There are different levels of severity with FGM that are categorized into types. Daughters of Eve has created a diagram and explanation of the types that breaks down the differences well. The type is dependent on culture.
Type 1: Clitoridectomy is the most common. It involves the removal of the clitoris. Scar tissue and raw nerves remain. According to Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture,“The pain inflicted by FGM does not stop with the initial procedure, but often continues as ongoing torture throughout a woman’s life”. Here are three accounts of sex after FGM.
“It is worse than labour pains because it is continuous. Every time you urinate, it feels like you have been cut afresh. It felt like my private parts had been set ablaze. I cried silently so that people wouldn’t say I was a coward. What I really wanted to do was scream out loud. There was no one to soothe me or comfort me, I had to be strong. To date, when I close my eyes, I can still feel the pain I felt then.” And to think this was only the beginning of a painful womanhood." --Chepokilipa in A Woman's Experience at the Thorns of Culture
Type 2: Excision involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, with or without excision of the labia majora.
Type 3: Infibulation occur by cutting out the clitoris and surrounding area and stitching together the folds to create a seal. Everything is closed only allowing for a small amount of urine and menstrual blood to escape. This creates a back log of urine and frequent and painful infections. Often a knife is needed to reopen the vagina enough to engage in intercourse. After childbirth the women may be restitched. This is an excruciating and potentially deadly procedure.
Over 130 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM. The reasons are varied for FGM, but total control over women is the key theme. FGM guarantees that the women who undergo it will remain chaste (since sex is far too painful to ever be enjoyed). In many cultures it is seen as a right of passage from girlhood to womanhood. The girl is now ready to be married off.
FGM is far more prevalent in the USA than previously thought , rates have doubled in the USA, yet this is not something many realize. Medical professionals and social workers must be made aware of this practice. The UK has made strides to not only ban the practice on UK soil, but also making "Cutting Holidays"illegal. It is time we take a proactive stance here too.
I wrote this blog out of frustration. Nearly every article written on this subject inevitably has several comments on how this is 1. a cultural issue that we need not worry about (Why white men should care about FGM too) and 2. What about the men? Male mutilation happens all over the world too! I compiled this information to answer these questions in one place. Hopefully it is clear to see how FGM is not the same as circumcision. The removal of the foreskin in circumcision does not affect the male sex organ. Whereas some scholarly works argue in favor of male circumcision, there are none that could possibly promote FGM. There are absolutely NO health benefits to FGM; only excruciating pain, infections, and severe scar tissue, as well as psychological pain, and PTSD. Clinicians need to remain aware of the risks to their clients as well as a working knowledge of the pain and effects to help their client in a culturally sensitive manner. It remains a stigma as long as we ignore its reality.
There are numerous ways to get involved to stop the process. Support existing programs. Maasai cricket warriors, Young Woman's Center, 28 Too Many just to name a few. Educate yourself on the practice and write your congressperson. Ask them to support legislation to further prevent FGM on American soil. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. Together we can end this.
Hmmm... The issue is children's rights. If you are against physically harming and torturing a child then you are against FGM and male circumcision. Sure, perhaps one is less bloody than the other (debatable)... but either way: if you against harming children then you are against all forms of circumcision, female AND male. Period.
ReplyDeleteYou say it is debatable, but it really isn't. There are actual medical reasons why a foreskin would be removed. Studies by the World Health Organization have determined that the removal of the foreskin significantly decreases risk of HIV. The foreskin is removed but the sex organ remains intact, facing no damage. There is also no evidence of reduced sexual sensation. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2007/9789241596169_eng.pdf
ReplyDeleteWith FGM there is absolutely no medical benefit.It is only done to control women and ensure their virginity upon marriage. The ability to enjoy sex is taken away and painful physiological and psychological scars remain. This is why we cannot compare the two. Talking circumcision only serves to derail the movement to end FGM and it isn't fruitful. There are appropriate venues to discuss circumcision, but not on posts concerning FGM. A good source on the topic are men who have had the procedure done as adults. Here is a link that gives their first person account. http://www.circinfo.net/the_circumcision-debate.html Many insist no change in sexual function and satisfaction. We cannot say the same of FGM. Surely you can see this.
Circinfo.net is a website by a man with an agenda of promoting circumcision. In fact he is the author of a book called "in favour of circumcision" (look it up in Amazon). It's far from unbiased.
DeleteI can also point you to a book called "Unspeakable mutilations" (also, look it up in Amazon). It contains first person testimony by 50 males who feel emotionally and physically harmed by their circumcision.
There is evidence of sexual difference. Sorrells (2007), Frisch (2011), Bronselaer (2013)... Taylor (1996, 1999). The author of the website you cited has made a point of try to criticize all the studies I just mentioned, by twisting stadistic, dismissing the real points and all kind of tricks. There is also good evidence that circumcision is very painful for newborns and may cause infant trauma.
Utter nonsense. Shame on you!
ReplyDeleteUtter nonsense? Well, that's fine, then tell me why? If you have a point, make it, otherwise why bother?
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that significantly decreases the risk of HIV is condoms.
DeleteThis is a human rights issue about bodily integrity and bodily autonomy.
No one has the right to take the choice away from another human being (even their own children) by surgically removing parts of their body for any reason LESS than LIFE THREATENING.
In the US male circumcision has been done for so long people seek to justify and trivialize it, while in the UK and Europe it is seen as barbaric. Male and female circumcision in the US rose as a cure for masturbation late in the 19th century. In the US male circumcision has been practiced for so long people see it as normal and trivialize it, the same as in those cultures where FGM has been practiced for so long. How can we make other cultures stop doing such harmful and unnecessary things to their children if we also do harmful and unnecessary things to our children in the US? Boys and girls die from these procedures, 100 baby boys a year and an unknown amount of girls and women. These human injustices need to stop.
Jessica, you disgust me. There are no true medical reasons for male circumcision other than a rare condition (phimosis). The only reason it is done is for evil religious reasons, the same reason why FGM is done. Your double standards sicken me.
ReplyDeleteAlso if you don't want STDs, then don't have sex with someone with an STD. Mutilating boys' penises because of a tiny STD risk is the stupidest thing on the planet.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to ignore that FGM was practiced by American physicians during at least the first half of the 20th century, and it is still practiced on babies who are deemed to have a "large" clitoris - at Johns Hopkins and many other places.
ReplyDeleteFor the very first 1/2 of the 20th century, American physicians were able to provide "medical reasons" to remove girls clitoris, clitoral hood, or forcefully separate the clitoral hood from the clitoris (3 different procedures for 3 different reasons). Now that all that is considered obsolete, they are still capable of providing "medical reasons" to remove the shaft, part of the glans and part of the hood of girls as long as they are seen as having a "defective" clitoris.
You seem to think that FGM is just "theirs". Sorry, nope, it's here as well. Not immigrants. The very same American medical community still does it.
"The foreskin is removed but the sex organ remains intact, facing no damage"
ReplyDeleteNope. The foreskin is part of the sex organ. Without it the glans faces friction and dryness for years, leading to progressive deterioration. If you compare the glanses of a circumcised and a non-circumcised males in their 40s or 50s, the difference is quite notorious. The glans of the circumcised male grows a thicker surface, driving all the nerve endings deeper, causing gradual loss of sensitivity.
Circumcision as part of HIV prevention only applies to heterosexual-only males, and only for vaginal penetration. Unprotected oral sex, anal sex, or any contact with males do not have any risk reduction from circumcision. Because contracting HIV is highly dependent on behavior and lifestyle, adult males should be capable of making their own decision upon reviewing evidence and deciding based on their own way of living.
If women want control of their reproductive organs, well, guess what, we males also want control of our reproductive organs. And that includes being allowed to keep the totality of it regardless of mommy's or daddy's religion, culture or false beliefs -usually enabled by the AAP or the CDC.
One last point, circumcision with very few exceptions, is rejected by Christianity at large. The New Testament speaks against circumcision. American circumcision is not done because of Christianity. American circumcision started as a consequence of the anti-masturbation craze of the Victorian era (late 19th century), the same craze that gave us British and American white women subjected to clitoridectomies during childhood.
ReplyDeleteThat the American medical community managed to keep the medical ritual of circumcision is only through an exercise of rationalization and permanent look for diseases to justify the continuation of the practice.
The U.S. is the only country in the world were babies are circumcised for "non-religious" reasons. No other country in the world circumcises babies under medical excuses. All the countries have access to the same evidence, so why do you think the other countries refuse to do it?
FGM/C is recognized as a harmful practice that violates human rights of girls and women by World Health Organization. FGM is very different from male circumcision, which doesn't necessarily involve the cutting of the foreskin, but having a minor procedure that allows foreskin to die and fall off. It is not recognized as harmful or deadly to boys. Regardless, this is not the point. Those who want to troll will do so and argue for the sake of wanting to sound intellectual or whatever. Addressing the main topic here, FGM requires more than just "banning" the practice because it is banned by international law and all of these African countries in the map you added have already laws that ban the practice. Yet, people still do it anyway? Why? It's not religious but tradition. Depending on the country and culture of practice, some think the clitoris resembles a manly part -- something that is not feminine and needs to be removed to be desired for marriage. Others think that the clitoris is the reason why women cheat on their husbands, or the trigger of sexual desire therefore makes it easier for women to commit adultery. The reasons vary and the practice is too private. Most of these procedures are done at home, making it very difficult to know how many are undergoing it. The only way to have health communication messages targeted at everyone with hopes it will change the behavior of the younger generations who are the key to ending the practice.
ReplyDelete