It’s hoped the overturning of an MA15+ rating on a doco about body image (and labiaplasty) could signal the end of airbrushed vulvas in Australian media.

The makers of the Aussie documentary have won their appeal against the classification of the doco Embrace, after it was slapped with a MA15+ rating because it showed close up photos of women’s genitals during a scene on labiaplasty, including "protruding labia".

The Classification Review Board revised the rating to M, which means it can be shown to teenagers without parental guidance and makes it far easier for schools to show it to students. It also means the trailer can be screened in cinemas to more than just MA15+ audiences.

In the doco, director and activist Taryn Brumfitt travels around the world speaking to women about how they perceive their bodies and societal pressures to look a certain way.

Taryn received international attention when she posted a before-and-after photo of herself, capturing her own body image struggles. She's since started the organisation, the Body Image Movement.

Share Facebook

Twitter

Mail

Whatsapp The before and after images posted by mother of three, Taryn Brumfitt, have been seen in every country around the world by over 100 million people.

Women are sick of being at war with their bodies and they’re tired of these images in the media of girls being sexualised and women being objectified and there’s a lot of pushback against that.”

The original rating decision was based on the sequence in the film when Taryn is speaking to a plastic surgeon about the rise of labiaplasty, (where women have their surgery so their inner lips don’t protrude outside their outer labia), and before-and-after pictures are shown, as well as photos of a range of healthy vulvas.

“In the film there’s 12 seconds of 20 still images of women’s vulva and the range of women’s vulva," director Taryn tells Hack.

“It’s educational, it’s enlightening and I’ve had so much feedback from so many people saying ‘that particular scene made me feel normal for the first time in my life. I had no idea women’s come in such a variety of shapes and forms and it made me feel really good.'”

Skip YouTube Video FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame.

On review, the Board decided the nudity is justified by the discussion on body diversity and the “impact is no higher than moderate.”

“The role of the Classification Board is to prevent minors from seeing harmful content, and there’s nothing harmful in the film. In fact, it’s really important,” Taryn says.

As Hack reported earlier this month, the number of women going under the knife for labiaplasty tripled between 2003 and 2013. In the University of Melbourne study of 443 doctors, half reported being asked about the procedure and one-third of those requesting it were under 18.

“So many young girls are turning to labiaplasty because they think there’s something wrong with their body, and of course there’s nothing wrong with their bodies.”

“With pornography, there’s only one type of body.”

'Tightly shut like a clam'

There’s a long and complicated history with women’s vulvas and censorship.

In Australian magazines, women’s labia have to be airbrushed so the genitals only have a single crease with no inner labia sticking out, or else they’re hit with a R18+ classification.

"Realistic depictions of sexualised nudity should not be high in impact. Realistic depictions may contain discreet genital detail but there should be no genital emphasis," the guidelines state.

Victorian Sex Party MP Fiona Patten tweeted her support for the relaxing of the no labia policy.

Skip Twitter Tweet FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. For over 20 years Aus magazines have had to airbrush labias I hope this decision will be extended to them #nomorebarbie #censorship https://t.co/0br5y2pju8 — Fiona Patten MP (@FionaPattenMLC) October 17, 2016

Senator Patten says she's been complaining about this issue in magazine classifications for two decades, saying that the airbrushing of vulvas is known as clamming because they alter the vulva so it's "tightly shut like a clam."

"The general rule was up until very recently, for women no pink bits and for men no erections," Ms Patten tells Hack.

"I don't think at any point, 20 years ago or today, was it ever correct that publications were required to airbrush a woman's bits to create to create and unnatural norm, a false norm, and I'm pleased that this has been corrected."

The Victorian Senator believes it's time Australia gets rid of the current classification system, where all films that are released must be reviewed and rated by a government body.

Taryn agrees the classification regulations around women's genitals are outdated.

"It is so outrageous. My first comment [after the initial decision] was ‘what, if there’s no protruding labia it would have been fine?’”

“What an archaic decision, really.”