Female genital cutting and cosmetic genital surgery: a narrative synthesis of global practices, motivations, and the influence of aesthetic ideals.

This study advances current discourse by introducing a novel analytic framework-the global quest for genital beauty-to clarify how sociocultural ideals of vulva appearance shape motivations, meanings, and policy responses surrounding female genital cutting (FGC) and female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS). Using a theory‑informed narrative synthesis of literature published between 2015 and August 2025 across PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, supplemented by seminal theoretical works and agency reports. The analysis demonstrates that although FGC and FGCS arise within distinct sociocultural systems, both are influenced by gendered expectations about bodily propriety and aesthetic norms. The review identifies substantial variations within each category: FGC encompasses procedures with differing degrees of tissue alteration and risk, while FGCS includes a growing array of elective cosmetic interventions shaped by media, pornography, and clinical marketing. An estimated 230 million women and girls in countries with available survey data have undergone FGC, requiring a 27‑fold acceleration in progress to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal target, while clinical organizations report rising demands for FGCS despite limited evidence of benefit and acknowledged risks. By applying the genital beauty framework, this study reframes the comparison between FGC and FGCS, highlighting both their divergences and their shared entanglement with globalized beauty norms. This perspective supports more precise ethical, clinical, and policy guidance, including rights‑based strategies to accelerate abandonment of FGC and reduce non‑therapeutic demand for FGCS through regulation, norm‑change interventions, and education about genital diversity.