Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is something that is so horrific, that even Canada's new immigration guide mentions it as a "barbaric practice" that won't be tolerated in Canada. There is a belief that FGM is something that happens "out there" in Africa, but we can add another country to the list: The United States of America.
Cut Clits and Vibrators on 6 Year Olds
The World Health Organization defines FGM as "procedures that intentionally alter or injure female genital organs for non-medical reasons." At Cornell University, there are three doctors who are currently performing surgery to reduce the size of babies' clits by shortening the shaft. They claim that this surgery is humane because it tries to "spare the nerve endings" of the clit, so that these girls can experience sexual pleasure through the clit later in life. Beyond this, in order to prove the the clit is still functioning, one doctor, Dr. Dix Poppas, examines the girls while in the presence of a parent, and uses a vibrator on the girls' inner thighs, vaginas and clits and asks them to report on a scale of 0-5 how strongly they feel the vibrations. This procedure is not medically necessary and has no benefit to the girls. Since it is being done on girls over the age of 5 years, there is a very good chance that they will remember this, and can be traumatized.
According to the Pediatric Urology website from Cornell University, these surgeries are performed on girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). This is basically a disorder that affects your adrenal glands causing the body to produce more androgen, a type of male sex hormone. Because of this, girls who have the disorder grow larger clitorises. There is nothing wrong with the clit, it is not painful, will not get infected or negatively affect bodily functioning, it still has sensation and can perform its function (giving pleasure).
In some rare cases, CAH can cause clits to become large enough that a doctor might qualify the child as intersex, or having ambiguous (not clearly male or female) genitalia. The published report for the doctors doing the procedures did not specify whether the girls were considered intersex, but did say that this surgery was in the best interests for the girls' proper sexual and psychological functioning.
This is where I call bullshit.
Bullshit!
The intersex community has spoken out against "corrective" surgery performed in infancy for decades. Time and time again, they have described the horrors of being raised a gender that they did not identify with, difficulty experiencing sexual pleasure, and the sense of violation and betrayal of not being given a choice. Indeed, the community has spoken out about how difficult and traumatizing it is to be paraded around for med students, specialists, and visiting doctors and having their genitalia become a public spectacle. They have spoken about the pain of not being accepted for who they are, and what their bodies look like. (Click here for an article describing how performing surgery on intersex infants is a violation of human rights)
So, who should I believe when it comes to the proper psychological and sexual development and functioning of people with CAH: the doctors who want to publish papers, or the intersex community that has lived through the experience? As a feminist, I have to side with the people who have to live this reality.
This begs the question, why are doctors so concerned with shortening girls' clits?
Part of a Pattern
As a feminist, I see everything as interconnected. I see this procedure happening in a society that also encourages women to "trim" (ie: cut off) their labia minora in order to look more "attractive". (Click here for a disturbing documentary on the trend in the UK). Women are getting plastic surgery to "rejuvenate" (ie: lasered in order to tighten) their vaginas. Women are being constantly told to make their genitalia smaller, tighter, and hairless. It's almost pedophilic in nature (and I'm not using that as a scare tactic, but as a recognition that women are being told to look youthful, virginal, and not 'womanly').
I also see this surgery occurring in a society where a gender binary is so ingrained into our culture that it's impossible to fill out a form, go to the washroom, or speak about someone in third person without declaring a sex. If men are from Mars, and women are from Venus, then those who don't conform to a gender binary are from the dark side of the moon. We don't want to see them, hear from them, or talk about them.
When these doctors are mutilating these girls (and it is mutilation that is both physically and psychologically harmful as argued in this bioethics forum), they are not doing it for the sake of the girls. There is no medical need to alter these healthy and functional clitorises. They have an idea of what the ideal (although not necessarily healthy) genitalia should look like. They are performing surgery because it is more comfortable for the rest of society because we don't accept intersex or trans people. They are doing it because they believe it is better to mutilate someone's genitalia without her consent, rather than have someone look at her and go "oh".
As a queer woman, it would be easier for society if I was straight. It would be more comfortable for religious people and my parents. It would be easier to get married and be less offensive to certain people. However, if there was a surgery to "cure" my queerness, it would never cross my mind to get it. I love who I am, and I love the community that I have around me. Self-acceptance is something so powerful that I would hate to deny someone else that experience. I don't want other people making choices about my body, my sexuality, or my future. As someone who is pro-choice, I believe in the right to bodily integrity, the ability to make decisions, and support no matter what that decision is. How come we are not granting our daughters this right?
And as a reminder, there was no indication in the journal article that these girls' conditions were extreme enough to warrant the designation of intersex. For all we know, they just had above average size clitorises.
Are we as a society more comfortable with FGM than intersex people or girls with large clits? Unfortunately we are more interested in using surgery to potentially harm these girls rather than deal with the fact that some women have big clits, and some women have REALLY big clits.
For the record, many girls who have big clits don't even know that they have big clits until they start watching mainstream porn or become sexually active with other girls. Even then, with all the jokes about men not being able to find the clit, don't you think it would be nice for a guy to be able to see it from the across the room and go "bullseye!" Dare I even suggest that big clits could be attractive, a turn on, or even trivial in the eyes of a partner? Where did we get the idea that big clits were bad? Why do we need surgery to "fix" fully functional and healthy genitalia? Who decides if a clit is "too big"? I don't have CAH - but what if, at birth, a doctor looked at me and said "well, that's just not attractive" and decided to "beautify" my clit? At least I can tell you that there is no one looking at male babies and saying "now that penis is a whopper, maybe we should cut it down to size!"
Deep Breath
I am an idealist. I would like to see a world where people are happy with who they are and what they are born with. I want to live in a world where people don't have to use surgery in order to conform or feel beautiful. I want a society where diversity is embraced and found attractive rather than a disorder which needs to be corrected. We are not cookie cutter creatures that are clones of one another. So what is our obsession with the knife?
Just please, put down the knife.
What is happening is doing serious harm to these girls. They have the possibility of having pain during arousal for the rest of their lives, less sensation, and infection. Psychologically, they risk feeling violated and mutilated because they were not given a choice. Not to mention the procedure of using a vibrator to stimulate these girls and have them report back to a male doctor about how strongly they feel the sensations in front of their parents at an age where they can fully remember this is potentially catastrophic. Legally speaking the doctor is getting the consent of parents, however, the fact that Poppas is doing this research without the oversight of an ethics committee (which is necessary if you are doing any human research project) is criminal. Criminal.
Do SOMETHING!
If you are as enraged by this as I am, I suggest sending a letter to the University and demand an explanation, or that the university have a "No FGM" policy. Be creative, be angry, be serious, just *say something*.
You can contact the University's Public Relations Office
Or the Urology Department
Or write a letter to your local newspaper.
Or pass on this blog and the others that I have linked here.
Get educated, get active, and stop this from happening!
In love and outrage,
Lilith
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