Involuntary Foreskinectomy Awareness _______ Click →

Our Own Cultural Myopia?

By Harriet Washington

When Fauziya Kasinga, 19, of Togo sought U.S. asylum to escape female circumcision, it was impossible not to sympathize with her plight. No one should live in fear of having parts of her genitals sliced off against her will. Yet I was uncomfortable with the ethnocentric tone of those who criticized female circumcision in Africa as "a twisted entry into adulthood." They seemed to forget that nearly 60 percent of the newborn boys in the United States undergo a similar ritual.

K. Anthony Appiah, professor of African-American Studies and philosophy at Harvard, agrees that notions of cultural superiority may be at work but says that-acknowledging that doesn't necessarily imply support for other cultures' traditions. "...I think you can agree that there is ethnocentrism there while still thinking [female] circumcision is a bad idea."

Atlantic Monthly magazine smugly described female circumcision as "the sort of problem that until now Americans have never had to confront, " which must surely be news to the thousands of men in the burgeoning U.S. movement against male circumcision. Bills barring female circumcision on U.S. soil and barring trade with African countries that allow it have been presented, and African women are portrayed as helpless victims on whom barbaric violations are perpetrated. But one observer tells how women in northern Sudan successfully opposed men's attempt to change their type of female circumcision to a less severe form.

"People complain about the practice without asking women themselves the obvious questions such as `What does it feel like?'" Appiah points out. "Also, the arguments against female circumcision focus on sexuality rather than medical problems such as infections and infertility. In many of these cultures, the focus on orgasms strikes people as overdone."

Ifeyinwa Iweriebor, formerly of Black Women in Publishing Inc., sums it up: "The language and tone of the outcry in most cases reflect a total lack of respect for the culture of other peoples."

News stories refer to "female genital mutilation," a judgmental term that lumps together many different types of female circumcision. For example, in clitoridectomy, the clitoris is nicked; in excision, the clitoris and labia majora are cut off; in infibulation, the labia majora are cut off and the sides are stitched together, leaving a small opening for urination. Before the wedding night the woman's genitals have to be cut open.

"Infibulation is really horrendous. But in the politicization of female circumcision, all operations are reduced to that," says Corrine Kratz, of the Institute of African Studies at Emory University. She says that the Okiek women in Kenya with whom she has worked and lived "are not circumcised until after they reach sexual maturity and are often in a position to compare pre-and post-circumcised sex."

Yet circumcised women "speak of sex with relish." Some women insist that female circumcision enhances sexuality.

Muslims, Christians and Jews in 28 African countries practice female circumcision, and it was performed in Andean, Australian, Bedouin, Malaysian, Indonesian and ancient Roman cultures, says Asha Samad Matias, director of Women's Studies at the City College of New York.

Twenty percent of the world's males are circumcised -- the prospect appalls many of the rest. There are no medical reasons for male circumcision, and although removing an infant's foreskin is much less radical than infibulation, critics decry a loss of sexual sensitivity and the risks of infection, mutilation of the penis and even death. They also are concerned about an early association of pain with sexuality. But we in the U.S. tend to associate male circumcision with normality, sexual presentability and cleanliness -- exactly the reasons offered by some defenders of female circumcision.

How can we cast aspersions on their cultural rituals without questioning our own bloody rites? An old adage about stones and glass houses comes to mind.

An FGM researcher compares MGM cultural justifications:

http://www.fgmnetwork.org/intro/mgmfgm.html

Human Genital Mutilation Classification Chart:

http://www.icgi.org/hgm_classification.htm

Female Circumcision and Male Circumcision, Is There A Difference?:

http://www.compleatmother.com/articles3/femalecircumcision.shtml

Common Denominators between Male & Female "Circumcision":

http://www.noharmm.org/comparison.htm

Underlying Justifications in the US and Africa:

http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/third/hanny3.html

Side-by-side Comparison of official AAP positions:

http://www.circumstitions.com/AAP.html