2010
By Rachel Mead
The world has shrunk due to the
expansion of people and the advancement of technology. In order to effectively
manage nations and encourage cooperation among one another, organizations such
as the United Nations have been formed.
However, it is evident that such organizations have adopted a Western
cultural attitude to many social, political and economic policies. By doing so, Western society has taken the
advantage to thrust its own cultural norms upon various non-Western
nations. For instance, Female Genital
Cutting, FGC, has been a ceremonious tradition for a number of centuries among
various cultures. It has also been
labeled a heinous and dangerous act by Western society. Yet, similar operations practiced within
Western society have been positively advertised and encouraged. The cultural practices of the West and
non-West and how the West became dominant in international society will be
examined. Also the primary goal will be
to explore cultural practices and beliefs, so that the negative aspects of FGC
may be eliminated, but the positive cultural beliefs behind the practice remain
intact. In order to reach this goal an
in-depth examination of FGC will take place and the importance of how other
cultures view this practice will be discussed.
The
choice to use the term, female genital cutting, instead of female genital
mutilation was purposeful and important to make point of. Prior to reading various articles and
research on FGC, I had only ever known the practice by FGM and assumed that was
the “official” name. However, with more research containing different
viewpoints, it became clear that there are various names for the practice. The conflict about FGC between Western society
and non-Western society even revolves around the naming of the practice
(Walley, 406). There are several
experts, such as Christine Walley, who take a neutral approach to the practice.
This is especially seen when Walley uses
the term female genital operations. This
term is neutral with no connotation to support one viewpoint over another. As Walley states most usages “are embedded in
the ‘either/or’ perspectives characteristic of discussions of female genital
operations, with circumcision signaling relativistic tolerance and mutilation
implying moral outrage” (Walley, 408).
For
instance there are two terms utilized by most of Western society to classify
this practice. The term, FGM, female
genital mutilation is the most popular between the two. The second term usually used within Western
culture is female genital torture. Both
terms are negative and give a harmful and torturous assumption of the practice
before one can gather more information on the issue (Akintunde, 194). As Walley states, the terms create outrage
toward the practice by establishing from the beginning that there is something
wrong and horrible with acting in such a way.
In English, torture and mutilation are similar to horror, blood and
massacre. These words are present in
horror movies, where bodies are destroyed with various forms of weaponry
(Akintunde, 194). To apply these words
to an act practiced by millions of people throughout the world for cultural and
religious reasons, is taking the issue to a negative extremity. It also gives the idea that parents and
families are purposely attempting to cause harm to their female children
(Walley, 407), which in essence, isn’t the case.
There
is another extreme to this conflict. Those who are in support of the practice
will use the term, female circumcision.
This romanticizes the practice and lulls people into a complacency on
the issue. In effect, it achieves the same purpose of the term FGM, just to the
opposite degree. Female circumcision gives one the idea that it is similar to
male circumcision. However, it is not a simple procedure such as male
circumcision. The removal of the
foreskin on males is not the same as removing the clitoris from a female
(Walley, 407). The main difference is
that a male does not lose his sexual sensation when circumcised whereas a
female does.
There
is a happy medium between these two extremes.
Walley chose to define this practice as female genital operations. Throughout this thesis, the term used will be
female genital cutting (FGC). It is a
neutral term, not wishing to insight anger or complacency. FGC is a simple term that does admit to the
practice of physically changing the female genitalia. However it does not suggest that the
procedure is too negative or too positive.
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