Abstract
Labiaplasty, an invasive surgical procedure that reduces the size of the labia minora, has dramatically increased in popularity, particularly among adolescent and young adult women in Western cultures. To understand this increase, we examined two possible underlying factors: self-objectification and system justifying beliefs. In Study 1, we predicted that system justifying beliefs would moderate the relationship between self-objectification and the desire to undergo labiaplasty. In Study 2, we also examined the unique role of labia-specific surveillance. Moreover, we predicted that system justification would be related to differences in the labia lengths that were considered normal versus desirable. In both studies, system justifying beliefs moderated the effect of self-objectification on dissatisfaction with one’s labia and consideration for getting a labiaplasty, but the nature of this effect was different for general indicators of self-objectification and labia-specific surveillance.
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Notes
We cite the presentation instead of the article because the sr2 information was included in the presentation, but not the final article.
Fit statistics are not provided for moderation analyses including a latent factor in MPlus. Thus, fit statistics are only provided for model 0.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported in part by Michigan State University’s Graduate Student Research Enhancement Award and Brock University. We would also like to thank Elvira Prusaczyk and Carolyn Hafer for all of their feedback and advice.
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Drolet, C.E., Drolet, A.M. Self-Objectification, System Justifying Beliefs, and the Rise of Labiaplasty. Soc Just Res 32, 318–348 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-019-00326-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-019-00326-8