Sunday, June 25, 2006

Clitoridectomy--an American tradition

I have been re-reading Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (second edition), the incredible collection of Gloria Steinem's best essays. Many of the essays I have read several times because I read them in their first incarnation, before they became part of the first edition of the book.

There is a chapter (co-authored by Robin Morgan) on clitoridectomy and its variations, which are too horrible to describe. One of the things Steinem makes very clear is that it wasn't until the 1990s that even the most "progressive" human rights organizations included female genital mutilation in their campaigns or in their funding. It just wasn't seen as an important issue, and when someone brought it up, it was referred to as a "cultural difference."

Clitoridectomy was sometimes performed in the United States, as this essay desribes, in the 19th Century, as a means of "curing" masturbation (it worked) in women, and men who were known to masturbate were also subjected to terrible tortures, such as having acid poured on their penises. The essay goes on to to say that the advent of the 20th Century brought about an end to the use of clitoridectomy in the U.S. Steinem refutes this assertion, however, by referring to clitoridectomies performed in the U.S. in the 1950s to--you guessed it--stop female masturbation, "melancholia," "promiscuity," and to "cure" lesbianism (because everyone knows that "mature," i.e., heterosexual, women have "vaginal" orgasms).

Some of you may remember the "love surgery" procedure from the 1970s, in which the clitoris was moved to a different location (in our current political climate, those in charge would probably like to move it to somewhere in Old Europe). This little bit of "progress" in the medical community finally acknowledged two things: that women receive sexual pleasure via the clitoris, and that women were entitled to receive such pleasure. But instead of encouraging men to "find" the clitoris (how did they lose it?!) and learn to stimulate it, the medical community's answer was to just move the damned thing so the penis could get to it more easily during intercourse. Aside from being incredibly male-centric and misogynistic, this "solution" was also a product of ignorance, for not all women can receive successful clitoral stimulation from intercourse.

In 1979, one American doctor was completely reconstucting women's vaginas so that the penis could have "better access."

Last year, when Eve Ensler appeared on Real Time, she made the rest of the (male) panel visibly uncomfortable when she said that though behaviors may differ, attitudes toward women and girls are the same in this country as they are everywhere else in the world. A short history of clitoridectomy in America shows us that sometimes, even behaviors are the same.

8 Comments:

Alice Walker does a great job of bringing this horrible act of mutilation out of the closet in her book, Possessing The Secret of Joy. The truly tragic part of all of this aside from the physical and mental trauma that each victim goes through is that no one cares. Even with the enlightenment by the crusaders who bring such autroicties to light, there isn't enough being done to prevent the practice from continuing. I believe you're right, it's a woman thing, and men just don't get involved. While I feel circumsision is barbaric and while it is a covenant between God and the Jews, I still think it's a horrible thing. baby boys getting their foreskin cut off without sedation, that's cruel. But at least they do it when the baby is tiny and they just cut a little bit of skin, not cut a chunk out and sew it all together, leaving only a tiny hole for urine to come out. And they do this to girls around eight or nine without sedation and in dirty shacks with nasty knives and sew them up with anything that will hold. The responsiblity of the husband is to rip her apart, or in the cases of some men, cut her just enough with a knive. Where do men get off doing that to women, to little girls?

By Blogger zelda1, at 7:02 AM  

An elderly aunt was receiving home care for awhile from a Nigerian woman aide. One day this aide came by while I was visiting my aunt, and since my aunt had told me what a cordial woman she was, I thought I'd ask her a little about her cultural heritage. Jumping in boldly, I asked her if her country still practiced female circumcision. She responded quite openly: "Oh yes, and I myself am circumcised. It's meant to help prevent pregnancy outside of marriage, and IT WORKS!" She went on to say that she was very concerned about having her two young daughters circumcised too, but as yet she had been unable to find a doctor in the U.S. who would do it! You can bet that, with as many Nigerians as live in America, she will find someone, perhaps even a doctor, who will perpetuate this atrocity AKA "tradition" on her daughters. Right here in America, folks!

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