opening up for discussion the relationship between biopolitics and vaginas. I theorize the biopolitics of FGCS in terms of how these procedures discipline individual bodies, demarcate and regulate a population defined by its vulval aesthetics, and ultimately create the optimal, ‘biopolitical vagina’. I suggest that these surgeries signify a contemporary (re)deployment of biopower aimed at making the vagina more useful – a move from vaginal exception to the exceptional vagina.