March 11, 2012
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Genital Mutilation – Graphic warning
Time stamped and edited – my apologies for the sloppiness.
It is estimated that 100 to 140 million women in the world have suffered from genital mutilation, or female circumcision. This is the partial or complete removal of external female genitalia for non medical purposes. It is done between a girl’s age of a few days to 15 years old. This is done without anesthetic. This is practiced by Christians, Muslims, and Jewish people. There is no biblical text that calls for this, but some state religious purposes.
Many families have their daughters circumcised so their marriage options will be better. This offers proof of virginity, because the woman is unable to have or enjoy sex. Some people believe the clitoris continues to grow and will be a small penis, so they remove it to be more feminine. Some remove it prior to childbirth because they believe if the child being born touches the clitoris it will be stillborn. In Type III of FGM, the inner and outer labia is removed and the vagina is fused shut but for a tiny hole for urine and menstrual blood. The husband cuts the hole open on their wedding night. This ensures the woman is pure.
Removing the external portions of the female genitals isn’t the only form of mutilation practiced. In the Congo and other African wars, women’s breasts are cut off after they are raped by soldiers. Often their nursing infants die, if no other mother is around to provide milk. If nobody is there to care for the woman, she will die, too.
If anything happens to a man’s sexual organs, it is front page news. We all know who Bobbit is. Yet, these types of mutilation practices happen all over the world and receive little attention. Even the women perform this on their own daughters, to follow tradition.
In a play written by Aristophenes in 411 BC, Lysistrata convinces all women to withhold sex from their husbands and lovers as a way to force them to negotiate peace in the Peloponnesian War. The play illustrates that in male dominated societies, (Athens, in this example) women and sex are instruments; women use their sex as a weapon, men use their force to remove that weapon.
The war against women’s sexuality is something that has been happening since the beginning of civilization. It is not just since Christianity, women’s power to reproduce seems to make them vulnerable in almost every war.
I want to know why women’s sexuality is always under attack? Why is it that women are unable to want sex, to enjoy sex, to be seductive and still be pure, good women? Why do men seem to chase sex and hate and destroy women for giving it?
Comments (92)
it’s terrible. and these kind of things happens because people still want to control by whatever brute and evil means possible. most often, as in genital mutilation, it is perpetrated by men.
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is your first line mis-written? only 100 to 140? or is that MILLION?
I know that this goes on…
But I don’t know that a lot of Christians do it >_>
And if they do, I’m sure they’re doing it because it’s cultural and (as you said) not biblical.
Males are a weak species. Its all about the fear of women and the control. Thats why many cultures out there strive to obliverate a women’s true identity. By either covering her up or simply just taking away her independance. Its all about ignorance and a fear of something that is more powerful than them.
It’s a brutal and inhumane practice which must be stopped.
A horrifying practice. Vicious abuse, plain and simple.
I also debate your figures. And more importantly, I know it’s ‘safe’ to be studiously ‘balanced’, but the inclusion of ‘jews’ in this outrage draws a blank here. Can’t think of anything we do even close, unless you count married women shaving their hair and wearing wigs, which I see and am sickened in the stomach by, every morning onmy way to the corner store. Still, it’s potentially reversible. But, symbolically, I’ll admit it’s kinda the same racket. The more I meet the religious the more I respect dogs. And I never liked dogs much.
@plantinthewindow - Yes I meant million! That is what I get for writing at midnight. I wanted to save the draft, but there was no option so I just threw it up there knowing that I would have to fix it this morning!
@LKJSlain - Yes, it seems to be a cultural practice, not a religious one. A sad, sick practice.
@catstemplar2 -I think I love you for saying that.
@President@mancouch - There are so many programs trying to do just that. The World Health Organization is sponsoring many programs to end the practice and raise awareness, but I don’t think they can reach some of the villages and remote areas where this is so common.
@TigersLovePepper - What a chipper post to wake up to, eh?
@jsolberg - I, on the other hand, LOVE dogs! When I was doing the research, they included Jews, too, but maybe it was their way of being fair and balanced. Why do women shave their hair and wear wigs? I have never heard of that. And my figures, well that wasn’t the only thing that was off when I tried to post at 1 am! I wish Xanga had a save draft option. I knew it wasn’t ready to post, but I didn’t want to forget it so I just posted it as is. A little embarrassing, really.
@TigersLovePepper – Inorite? Uploading something for you!
@TigersLovePepper - You’re the best friend ever!
That honestly makes me want to puke. I could hardly get through this without getting sick. Ugh. Just angers me to no end! This shouldn’t be happening. Period.
@Megabyyte - I’m sorry! Maybe I should warn about graphic content, you are right! And yes, it is hard to know this still happens today.
I actually had no idea about this. I could see how they thought this made sense, I can’t believe it’s still happening.
@BoulderChristina - You have mail. xo
@seladore - It’s still happening, and in 28 different countries that I know of. They are not all third world, uneducated countries. Saudi Arabia is a big country that practices this and they are both wealthy and educated. It’s a cultural practice, and promoted just as much by the women as the men. I will never understand that one.
Why war on sexuality? I don’t know as well. I hypothesize it could be something to do with culturally inherent shame towards sexuality. It could also have something to do with “population control” (something I got from the novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn).
Why on women? My hypothesis is that most of these societies that practiced such things were and are patriarchal societies which makes women not just the fairer sex, but also inferior. After all, it is easier to put blame on someone else for a problem than it is to take responsibility (or blame oneself).
No matter what reason FGM exists, it should stop.
Have you watched documentaries like “Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter” or read Waris Dirie’s Desert Flower?
@Sheegwa - No, but I will look on Netflix for them. Thanks for the suggestion!
@ClashoftheTaiten - I am going to read that book. I agree with your thoughts on it, I just don’t understand I guess.
@BoulderChristina -The save-draft function is simply to click ‘Protected’ or ‘Private’ at the bottom of the Editor. I do it on every post until I think whether I haven’t said too much… or haven’t said enough.
Yes, the knee-jerk inclusion of us whenever a group of religions are mentioned, bless their hearts, they probably just don’t want to offend by omitting. In this case though, the show don’t fit.Jewish women can drive, vote, dance, show the whites of their teeth, and have orgasms.. Oops, that’s me in the corner, saying too much.
And I do love individual dogs, yours included I’m sure. I just needed to write that for the famous french quote to make sense.
@jsolberg - Keeping it private, why are the best ideas so simple? Thank you, I would never have thought of that!
It is all cultural. Men and older women who engage in this practice have not advanced much beyond ignorance, in all the millennia that have passed.
We who know better need to take a page from the Kony 2012 movement, and stand together against those who promote this kind of horror.
i often write my posts in word until i am ready to post as xanga has a habit of placing posts in the black hole of cyber space and i loose it. then you can copy/paste your final. also if you write a blog and place it in “private”, it is saved until you are ready to post it. if you put it in “protected” and have people on your protected list, it will post and they will see it.
i wish i knew the answers to your questions at the end of your blog. some even feel that male circumcision is also mutilation. i just wonder how culture/society came about to do theses things to people.
@catstemplar2 - kudos!
i couldn’t read this one bc – i had to skip and go to comments… the whole thought makes me ill, angry – and very sad. props to you for putting it out there…
I think this issue was on an episode of Law and Order:SVU (I watch way too much TV). I have a really hard time wrapping my brain around why people would think that is a good idea. 0_e
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snbI0kTGaPc
@UnconventionalButterfly - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snbI0kTGaPc
@buddy71 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snbI0kTGaPc because low caste females are in Hell.
Circumcision and female genital mutilation is absolutely disgusting.
@Colorsofthenight - to me, the woman in the video clearly has a mental issue, and she says so herself. could she also have a hormonal problem for having so high sex drive? she feels and i am not sure if there is medical/psych data to back up her claims, that having her clit removed will make her feel better. but the issue i thought this blog was about was that women were not given the choice based on their culture. women are not second class citizens and should never be treated as such. thanks for sharing the video. it made me sad for her to have to think about going to such extremes.
@RighteousBruin - I agree, I just can’t seem to figure out how.
@buddy71 - I don’t know, either. I think (but could be wrong) that male circumcision used to keep men healthier and they didn’t get so many infections, but it would not be needed now. The only think I can think of with the women is terrible, that removing a woman’s sexuality makes her a safer wife and partner, less likely to stray. But again, I have no idea.
@xplorrn - I get it – hope it didn’t make your stomach turn. I was reading a book last night that had this in it, and I had to write about it RIGHT NOW, I was so upset. It isn’t the first I had heard of it, but it makes me ill and outraged when I have to think about it.
@UnconventionalButterfly - Me too. I know there was a scene from a war movie about soldiers cutting off a woman’s breasts, but I don’t remember what it was called.
@Colorsofthenight - This poor, sick, girl. She needs help, serious help. She doesn’t need circumcision.
@buddy71 - It made me sad for her, too. Sad she has issues and needs mental help, and even more sad that having a sex drive made her so ashamed that she would choose to remove it. Women are allowed sexual feelings, too.
@ShimmerBodyCream - Agreed.
@BoulderChristina - no, i’m glad you can and did… i just… i have to stay away from the issues that make my blood boil, particularly women’s issues (i hope – for my daughter (and really for all women in general) that she kicks all kinds of ass in life, and does whatever the hell she wants, when she wants, with who she wants)… although i just chimed in on an abortion post… ughhh…
@xplorrn - Raising women to be strong is the hardest thing in the world for dads to do, I am 37 and still sometimes want to run to my daddy when I feel threatened. I don’t, so I guess he did a good job. But I want to
It makes my heart hurt that women are subjected to this kind of appalling and repulsive “procedure.”
It’s so awful. I did not know about the type III where the man cuts it open on their wedding night. I can’t imagine how much painful that would be considering I’m assuming they have sex afterwards. (Although I could be wrong about that) So terrible.
@feyenigma - Mine too. It’s almost worse knowing some of the horrors in the world and being incapable of doing anything about it.
@oxlorixo - Awful, isn’t it? It’s almost as if a woman offers herself willingly, she isn’t worth having. She needs to have it taken from her for the man to find value in her.
@BoulderChristina - i hear you… for me that’s one of the things that athletics promotes, in my opinion… well any extra-cirricular club promotes – engagement and belief in one’s own abilities outside the classroom and not directed by parents… btw – you’re way younger than me… 7 years is a leap!!!
This practice makes me sick.What is wrong with this culture or any culture to torture women and children!
@kimsweetness - Me, too. Me, too.
@xplorrn - 7 is a lucky number!
@UnconventionalButterfly - i saw that one too.
@BoulderChristina - tell me – do you feel lucky?!?
Power and control, male dominance, that’s exactly what I am blogging about today also. @RighteousBruin - older or not, no woman would do that to another woman with anything like real enthusiasm, no woman is that sadistic. I can’t believe it, the older women have been forced and conditioned all their lives.
This is a sick and despicable practice.
It certainly needs a viral campaign to raise awareness.
@BoulderChristina - from now on, if you want to save the draft, just post it as private or protected, so you can mess with it without anyone else seeing it. : )
@xplorrn - me neither, I went back to the one before it, I don’t want to read about this. I’m glad America isn’t a tribal culture.
This is all part of the old culture that has been practiced for years. These women holding down the young girls and doing this had this done to them and they find it an honorable thing to do as it has been done for generation after generation.
Yes it is wrong and yes it is torture. Yes it is done in societies dominated by men to have control over the women. There is no trust for the women in these societies and men rule. This is the way of the parents to prove to the male who will be the owner/ controller/husband that the woman who is being offered is pure.
We are all angered and want to barge into where ever this is going on and put a stop to it, and I would be the first in line with a baseball bat and a good therapist, if it were possible.
My question is what do we do about it?
@DivaJyoti - true and that is what I just said in my comment. These older women have had this done to them and it has been done to other for generations. This does not make it right but to them it is part of the culture and they see nothing wrong with it.
These societies are male controlled and this is merely another way of controlling the female & treating them in a way an animal is treated.
@BoulderChristina - yes she and any person is aloud to have sexual feelings. i am sad too that she is ashamed to have such feelings. women need their sexuality and need to be able to enjoy the act of sex. a man should be able to please his partner but it seems that in some cultures it is only the man that is to be pleased and that so much importance is placed on virginity. there really is no medical reason to have a man circumcised, but speaking as a medical person who has taken care of way too many boys/men not circumcised, it is a plus to be that way. one should never be ashamed of their sexuality or to wanting/having sex. even if it masturbation
@xplorrn - This just looks so.wrong.on.this.thread.
@DivaJyoti - I’m with you, it’s power and dominance. I’m glad our posts were on the same wave today.
@plantinthewindow - Before today, I would never, ever have figured that out. Sometimes I have the hardest time finding things when they are right in front of my face!
@FrenzElectric - So many things do, don’t they?
@NewDog2 - Makes you a little squeamish, does it?
@BoulderChristina - yes, if I can get mine focused, I’m trying to have it be about the strange combination of anti-choice with anti-baby policy, people don’t seem to want to follow that. lol
@Grannys_Place - I don’t know. I used to want to go there, to promote micro-financing, economic development, women’s rights. I even went to school for it. Now, I am too afraid, too defeated. I doubt my voice and my actions and my dedication could do more than make my life and the life of my family uncomfortable. Now, I just write grants for non profits to do their work over there. It seems to be the biggest difference I can make. But when I read things, hear things, think about things, I know I am not doing all I could.
@buddy71 - We are speaking the same language there, Buddy. I am so glad you’re my friend, you always have strong messages to share.
@DivaJyoti - I am going to have to come over and check it out!
@BoulderChristina - same here. : ) it gets confusing, definitely.
@BoulderChristina -
@BoulderChristina - It is frightening to think of traveling any place these days. especially where women are treated like property.
I think so much of this has to do with a largely patriarchal societies–enforcing their thoughts and ideas on everyone and literally mutilating women to ensure that they obey those thoughts and ideas. I can’t even imagine what it is like to grow up in a country where this is considered acceptable or normal. There really are now words to even describe the tragedy of this–it must be stopped.
One word: OUCH!!!!!
that is horrible! I had no clue this happened, but honestly. Not surprised! Just didn’t know it was actually happening! Those poor women! Not cool! Not cool at all!
I’m not sure it’s a man versus woman thing, as much as a reason versus fantaticism thing…
Women’s sexuality is seen as a threat in patriarchal religions and cultures because it goes back to the belief that in spite of the fact that we can carry and bring forth life from our bodies, live linger than men and have a higher pain/stress threshold – we are weaker and must be controlled.
Also, the Madonna/Whore dynamic has some input into it. A woman who is like the Madonna can not be sexual and a whore can not have the spiritual/physical purity of a saint. In patriarchal cultures and in organized religion, men tend to think that a woman is either at one extreme end of that spectrum or the other. The Madonna type scares them because she may have spiritual gifts and power that they lack (which is why she is not allowed to teach, have power within her church or family or input independent of her father or husband). The whore type scares them because men in organized religion have been told for three milennia via judaism, islam and christianity that woman is inferior, the cause of all sin and unrighteousness in the world, and must be controlled by any means necessary, yet her sexuality is like a beacon.
Most women have a balance of both types and while neither is the be-all and end-all of any woman’s identity, this is what men are trained by organized religion and by patriarchal cultures to see. They keep the Madonna in spiritual bondage and destroy the parts of her that they think may lead her to become a whore. It’s all about control and fear.
It’s also barbaric. I’m opposed to any form of circumcision.
@Grannys_Place - I wonder where my adventurous spirit of 10 years ago went?!? I think I just gained more common sense!
@Xbeautifully_broken_downX - I can’t, either. It is odd how societies evolved, some places in Africa celebrate women’s sexuality, nurture and encourage it, and others fear, hate and destroy it. The World Health Organization is promoting all sorts of programs to educate and create awareness and empowerment. Before the practice will change, their minds need to change.
@karoline1982 - Not.cool.at.all.
@roscoes_farm - If you could rule the world, Chris, you would have my vote!
@ZombieMom_Speaks - This is beautiful, and made so much sense to me. I am going to look more into the Madonna-Whore thing, because I am intrigued. I hope everybody comes back and reads your response, because it is so beautifully written. Thank you. AND – Walking Dead is current now. O.M.G – My husband and I can’t thank you enough for pointing it out!
I don’t believe rational, reasonable people believe that women cannot be sexual and still wholesome. FGM is typical of backward, ignorant cultures.
@blonde_apocalypse - I don’t know, even in the States sexual women are hated – sluts, whores, bitches. We are “not marriage material”, or need to be reformed, or are dirty, unwholesome people. Maybe I am just being too sensitive this morning, though. I don’t usually feel so jaded!
@BoulderChristina - Thank you – I heard that years ago and have read a little here and there about it and it makes so much sense. They’re threatened because they’re trained to be threatened by the very archetypes they’ve created in their minds. Scary stuff.
You’re most welcome! You caught up on the whole seven episodes? Go you!! Please tell me you saw it last night! OMG. The thing with Rick and Shane – I didn’t even blink. Next week’s episode is going to knock our socks off. It’s already killing me that this is the last episode we’re going to get until October.
@ZombieMom_Speaks - I recorded it but I have to wait for him before I can watch it, so tonight! I am sad that next week is the end, too, but I feel better now that I am going to get to see the end!
@BoulderChristina - Good thing I didn’t post any spoilers, then. You are so going to love this! There’s also a preview of next week’s episode in the commercials, and it was so exclusive they didn’t even give a separate scene to The Talking Dead like they usually do. It’s less than a minute but it is awesome!
@roscoes_farm - Totally agree. The women who perpetuate these practices are just as guilty as the men who insist on them. Male-blaming, but excusing the women because they’ve been “conditioned” doesn’t make sense, considering that these men have also been taught that it’s honorable and right.
@WaitingToShrug - Women and men both practice this, it is a cultural thing and pre-dates religion. I hope I didn’t imply that women were blameless in this, though it does make me angry that it’s the women that lose their right to sexuality, and believe it’s some sort of patriarchal thing. Also, regarding the wars against women, it is not just women that are mutilated and injured by soldiers, but it is the women that are mutilated sexually – if they do survive the village turns against them because they have been shamed. Their husbands leave them and their children also bear the shameful mark that is on their mother. My question is mostly aimed at why is it women’s sexuality that is attacked?
@BoulderChristina - No, you didn’t imply that the women are blameless, but some of the commenters did. I’m saying that, at this point, they’ve been doing this for so long that I wouldn’t say that it’s patriarchal now- because everyone, men and women, have been convinced that it’s best.
Now, when they first started doing it- yes, that was obviously aimed at keeping women under control. I believe it’s womens’ sexuality that’s attacked because of the simple fact that men are (mostly) physically stronger than women. In a primitive society, force is the way you get people to comply with what you want. I would suppose that the main goal was to be sure of paternity bloodlines.
And here is why I say it’s more anti-reason than anti-woman: because the mark of civilized societies is that force is NOT employed to get a person to do what you want. In a civilized society, you can only influence a person’s behavior by persuasion and reason, not just by being bigger than the other guy… or woman. This practice is a relic of the attitude “I’m bigger, so you’ll do what I want, or else”. I think that the fact that it’s effecting women much more is less about attacking femininity and more about the simple fact of physical weakness; that they are simply able to do it and not have a backlash. Thankfully, that’s changing.
I’m not saying that makes it any better, at all. And I’m also not saying that the Western world is 100% what I would consider civilized regarding the use of force; in fact, I think we’re going backwards. But that’s another story.
One of the most interesting (and horrifying) accounts of genital mutilation can be found in Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s autobiography, Infidel. It’s well worth a look if you ever have the time or desire.
@BoulderChristina - hold that thought… I’m thinking of running.
@WaitingToShrug - yes indeed !