"Female circumcision."
While I appreciate the American media's uncharacteristically delicate terminology, every circumcised man I've ever known has still been able to achieve orgasm.
Whereas, women and girls who undergo "female circumcision," a practice common in many African countries, aren't so lucky. Let’s face it, it's pretty hard to orgasm when your clit has been cut off.
An Ethiopian man in Atlanta, Georgia has been convicted by a US court of cruelty to children and aggravated battery for removing his two-year-old daughter's clitoris with a pair of scissors.
He was sentenced to 10 years.
Complete removal of the clitoris is common in many African, and particularly Muslim, cultures. Frequently, the labia are also cut off as well. Sometimes what remains of the labia are sewn shut, leaving only a small hole for urination. Some cultures make a ritual of a man opening up the scar that closes the entrance to his wife's vagina on their wedding night.
Yes, it is hard to imagine a cultural tradition that indicates a more abhorrent and, well, sickening view of women.
To say nothing of the risk of infection, infertility, and other medical complications at the time of the procedure and throughout the female’s life.
And although I think the sentence for this asshole could've been longer (he’s in jail for 10 years, she’s missing a body part for the rest of her life) I applaud the court that convicted him for not falling victim to the pressure to tolerate intolerance.
This practice is inflicted on women to subjugate and terrify them, and for no other reason. I don’t care how ingrained it is in your culture, or for how long your tribe or your village has been practicing it. It attempts to control women by removing their ability to experience sexual pleasure. And whether it be a Massai elder, or an American Christian fundamentalist, anyone who is afraid of a woman’s sexuality is a primitive being.
Oh, and in honor of the 3 MILLION women and girls each year who experience some form of this horror, let’s just call it was it is – female genital mutilation.
Friday, November 03, 2006
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6 comments:
God. My innards just shrivel up when I read stuff like this. I just can't for the life of me imagine mutilating someone I care about. Not for God, not for country, not for anything.
I couldn't even read all the way through this. Even my eyelids clenched.
You've probably already read it, but "The Color Purple" was an amazing book that deals with this issue.
Well said...
Perhaps the dudes sentence could be to have a couple of millimeters of his dick clipped off once a week until he has nothing left, then the women gets to decide what hellish ending he receives...
Believe it or not, I do a whole lesson on FGM. The kids can barely comprehend it it's so fucked up.
interesting...in years of reading gender theory and campaigning for women's rights (most recently with Prop 85, of course), I never thought about terminology...you're so RIGHT! other syntax that's come to my attention recently: "queer" doesn't neccessarily mean homosexual. it's been explained to me by a gender scholar as "any deviation from the sexual norm." but i wonder, would criminal sexual impulses be termed "queer?" it would suck to reassign negative connotations to a word that so many have worked to transform to a term of empowerment.
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