What would you like to accessorize today? Your ears? Your neck? Your wrist?
Perhaps your genitalia?
With vajazzling, which is the practice of placing glitter and jewels to the bikini area, and pejazzling, which involves Swarovski crystals being used upon the male genital area, you can now do so.
I recall my initial reactions to the aforementioned practices. I viewed them simply as odd methods of embodiment to engage in, without giving much thought into what they may mean in terms of body-related societal expectations.
While analyzing vajazzling and pejazzling, I wondered about whether or not there could possibly be a link between them and an increasing openness towards body parts that have been considered too taboo to even discuss at times. After all, the method of adding glitter, jewels, and crystals – products that shine, that are meant to be worn in order to increase visibility of oneself – draw attention to the places they are being applied upon. Therefore, it appears as though the phenomenons involve an attempt to incite viewer interest in the genitalia. By doing so, the practices seem to remove the earlier restrictive societal expectations placed upon genitalia (in terms of the encouragement of a lack of thinking about them, discussing them, making them more “apparent”, etc.), and replace them with a more unbarred mindset.
However, could vajazzling and pejazzling signal another form of thinking (that may be seen as not so transformative in nature)? Perhaps, they point to beauty standards that are shifting to encompass more body parts (i.e. not just the face) and that delineate that one must consistently change parts of themselves to appear better. In this case, those who engage in the practices could be adhering to a societal ideal that entails they should change their genitalia, or, at least, make it be more visually appealing.
One article states, “following on from the almost cult-level success of the ‘vajazzle’ comes its evil twin brother, the ‘pejazzle'”, delineating that not everyone is all too happy about these forms of embodiment. This may mean that society is still remaining closed-minded about genitalia, that it has not gained much ground in fostering a “need for change” mindset towards the parts, or maybe neither. What do you think?
Unruly Bodies 
wow i have never heard that before, i dont think i would ever to that to myself because i dont want to have that much attention down there. i can see why people would get it, to me its another way a person can express himself/herself without words. even though its sounds very wierd to get that on your body parts because not that many will see it but you and the person your dating or married.
These are such good questions! You highlight how practices can be interpreted in such wildly different ways. I’ll be thinking more about this…
Hmm, interesting. I like the idea that the level of taboo around genitals is decreasing. I hope that is true! However, your point about needing to change/fix-up/decorate body parts in order to make them more enticing stands out to me. I’ve had internal dialogues with myself along similar lines when it comes to wearing makeup, shaving body hair, or wearing heels. Am I not good enough unless I alter my body somewhat?
But then I think, it’s not necessarily about decorating/changing your body to make it “better.” Sometimes it’s fun to just be different! Maybe sometimes you shave your genitals, or wear red lipstick, or earrings, just to mix things up.
Can body decoration be neutral?
Soo…I was too curious to not look this up more. I wasn’t sure how exactly this would look and I was surprised. From what I have gathered from Google Images, vajazzling requires women to remove all of their pubic hair. Ouch. Is this practice progressive in anyway? In some pictures I saw, it basically looked like they just had crystals instead of pubic hair. Is this really a beauty standard we now want to hold ourselves to? What is wrong with hair? I, for one, am not a fan of this practice. I think that this practice says that hair is ugly and crystals look cuter. Many women already feel insecure about what to do with their hair “down there” and this could jsut further complicate the issue.
Interesting concept. I still don’t know how I feel about it.
I’m surprised no one has brought this up yet, but what if women and men are choosing to pejazzle and vajazzle because it’s a special thing just for them. Simliar to the way one can wear cute underwear or a cute bra; no one knows what you’re wearing underneath your shirt or pants but it makes you feel good to know there are whales/kittens/lace/rhinestones on there.
I don’t think I would ever personally advocate the practice, mainly because removing all of that hair sounds like a pain in the butt and how about allergic reactions to whatever the “bedazzlers” have to use to apply the sparkles or crystals?
A part of me thinks this practice is silly and just another way for hair to be declared verboten. But the whimsical side of me is amused and intrigued by this idea-if confronted with a vajazzle or pejazzle I’m not sure what I would do, but bursting into laughter is coming to mind…this art form is just so outside of what the natural body can ever produce.
I have no doubt in my mind, that every Edward Cullen fangirl and fanboy out there would love to get his or her boyfriend or girlfriend to get their dazzle on. You too can have a significant other with sparkling “vampire-like” genitals!
This is definitely a new concept to me as well. The first thing that comes to mind is “For what?!” But then I consider the idea just a little further and realize that my initial reaction makes me somewhat of a hypocrite. Body art comes in many forms including the vajazzle or pejazzle and also tattoos. I would definitely be a hypocrite if I couldn’t understand “the point” of adorning your body in this manner in such a secret spot. I have a tattoo that covers most of my left side and no one ever sees it but me and whoever I choose to give access to seeing it. The same goes with the “private” areas that these “decorations” are on. The person wearing them would likely be doing it for themselves because these areas aren’t ones we go around exposing in everyday life (like a tattoo on an arm or shoulder, etc). I have no problem with these adornments, however I don’t feel the need to express myself with one of them.