Today, nearly one in three women delivers via cesarean section, making c-section the most common surgery performed in the U. And yet, women who deliver surgically have higher rates of risk, a longer period of recovery, and a bigger hospital bill. But I do wonder if there is some small sociological seam that has, as of yet, remained largely unexplored? The question to which I keep returning is: Does growing up in our culture somehow prime women for surgical delivery? Do those early, fraught, body experiences is it alarming that half of normal weight teenage girls see themselves as fat? Does growing up in our society mean that a woman comes to know her body as a nemesis, a foe? And does any of this body anxiety follow women into the delivery room to contour their experience of childbirth?

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Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. Story highlights Author Naomi Wolf says recent controversies reveal biased views toward women's bodies The Pussy Riot trial and Arab Spring protests showed women stripped of autonomy Women's bodies are battlegrounds used to wage culture wars, Wolf says It's scandalous when women take ownership of their own bodies, Wolf contends. It seems as if we are in a time of unprecedented struggle over the meaning of women's bodies and sexuality. Controversy is swirling about an American University professor who breast-fed a baby in class ; topless photos of Kate Middleton have been released ; and a Time magazine cover showing a mother breast-feeding her toddler sparked even more tittering in May. It is not just the breast that is contested: Pussy Riot, the punk band, was sentenced to two years in a Russian prison after a staged performance in which they did high kicks that showed too much of their bodies. They tried, from prison, to explain "what pussy meant" and "what riot meant.
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It was Thanksgiving, and Matt Silver was sitting around a table with his family when his year-old girlfriend texted. He retrieved the phone with his foot. Silver, a year-old screenwriter, was telling me of receiving his first V-selfie eight years ago. The V-selfie, though very much here, is perhaps less insistent. Shared on dating apps or in texts, it has been sent to create longing and a sense of intimacy: a missive of lust and promise to lovers, or would-be lovers, who are separated. Silver, whose new long-distance girlfriend of two years they met on Tinder took seven months before she sent her first intimate portrait from her bedroom in Hong Kong in shimmering morning light, with a glimpse of a Buddha in the background. It shows an element of trust. The new intimacy, like everything else, is virtual. Wooing, connecting, arousing and even cuckoldry is virtual.
By Carly Stern For Dailymail. These days, young single women know all too well the feelings of horror and disgust that come from opening up a text from a potential date and finding an unsolicited picture of his genitals. Far from being met with the same shock and revulsion that many women express in similar situations however, the Los Angeles resident was surprised to find that every single one of the men who responded wanted to meet her, with several returning gross and often hilarious replies. Pretty pics: Kerry Quinn sent a vagina picture to 40 men on the dating app Bumble to test their responses. The results: The Los Angeles resident was surprised that 37 of the men had positive reactions and wanted to meet, while three didn't answer. This guy wasn't content with just a close-up and wanted a full-length picture. But when it came time to try this pick-up tactic on her own, she wasn't ready to send out actual pictures of her own vagina.